Recommended fins for Hellfire as quad and thruster.

[indodreaming]

Hi just picked up a mint cond second hand Hellfire without fins, wasn't sure as to what fins to get so just took recommended fins from guy at surf shop (basically cheap standard set) futures vector 11 F4 347 quad set up.

Had one surf on it yesterday, bit hard to tell how it went as very average conditions 2-3 ft cross/on shore rip bank fat reforms, tried it as a quad, (first ever surf on a quad) but just felt as if i forgot to put my back fin in on a thruster, not sure if i liked the feel, felt as though wasn't drawing a proper turn, more of a flick, so i took the two smaller fins out and put one in the rear as a thruster set up, still felt as it was missing something as though the back fin was to small, although waves got worse so hard to really tell.

Obviously I will give this quad thing more of a go and looking foward to getting it in better waves, the board did go fast as i have read and volume felt perfect paddled and caught waves great.

Would really love any recomendations on fins to use as either a Quad or Thruster set up?

Waves where i live are mostly waist to head high fun peeling wally kind of waves, often fat and rarely hollow from take off to pull out.

Boards a Hellfire 5,10 X 19 3/4 X 2 3/8 9my details see below)

Cheers



male 37 yo, surfing 25 years, 75 kg about 5,8 tall, high end of average abilty.
surf a flex fire 6,3 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8 and a hell fire 5,10 x 19 3/4 x 2 3/8

[indodreaming]

Board felt heaps better today with quad set up, actually went really good (guess i should post in hellfire reviews)

Still love any feed back on fins as will muck around more with it as time goes on, in particular as a thruster set up.

[Fritzkat]

for your height and weight use Futures V2 F4 for up to head high waves, (its a 5 fin set so you could go tri or quad)
Futures VII AM1 (tri) going for over head waves
I think Trifin fits this board better unless you are on a long point break


I use
Punchy Beach Breaks and reefs
Futures Tim Stamps as trifin
Futures AM-2 as Trifin

Point breaks and fast down the line
I would use a Quad (Tim Stamps ) have not used as quad yet.

[iggy]

Have a set of Solus as thruster for better conditions and a set of Elevon quads that go really well on average surf
The stretch quads quads are good and the tokoro thruster are also quite good
http://www.futuresfins.com/catalog.php

[hanaleisurfer]

Thats a hard question. I find fins should be for your weight and surfing style. If you have a shop with Futures "Fin Tree" take advantage of this and try different fins. For my weight and the waves I surf, the Pancho Signature fins are awesome!! But for your weight, you should be looking at a smaller fin setup than the Panchos!!

[iggy]

Those are wise words.

[indodreaming]

Thanks for the feedback, yeah one of my local shops has the futures fin tree, will have to give a few a go, for now though might keep going with what ive got as just got in from a surf and it was going awesome.

[hanaleisurfer]

Good thinking indodreaming. But your going to find trying new fins are ADDICTING!!! I got different sets for different conditions. Think of fins like the tires of your board. You dont want mud tires for driving on the road and you dont want road tires for off road mud trails!!! Have fun researching!!!

[daybit]

But your going to find trying new fins are ADDICTING!!!

Yes, I've become a bit of a fin junkie myself since I started playing around with the five fin setup. It's really like having 2 (or more) boards in one. Last weekend I even bought the new FCS Knubster mini-fin that Kelly had in NY. It's only small but it made the board feel different again. So now I have 3, 4, or 5 fins to play with. If you are mixing your fins up, do yourself a favour and get one of those ratchet tools. It'll make life much easier. Just be careful not to overtighten.

[Chris]

That ratchet tool is epic.

[prjwebb]

I avoid the ratchet, I've seen mates get too carried away with them and strip the thread on their fin boxes a bunch of times. The way I am with my boards, an extra minute spent putting fins in my boards is a pleasure anyway haha. On that note, got my Soar Powerbase DLs yesterday. I'll snap a pic in a sec and load it up.

[core personal training]

ok, both nev and i (among many others) ride this board...hes 70ish kg im 90ish kg...both have found bliss with simon 3's and 4's plus am2's plus pancho's (nevs call there)...the HF likes a fin a little larger than your standard shorty...fins are subjective, but there you have both ends of the weight range on the same fins...my 40kg grommet goes vert on it with ea techflex and deviant...i could leave the sa3's in forever and be happy...

[Wandi]

Yes, I've become a bit of a fin junkie myself since I started playing around with the five fin setup. It's really like having 2 (or more) boards in one. Last weekend I even bought the new FCS Knubster mini-fin that Kelly had in NY. It's only small but it made the board feel different again. So now I have 3, 4, or 5 fins to play with. If you are mixing your fins up, do yourself a favour and get one of those ratchet tools. It'll make life much easier. Just be careful not to overtighten.
How do you like the Knubster fin
Does it make a quad setup better
Personally I've never liked quads but this could be the solution

[daybit]

How do you like the Knubster fin
Does it make a quad setup better
Personally I've never liked quads but this could be the solution
I've only used it a couple of times on my Dominator on small days, but so far so good. It doesn't seem to affect the paddling and take off speed, but turns feel a bit more gradual than with a pure quad - closer to a thruster set up. It does feel like there is more lift under the tail. I guess that varies from board to board though. The Dominator does have a lot of volume in the tail to start with. The fin is cheap so I bought it for a bit of a lark.

[Slowman]

I made my own stabiliser fin...I prefer to have it secured by 2 tabs. Mine has a steeper trailing edge but a lower profile than the knubster and on the dominator it really gives it more of a pivotal feel and even makes it faster I reckon. That said, I think it will be a different proposition on the hellfire, personally I don't think it will be needed because of the bottom contours and tail shape but I guess I'll do some experimenting when my hellfire arrives (apparently very soon - today or the next!!!) and see.

[Slowman]

I'm finding the FCS Rusty R2s work really well in the Hellfire, they work so well I'm not sure whether I'll try anything else, maybe K2.1s just because I'm curious.

[hwork50]

How are the Rusty's and the K2.1s different?

[Slowman]

This link will give you a physical comparison http://www.surffcs.com/au/products/fins/fin_comparison.aspx?pid=280~123 between the 2 quad sets.

Now, I've only ever surfed the K2.1 quad set on a demo board so it was a bit hard for me to really isolate their effect because I'd never surfed the board (Aloha Coffee Bean) before either. Just going by the FCS info the K2.1s should be looser, that is turn tighter, slide a bit more and perhaps have less drive.

How the K2.1s are not a 'large' given their surface area, the fronts are only a tad less than the R2 fronts and the rears are bigger than the R2 rears, I don't know. There is probably a little more to it than just total surface area, but from my brief use of the K2.1 quad set I never felt I didn't have enough fin. I see also that SF4s have been recently demoted from LARGE to MEDIUM as well.

[core personal training]

cant help you with the rears but i always loved the 2.1 thrusters....quick and lose as expected from smaller upright fins but also held and drove...never really took them out....so more drive than you think...but still loose

[hwork50]

Great link! Thanks, I love the K2.1s as they are my fin of choice. Will be trying the AM1 quad set in my Hellfire, I have the AM2 thruster set as well so we shall see how things go. I will report back once I test it in some good waves.

[steveo]

I have the K2.1 Thruster set and am2 quad set up in my Fishcuit,do you reckon if i put the front K2.1 and gx trailers this would be a nice loose quad set up on the Hellfire?Has anyone surfed the hellfire with the K2.1 as a thruster ?I have K2.1 thruster and the orange am2s thruster and gam thruster setups and am wondering if they will go well enough so i dont have to buy more fins when i get my Hellfire.

[Chris]

i have tried the hellfire 510 with the k2.1s as my thruster set. I liked it. I don't ride the Hellfire as much as other boards, but down at that length I like an upright fin.

As a quad too I don't see any reason why the setup you proposed wouldn't work. If I were mixing and matching, that is exactly where I would start.

Cheers

[pudzeeboy]

I ride the fcs large H-2 sides with a small H-2 rear! They produce loads of drive and speed but seem 2 make the board feel loose and skatey ! I put the large H-2 rear fin in when its more hollow and need the hold on the bottom turn ! I am yet 2 try the small H-2 sides as rear quad fins! That's my next experiment just not sure how the hellfire will cope with 4 H-2 fins in because with the extra cant in the fins they supposedly lift the board slightly ? So they might make the board 2 skatey? Has anybody tried using 4 H-2

[Chris]

good stuff!

[Slowman]

I use R2s in mine, goes like the bomb, the R2 rears are looser and more upright than the GX rears so the R2 quad set I think is a bit looser than the R2 thruster set up, which might lead you to believe otherwise.

[Jase]

Just ordered the new FCS MF1 Tri Fin Set (Mick Fanning's signature set). A large fin set so by what I have read here should go well with my recently (just now!) ordered HF :)

[prjwebb]

Yeah, I think that'll be a good fit.

[Chris]

yeah let us know how those ride. I don't know much about the fannings...

[Chance'um]

Personally I hate thinking about fins, maybe I'm old, lol... but prefer the fins of the shaper of the board? The sticker that came on my 6'4 hellfire, pretty sure it said PC7 for tri and the stretch SF4. now here is when I get totally boggled. Got an FCS stretch quad set, the sticker on the package says "L" but everywhere else (on the FCS and Future site) has one size "M" unless its a Stretch TRI set in which case it's "L" ?! this forum wont let me download a pic from an ipad but it says "L" QUAD...I swear...Maybe they were baked on Friday when it was packaged? I'm 220, but surf really loose. Had miracle sessions with the large PC AM, the only FCS I had, and haven't gotten the stretch set into decent surf. the board is only a few sessions old and don't want to be a kook wondering about such things....

[prjwebb]

Bust out a ruler and measure the fins. If they're bigger than the listed M volume you know they are large. I'm pretty sure I've heard of a L Stretch set though.

[Chris]

fin conspiracy!

[Slowman]

Bust out a ruler and measure the fins. If they're bigger than the listed M volume you know they are large. I'm pretty sure I've heard of a L Stretch set though.
I remember they used to be classified as L. I'm pretty sure FCS just downgraded them to M from L - perhaps based on feedback, but their dimensions never changed. Compare them to others in the L range and you'll find they do measure up to "Large" in terms of area, base and height, as do the K2.1s IMHO. At any rate they are at the large end of things in the medium range.

[Slowman]

In fact I have an old FCS product guide right here now that shows them in the Large range (75-90kg).