Finally the proud owner of a Dominator! Fin suggestions?

steezy

I finally, after almost half a year, managed to score a Dominator that is appropriate for my weight, height, and skill level at an affordable price. I primarily ride FCS fins, but purchased the Dom with Futures. I honestly would have preferred if I could have found a Dominator with FCS, but beggars can't be choosers. I found a basic Futures thruster set lying around my house and threw those on and took it out today in So Cal mush, 1-2 ft, 3 ft on occasion.

First impression was that this thing really does live up to its claim to fame. I caught substantially more waves than I would have with any other board. In addition to that, this thing FLIES from the start. One thing I noticed though was that this board is extremely loose, which is probably due to the thruster set up. I'm 5'10, approximately 170 lbs and want to ride this as a quad, but I have no idea which fin to get, so suggestions are greatly appreciated (then again, Futures only has a select number of quads anyways....).

Great product to the Firewire team. This is definitely my go to board. Stacked with a Flexfire for the better days, I think I've got an okay quiver for now.

buzzy

Nev raves about the controllers in his El Fuego. I have some for the Dom but haven't used them yet.

melchua

hey steezy, I've been looking into getting a dom as well. I'm about ur size curious to know what size did you get, guessing 5'8".

iggy

God choice!!! As you all know I'm sold on those futures: stonger anchorage system, better foiled engineered fins (in my opinion).
Get yourself a set o controllers and you'll find yourself flying even farther... Insane ammount ofspeed and drive... But if you want to put that thing all over the wave get a set of SOLUS!!!. Those ones with the hatchet in the back are incredible!!.
If you have a demo center get a deviant and throw it in the mix to spice things up

SoFlo PBC

Go with the Rusty 5 fin set!! Super versatile, just like that board.

kdropin

i ride it with a quad plus von sol nubster.. k2.1 quad.. find something similiar to that in futures.. rips!

surferireland

The thruster setup is looser than the quad

Dont try to ride with 5 fins it wont work.

Experiment if you can, borrow some from someone to try out - cheaper than buying loads of sets,

Slowman

I have just got in the water again after 6 months out due to hip surgery, so some of this might just be me. I bought 4 new boards while I was out of the water! And a Dom 6'0 was one of them, it was most like my 6'2 JS Kingpin so I thought I'd try similar quad fins...GMB5 (Mayhem). The Dom (single concave) is a lot stiffer than the kingpin (bottom contour is single to double concave with a little v in the tail) in the quad configuration using GMB5 fins, so I tried my Rusty R2 quads which are quite a bit looser and the board goes much better. I was having trouble getting the board back down from the lip it would bog down with the GMB5s. I think it could go looser so I'm thinking of trying the PC SF4 quad fins.

I'm yet to ride it as a thruster I'm thinking either the R2s or the SF4s . I still haven't quite worked the board out (after 3 surfs) as I have been swapping between the kingpin and the dom. I am riding the kingpin as a reference point as I know what I can do on that and I can work out how my progress is going. First week back in the water and after 6 surfs things aren't as bad as I thought they might be. No pain or flexibility issues just a few cobwebs like getting timing and positioning right but they seem to improve noticeably with each surf, so I think what I'm feeling on the dominator is has some credence.

Since changing to the R2 quads it seems a bit easier to get the board up on the rail but it still seems to surf flat compared to the kingpin. It's probably a matter of learning to work the board over time and perhaps trying the thruster set up. It certainly does pick up waves quickly and get down the line quickly - I just need to work out how to capitalize on those strengths with some more manoeuverability.

chris

hey slow man,

glad to hear the recovery is going well.

What do you weigh? sometimes you can get too much fin area for your board/style when you grab big stock set.

I personally find backfooted, fast maneuver based surfing on the dominator to be easier with a thruster set. I am a big thruster advocate, so part of it is my style, but who knows, maybe you are a thruster lover too?

Ha, Cheers!

Slowman

Hi Chris, I weigh about 92kg now (97kgs 2 months ago) so as I get more active I'll lose a bit more. Even when I was in the low 80s I still liked bigger fins with more drive (like TC redlines, UL7s, R2s and now GAMs). I like quads but still have thrusters in my quiver. I've used these combinations for some time but I find what works in one board might not work in another, the fins have to complement the board. I've used these combinations enough to know if I start with one set which way I generally have to go from that point. At this point I'm going for looser for the dom, so smaller might be on the cards too. I just have to be careful to not confuse my cobwebs as a fin's shortcomings, so I'll have to give things some time. So far I've surfed mostly onshore crap but hell it's good to be back in the water!

I guess I like quads for the smaller and fuller stuff but they go ok in the bigger stuff too I've found - I not hung up on any particular configuration, I'll try to find what works best and then usually leave it at that for a particular board. What I usually try to do with 5 fin options (even straight quads for that matter) is try to get the board to go like a thruster in a quad config, to get the speed of a quad but the pivot of a thruster. When I get that in a 5 fin option board I leave it then as a quad. If I can't I'll try it as a thruster. If it goes well and I can still get the speed I want, I'll keep it as a thruster, if I can't then I'll unload it. Same for quad only boards if I can't find the right fins to make it pivot like a thruster I'll sell it.

That's my general approach (this week!) but occasionally there might be reasons to keep a board that doesn't meet my expectations perhaps in one way but blows them out of the water in another. I had a quad that wouldn't pivot but did such tight arcs and floated over everything with such speed I kept that for a while before going back to a thruster. After surfing for 40+ years the only way to keep it fresh is to keep evolving and keep pace with new developments (that actually add something you've been looking for). Because of evolving surfboard design I can do things now that weren't possible in my "prime" years. Although Ke11y redefines the notion of what prime years actually are.

chris

yeah fins definitely work different from board to board and wave to wave.

keep us posted how it goes.

and yes, kelly re-defines prime years

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