Fin comparison
If you look at the changes in the series fins of freestyle boards over the last five years, the almost inflationary trend in fin sizes is striking - in 2008, Starboard, JP-Australia, Fanatic & Co still had an average of 25 centimetres under the tail. Today, the average is 20 centimetres, with Tabou even supplying an 18 centimetre fin for the new Twister. What has happened since 2008?
On the one hand, of course, riding skills have increased dramatically - back then you were still the hero with a flaka and a strangled switch move, but today these tricks are celebrated on almost every quarry pond without batting an eyelid. What's more, hardly any trick riders still use sail sizes over 5.5 square metres for the new generation of manoeuvres, true to the motto: it's better to pump into planing and make a radical move with a handy sail than to plan with a 6.2 and then have too much cloth in the way during tricks.
Naturally, this development has also caused fin sizes to shrink to a minimum. Today, all current boards and their series fins reflect this trend. However, if you still use your 6-point sail - after all, this increases the number of surfing days in many regions of Germany immensely - you should use a slightly larger fin (22 to 24 centimetres) in the boards; standard manoeuvres such as flaka, spock and air jibe certainly work just as well with them. For all those for whom even the 20-centimetre spikes supplied are still too long, we have tested an exquisite selection of current freestyle fins - and found some big differences.
Maui Ultra Fins Delta Speed surfers love shallow areas, all records are broken in water depths of less than 30 centimetres - the fin can't be short enough. However, the new Delta shapes are also designed to replace freeride fins. In our test, however, the 22 mm Delta was no match for a 42 mm series fin in light and medium winds. Planing, planing through, running upwind - after two minutes the tester was already surfing in a different area with the original fin - 100 metres upwind. The stronger the wind, the smaller the board and sail, and the rougher the course, the better the principle works. In aeroplanes, only overpowered supersonic aircraft have similar shapes; the wings of high-performance gliders look different.
Maui Ultra Fins NoSpin and Slalom Spinout problems? The NoSpin fin could help. Unfortunately, with the extremely thick profile with a lot of rearward inclination, you can feel that the performance is also reduced. And we couldn't find any better grip with less spinout either. In comparison, the "Slalom 32" really impressed as a tuning alternative to the Freeride series fin. The fin has a lot of bite, like a freshly sharpened edge on a slalom ski. Here you really get better speed than with an already good standard fin, a looser feel and, on top of that, even better spinout safety at top speed than with the "No-Spin".
Select Fins Shock Bump & Jump 27 The new Select Shock is quite straight in the base area, similar to a freeride fin, and then becomes narrow and curved like a wave fin in the tip. To a certain extent, this illustrates the intended range of use, as the aim is to combine good riding performance with manoeuvrability in bump & jump conditions. We compared the fin with normal freestyle wave fins and got the impression that the shape works perfectly well and has no disadvantages in terms of riding performance or turning characteristics - but no ground-breaking advantages either.
You can find these fins in the fin comparison as a free PDF download.
Choco Fins Starfish B72K4 Bubble 18 cmMFC Fs Pro 18 cmMaui Ultra Fins Style Taty 18 cmMaui Ultra Fins Style Weed 18 cmSelect Fins Freestyle Pro 18 cm
