question about fin layout?

im making another board, and on a set of "blue prints" for the board im making, it shows the outer fins pointing inward a little bit, ive never bought a done board, and i dont know alot about wakesurfing, but is there a reason for it? or should i just keep them straight? thanks guys

Good question. Most aftermarket surfboard rail fins are foiled on the outside. That is to say the outside of the fin looks like the top of an airplane wing. The inside of those fins are either flat or have a concave.

The "pointing inward a bit" is referred to as toe or more specifically toe-in. In an over-simplification toe-in causes the water to apply pressure to the outside of the fins, the foil causes the water to move faster over that small area of the fin which in turn makes the board more responsive rail-to-rail.

Many commercially available wakesurfers have fins that point straight ahead and straight up and down. This is done mostly for ease/lower cost of manufacture, rather than performance.

If you haven't tried toe-in on a board, you'll be impressed with the increase in performance. However, only if you intend to use an aftermarket fin such as FCS, Futures or the like.

Does the "blue print" give you a specification for the amount of toe? Either in degrees or inches or mm's?

I read in Essential Surfing by George Orberlian that the toe is generally aimed at a point in front of the nose of the board.

Exactly! On a 6'2" shortboard that's pretty easy, on a 4'6" not so much. I think that on some of the programs that generate "plans" there is a specification for the toe in degrees or something. Matt or Mark know that program, well.

I dont know anything about surfing, but thank you jeff,

i saw plans for several boards on here a month or two back and now i cant fin them, so i started doing research on google and found the same ones on a different site, the link is

http://www.moomba.com/msgboard/showthread.php?t=7093

you have to have an account to view the pdf files, it takes about 30 seconds to make on,

but anyways, im making the third one down out of the 4

i like to set tow in at .25" and seems to work fine

whats a good board length? i made one according to those plans it looks really really long compared to everyone else's for some reason

Ocean board are longer to help with paddling and catching the wave. I've got 330 Horses that do all the paddling for me.

An ocean board probably has more rocker than wakesurf boards. Flatter boards are faster, boards with more rocker are slower.

The IS Blue is a relatively long wakesurf board that most riders can rider. Smaller riders might have a problem, really big guys might also have a problem.

what? what about ocean boards? im talking wakesurf, mine is 4 foot 8 and it looks really long , i was curious what a normal length is

Sorry, but you said that you didn't know a lot about wakesurfing and that you've never bought a done board. I assumed you had an ocean surf background.

The IS Blue is about as big, length wise, that I’ve seen. I think the Red is about the same length. Go to wakesurf board manufacturer web sites and see how long the boards are.

i have ocean surfed, i was just confused why you where talking about it. *laughs* i did that, and my board is about the same length as theirs are, but its sitting in my room and for some reason it looks HUGE.

Our tribal wakesurf knowledge says a couple of things about board size. First, Big guys need bigger boards. Second, you can rider smaller boards on bigger the wakes. Third, with experience you can ride smaller boards.

I run 210 to 220 and ride anything from a teeny-tiny Trick Boardz to a 9'8" homemade long board behind my boat. I have a pretty good wake to surf. I started out on a Hyperlight Broadcast 5.6 and a smaller wake. Lately I've been riding the Inland Surfer Yellow and a homemade board that is loosely based on the Walker Project F18.

If you’re 140 pounds and have a good wake you can probably go to a pretty small board.

im 6 foot 2 and weigh around 160, and we have an I/O (here it comes) huge swim deck though, no possible way to hit the prop, but anyways, when we set the trim to around 10 or 11 we get a HUGE wake, the boat plows tons of water and causes the wake to be huge, ive "wakesurfed" with my wooded wake skate, it was pretty hard but it was posible.

thank you for the tips though, it makes sense what you saying, so im not worried about my board working or not now, thanks alot

What is that a Sea Ray? You already knew what I was going to say, don't surf behind an I/O. Stick to skimming and surfing the ocean and wakeboarding and wakeskating behind the Sea Ray.

ya its a sea ray 220 select.

i know i get crap for it, but if you where to see it in the water you would be fine with it, you cant even see the outdrive when your in the water