Why these huge freakin fins???

I have been struggling with any type of slides, it has been frustrating.

My buddy, who is a very good rider, grabbed my board this morning and promptly faceplanted. He turned the board over...looked at the shark fins, and handed the board back to me on the boat with a disgusted look on his face.

I have a CWB Sol, 141...that came with these huge fins that are about 3" high.

My question is....why??? If I just take them off, what is the downside? I would rather have a looser board for sure.

I would try smaller fins, but I just ordered a new board...so we will see.

So, should I just take them off for the weekend and see what happens?

Do any of you not use fins? why???

sorry in advance if this is a stupid question.

I have the same board and I put 1" fins on it. much better.

Larger fins allow you to track better when approaching the wake. They are less forgiving on landings. Riding finless or with smaller fins, allow you to recover on, less than perfect landings. It also makes it easier to do surface tricks.

i ride a LF Omega without fins and it edges fine with the proper technique but is nice and slippery when i want it to be. you should see how small the molded fins are on that.

At 250lbs when I edge hard I cant fathom that they are doing that much for me...that edge is planted plenty.

I think I will take them off and try it...

If I'm not mistaken a sol is a 02 Absolute. Back then they came with bigger fins. You can replace them with smaller ones.

Get rid of the fins. It will take a couple rids to get used to it but you'll love it when you do.

opps, meant rides.

See Robert the edge may be firmly planted but what is keeping the tail engaged is the fin. With proper technique & a nice slow turn you can make it work without the fin, it makes it a little harder to initiate turns & you need to use a full on progressive edge. Try it out & see how she goes.

I ride an old Bad Ass with no fins. If you're edging properly you don't need the fins. Chuck 'em.

Cool, thanks everyone.

I ordered a new ERA, so no reason to screw with new fins now...I think I will just take them off my current board and work on surface tricks this weekend....I just wasn't sure if anyone rode without them.

Sol is not the 02 Absolute, that is the Pure.

ride the era finless for sure! www.wakecoupons.com

hey murph, quit tagging every thread with your website url. Its annoying. At least wait until its not "under construction."

dont be lame, lots of people post sites in their signature......this is no way means you have to look. if you read the site at all it invites two things.......
1. seeks input and advice on how to make the site better and
2. we are giving away two boards in the near future! people might just want to pursue our contests.

Thanks for your intelligent advice though, it was considered, and cast aside. The site will have usable content up tomorrow.....

rob sorry for this dudes hijack, lets back to the subject at hand........

I used to ride the tfd with the bigger fins, when i switched to the smaller ones it was a whole new board. Now consider this.....

I like a loose board, when i first rode the absolute with center fins i immediatly said "i hate this board" then on advice took out the center fin......it literally changed my ride. I was pulling out landings i didnt normally land and started adding powerslides with ollie backside 270's.....not possible on my board with fins. Now, this style of riding suits my style of riding, maybe not yours. Just my .02 but the main point of my reply is demo a board both ways (i would have gave up on the lute had i not tried it finless) and find out what works for you........

mike here this one is for you....

www.snowcoupons.com

i will no longer hijack this thread, just having a bit of fun!

on another note, my first board had those damn 3 in double up fins.......you cant revert that thing for nothing!

Follow up:

I took the fins off my current board....huge difference! Yes, it was a little harder to edge way out but it was my first try. I would think that a 3/4" fin would be perfect. I would finally spin that thing around without getting it tripped up, it was a great time.

I would highly suggest that everyone learning takes their fins off for at least one set one time!

My ERA 147 should be here in a day or two, I wonder if that board will be the same situation?