Invert with fins?

hey when im going for backrolls etc. should i use fins? what are some pro's and con's?

You can pull out some rather sketchy landings if you try them finless. With fins the same landings could result in faceplants. Go finless or go home

should i keep fins on when just starting out. I can get up and go and cross wakes but this weekend I could not land any jumps. I could get some air but would f-up the landing somehow and fall.

i'd say start of with fins on your board untill you super comfortable then take them on and go big

I would definetly leave the fins on until you learn some pretty good board control. It will help a lot to have them on at first. But as you progress take them off and you will get a new feel for your board.

The whole finless craze has gotten to the beginners where it does NOT belong. When your learning you have a lot of bad habits, hell we even have bad habits long after we've gotten a hold of this wakeboarding gig. What I'm trying to say here is that removing a fin is not going to allow you to jump/ride better. Yeah the pros ride without them but they also have incredible board control and can place their board anywhere & ride away with perfect balance. You say a fin will lead to a face plant on landings? No not really, what it will do is staighten you out too fast on a half landed trick, ie. you can spin the last 60 degrees of a 540 from landing a little past 360. On the flip side of that coin is that finless if you land sketched out and sliding, not having a fin to push against will make it harder to push with your legs and pull yourself out of it. Riding finless requires a good progressive edge. If you can't clear the wake with fins then you are going to have a hell of a time without fins. Leave your fins on until you can clear both wake(including switch HS & TS), do some wake to wake 180's and some tech grabs. Then think about switching to finless. When you ride finless you go a lot slower because of your reliance on the edges to cut. It makes sense that pros do this as they have immense control & ride at really fast speeds and really long line lengths. When you start to get to that then take the fins off.

Well we are taking for granted that he has some board control, wake jumps and grabs since the title of the post is "INVERT with fins" So your begginer preaching is misdirected. Actually a beginner riding (center)finless is forced to learn to properly edge (yes using the actual edge of the board to "edge") b/c the training wheels are off. So I think you need board control yes, but you will learn it either way. Have fun and progression will come.

Actually, trout was the beginner that bg heavy was referring too. Mike take those fins off, I started riding finless last season and havent looked back, I love the loose feel of the board.

Keep the fins on. It will help you to maintain a solid edge through the top of the wake. There's no need to worry about the board sliding out on you when you are trying something new.

Ok, I will say it again. I believe this will be the 3rd post I have said this in now. So some of you may be sick of this. But anyway...

Why is it always "All or Nothing" when this subject comes up. I guess I’m on the side of "take the fins off after you learn board control". But even then, why be so quick to take off both front and back?
What I’m getting at is, are we all really as good at riding switch as we are regular? If you are, then great. But I would bet that half the people on this board probably are not. I know I’m not!
I love the loose feel, but my progressive edge was lacking big time when riding switch. So I put the front one back on, and helped tremendously!
It's almost as if saying "Yeah bro, I ride finless" has become cliche. By the way, we really aren’t riding finless anyway, so QUIT SAYING IT!
Ok, sorry my ranting is done now also.

Oh yeah, and I promise this will be the last time I will say this.

(Message edited by r_dub on July 25, 2005)

There are different size fins. The real question is whether you want fins and what size. The answer is try it yourself and see what you like. I ride with fins behind the boat and without on the cable. That's because the cable has lots of sliders and I don't like hitting sliders with fins. If it wasn't for the sliders I'd use 1" fins. It's easier to hold a stronger edge for launching air tricks with fins.

Why ride finless other than the obvious its easier to pull off surface tricks (which are not very advanced moves to begin with)? Does it allow you to go bigger? I'm a beginner in my first year, and last weekend my fins got knocked off because I hit some debris in a small cove. Anyway, I rode finless the rest of the day was able to still go wake to wake although I had to really concentrate on my edge more than ever before.

So, why the finless craze? What's the advantage and why are the pros doing it?

Some boards feel faster to me with no fins. I like being able to slide the board to save certain tricks when the landing doesn't go well. I like the way the board releases better from the wake with no fins.

Finless is gonna make a rider use their edge properly. How is that creating bad habits?

Exactly Shane! Thank you! That was my point exactly. You take the training wheels off and you HAVE to learn how to edge properly, you have no other choice. So it is still my opinion that riding finless will make you a better all around rider. Center fins = crutches.

Clay, Shane, J-Rod...when you guys are talking about riding "finless", are all of you riding boards that already have molded fins and you are just taking out the center fin? If so, is this considered true finless riding? How much do the molded fins do? I have a 140cm Double-Up and it has 4 1" fins (no molded fins) and rode without them last weekend for the first time. Took a couple of minutes to get use to, but I feel that it made me ride better because when you cut, you better be digging that edge or you can forget it.

Im talking about center fins. You cannot remove molded in fins and the vast majority of boards now have molded in fins. I have never ridden and board that has no molded in fins finless so I cannot speak for that. But I want to pick up a Roam soon.