fin or finless sorry to beat this dead horse again

I know I know This subject has been talked about forever but I just have one more question. Are you likely to land a tantrum or a backroll easier without the fins or with the fins or will there be any diference at all?

I cant see there being a lot of difference... if i was learning them again I would want the fins.

what board are you riding?

Uh...I would guess tantrum, just because it requires a little less edge control (backroll requires a very progressive edge).

Though, I don't really think it would make that big of a difference.

I´m riding a ´05 priemier dna141. I just got my first wake board boat (´04 masterboat wakemaster 190 with an Indmar 310hp engine)I think it´s a copy of a early 90´s MC prostar. I´m here in Brazil by the way. The wake on this boat is really nice but very wide so I need the fins for me to edge out enough to get a good progressive edge.

your last comment "I need the fins for me to edge out enough to get a good progressive edge" says you should probably ride without fins, at least for a while.

You should be able to get a good edge without the fins. If you then want to add fins to lock you in a bit more that becomes preference but as a base you should not "need" them there are too many bad habits you can form relying on fins to get a good cut in.

Just my 2 R$

riding without fins give you more room for error on landings in my opinion, and as others said it helps you to properly learn how to cut. Also its simply more fun riding a loose board!

I´ve been riding for more then a year without the fins with my privious boat and can do w2w 180 easily. This new boat that I have has a lot wider wake at a closer distance to the boat. Thanks for the R$2 though.

valeu Gil!!!!!

you may want to speed up a bit. this narrow your wake and push it back. what speed are you riding? sounds the two boats are very different

if u have to ask, put the fins on.

i think every rider should spend at leat one summer on a board like the roam. i spent the last 4 years riding nothing but the roam. this year im gettin back on a normal board. riding finless has given me way better edge control and taught me to really edge properly. now that i have gotten rid of all the bad habbits im going back to a normal board to learn new things and step my game up

I´m riding at 20mph on perfectpass with gps. My previous boat was a 18ft bayliner with 115hp outboard motor and I had no trouble edging out and doing w2w 180s finless. I tried speeding up to 22mph on this new boat but the difference is minimal. I agree with everyone that riding finless is WAY more fun and the proper edging should be done finless but it´s NO fun at all trying to edge out finless for hours at a time and not getting anywhere.

I just wanted to let you all know that I wakeboarded this past weekend with the fins on and I was hitting w2w 180s very easily. I am posting a picture of the highth that I´m achieving. Is this high enough for recreational riding? Also what are the prerequisits for trying a back roll?

Muito Obrigado

From your descriptions of your riding and some of the frustrations you have mentioned, try this. Keep the fins off and slow down your turn into the wake then keep everything else the same, and as always maintain your edge through the wake. Slowing this initial turn should give you a stronger edge and get you back to W2W 180 and beyond, shortly. A prerequisite to any invert is going W2W every time, all the time.

thnks for the tip Michael. By the way I did a search for wake pics on this site and got about a thousand hits. I got bored and started looking through the pictures and started counting all the people who were using fins on their boards and I was surprised to find that it was about half and half on who was using fins or not. humph, go figure.