Keel Fins for Mini Pip
Hi Leniam,
If you can drop Gary a line through his website he has his own twin fin templates both keel and an upright template. I have the latter but in a single tab (futures) not sure if he does them in FCS. He's also a top guy to deal with.
Hi Leniam, I am almost exactly your height, weight and age. I have a few fishes. What I can tell you about keels is that I don't like them. I prefer normal fins. hope this helps.
Nice looking board you're getting. I've owned plenty of this style of board (mostly quads though) and found that flexible fins worked better for me in small waves. As with spuddups I also prefer normal fins to keels. Longtime average surfer. Hope this helps
Best bet would be to have a chat with Gary, but I'd be going with futures plugs for a start, so many more fin options. If you're keen on keels I've been enjoying the True Ames Ryan Lovelace template in my small wave wider tailed boards. Upright twins I'm enjoying the Tyler Warren template for bigger waves, hold/drawn out turns & NPJ Chippa template for tighter radius turns and a bit more snap/release.
Those Metua keels in Futures on Ebay look o.k. for $70 - solid Glass
You might like to try the Rasta Keels, they are awesome in that type of board. Gary had input to the design too.
Hi All. Just came back to this thread after a few days. I mistakenly ordered FCS2 on my last board so thought I'd just make the same mistake again.... realised too late there are many more options for Futures (and that Gary can supply Futures direct). I ended up buying CHRISTENSON KEEL ESPECIAL as I think they're slightly smaller than other modern keel type templates. Hopefully pick up the board in the next two days. If I don't like the fins I'll have to revisit... and probably get some more normal type fins.
I probably would have gone with the fcsii modern keel over the christenson as they look pretty similar and I don't have a heap of faith in the fcs1s in twin fins.
The retro keel is actually the smallest keel in fcs range though if that's what you were after.
If you could get the fronts of the Machado split keel probably go good too, otherwise just the powertwins would do the job.
But yeh, futures definitely have more options as you can buy from so many different makers.
To be honest, I was all set to get the modern keels, but saw some youtube guy compare the modern keel and christenson and he made an off the cuff comment about them being a bit smaller.... I figured 'I am also smaller'.... that's all the logic that went into it. The power twins might be the next go-to if these ones are no good. As for strength... I thought about it, but my power-surfing is not really a thing... so should be ok.
i'm with p'tai...the rasta keels are really good.
also have a look at hanalei fins for a totally different fin style. they have a devoted following among certain groups of fish riders.
Those who ride twins - anyone have an opinion with regards to upright fins vs keels? Are there situations where you'd favour one style over the other?
had a few twins - dhd twin, mini twin 2, now have a stacey bullet. in all cases i liked the upright fin templates more. tried futures k2, captain tyler warren twin, and scarfini FX2. Scarfini fin is hands down my favourite in all three boards. i think two things are important - fin cant, and fin depth - and matching these to your board and how you want to surf it. fin cant on twin sets varies more than for thruster sets.
traditional-style keels (k2) have noticeable less cant and less depth than the Scarfinis. I found the k2s more suited to straight-line speed (not really necessary on a twin) and had less hold when trying to turn tight. These aspects were exaggerated going backhand. i also found the tyler warrens had less cant than the Scarfinis - similar desire to want to go straight and were less responsive. Musings of a madman perhaps, but that was the feel from the helm.
CDrive have a twinfin set now that I've been using in a Gary Mcneill CV2 for about a month now.
I tried numerous other quad/twin combinations previous to these but was never completely happy with the feel.
They're certainly not cheap but worth it for that distinct positive/drivey but also free feeling that are unique to this design.
I'm just about to pick up a 5'10 Gary McNeill Mini-Pip. This model has a fairly wide tail, high volume. I'm only 5'7" and 69kg, 48 years old. I'm no gun,more a long-time intermediate surfer.
Anyhows, I've basically got little idea what fins to get. I am thinking FCS2 Modern Keels, only because keels and twins are often mentioned in the same sentence. The modern keels are pretty large fins going by the specs This board will be used for small waves 1 to 3ft mostly. In reality I don't know how much influence the fins will have (I'll be the major limiting factor), but I may as well start with some that suit.
Anyone got any advice on fins?