Hey Physiorol,
Welcome to the forum! Thank you for the feedback. We hope to have a great place for all of us to talk about another style of riding that does not get much recognition, but certainly deserves its place in kiteboarding and a home to talk about it.
This season I spent quite a bit of time riding in the surf with my skimmer, and also experimenting with a fin. I was riding in up to 25 knots with a Zap Phase5 - 54" x 20.5" x 3/4" skimmer and most of the time I was riding in small 3 - 4 foot surf. My board has the option for one fin, and I was experimenting with a 1" x 7" fin.
- Skim_Fin.jpg (47.74 KiB) Viewed 50805 times
Personally, I found the fin to be more of a hindrance than help. It definitely helped when bottom and top turning, but I could not do shovits or 360s nearly as easily. The fin would often catch in mid spin and knock me right off. Plus, I really like the challenge of riding a wave on the skimmer with just the rails and your body position. It definitely feels like a real accomplishment when you make a good bottom turn and off the lip without any fins. Maybe its mental and just feels more pure without the fin. I have certainly not mastered it, and I am not sure you ever could
but it is fun riding a sheet of glass on a wave!
However, that being said, I think I need to spend more time experimenting with fins on a skimmer because I am probably too used to riding without any fin(s). I have been working on a prototype for a new skimboard and I wanted to have the option to do a 1, 2 or 3 fin set up, but we have yet to test it.