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Greeting,
I am currently working with a local board builder on a new skim. I am looking to replace an old custom foamy from about 1993 (kited since 2003) that is almost dead and my main target is wave riding. I have another skim for freestyle so I am looking at a fairly large higher volume board for fun in our usually small mushy waves (which can get up to about 12ft faces on very rare big days). I was thinking of adding boxes or holes to potentially experiment with fins and I was curious what was working or not working for most people(single, twin, tri, quad, fin type, size etc.). I am planning on mostly riding the board finless and there is a good chance fins will only be used once in a blue moonish just to see what they might offer.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,
Bryan

Hi Bryan, I tried fins for skims on various boards, as you say, for the bad choppy days. Board size was roughly 54" x 20". I made test configurations with 1, 2, 3 fins. I started with cheap surf fins and cut them down until I was happy

This is what I found:
-with a thruster or twin setup and full size surf fins, the board works like a twitchy surf board, without the advantages of a surf board. Due to shortness board tends to pearl easily, no skim feel at all. Slow. Didn't like.
-with a thruster or twin setup and cut down fins (1,5", like TT fins), the board feels TT like when carving. Still feels locked in, like on rails. Works but didn't like.
-in general, twin feels looser than thruster
-the best result I found for those ugly choppy days is a roughly 1,5" single fin about 2" from the tail of the board (depends on the tail shape). This gives a a little bit of a pivot point in the turns (helpful when carving in the choppy stuff, where you often lose it in the turns when a wave knocks you off your clean rail), and the little fin being far back does not affect the ride too much when you're on the rail. Still loose enough, and a good help in chop. Like it.

Cheers, tungsten

Riding the new skim for a while now mostly finless. The few fins I have tired just seem a bit big for my tastes. I have probox's in a thruster set up but have only gone with 3 fins once because it felt too locked in and even a single XS FCS seems a little big most of the time. I would like to try a short fin (or fins) like tungsten suggests just to give a little more bite when riding bigger waves and for wake surfing. Does anyone know of anything stock that is small and loose, and where to get it? Or should try to customize some FCS XS's?

Thanks for any input,
Bryan

Haven't come across any small FCS yet. Best option is cheap plastic fin, hack saw & grinder. I'ts a 15 minute job. Templates you find here http://www.fins4sale.com/ or here http://www.slovakfin.com/#/BLACK%20FINS