What A Vektor Fin Can Do On A Surfboard?
What A Vektor Fin Can Do On A Surfboard?
There has always been a performance gap between twin fins/quads and thrusters.
Twins and quads are fast and loose because the fins on either side of the board create drive and there’s no middle fin dragging through the water and slowing the board down. But the lack of a center fin comes with a sacrifice, because twins and quads are not able to be surfed as aggressively top-to-bottom as thrusters. Because they don’t have the stability of a center fin, they tend to spin out or bog when they are surfed hard off the bottom. This is why you will often see guys on quads, and especially on twins, surfing more laterally down the line and staying higher on the face of the wave.
Thrusters, on the other hand, have a lot of hold off the bottom and are great for vertical, top-to-bottom surfing, but they are a bit slower than quads and twins because of the aforementioned drag caused by the center fin. This can result in not making sections during long, fast barrels, and also not having as much drive and speed on smaller, less-powerful days when the waves don’t naturally provide a lot of speed.
The knubster concept is a compromise between the stability of the thruster and the speed of a twin or quad. Because we use the smaller Vektor fin as a middle stabilizer, it doesn’t drag as much and therefore doesn’t kill all of the natural speed of the quad or twin. However, because there is something there in the middle of the board to pivot off of, it adds a bit more stability through turns and makes these boards more able to turn hard off the bottom without spinning out.
Vektor fins are also helpful on high-performance longboards with 4+1 setups. These boards can be ridden as single fins or as quads, but if you want a bit more stability on the quad setup, you can modify a Vektor fin to fit into the FCS Longboard Box Adapter and use that setup to add a small center stabilizer (“knubster”) to your fin setup.
Whether you are on a longboard or shortboard, if you want the speed of a quad and the turning radius of a thruster, the knubster is the way to go!
Check this out 📚
WHAT ARE THE VEKTOR SYSTEM FINS?
VEKTOR System Fins Founder Ryan Arakawa Exclusive Interview at Hawaiian South Shore