This is interesting, from Boardseeker:

"We have now used a couple 78 and 76 litre models, which reinforces the thoughts that the 'advantages' of twin fin boards appear more apparent on bigger sizes whereas the smaller sizes offer a different ride, but perhaps not such distinct advantages.

Generally, they (twins) turn a bit tighter and can be good at holding speed in the turn. Its arguable however that a single fin still feels more 'reliable' especially in the bottom turn on smaller boards."

if you take any advise on waveboards from a pommy mag/website you probably should stick to a freeride board and a bay

coronation isnt a proper wave, its a jumping spot. definately wouldnt be my choice of wave to test down the line waveboards with any degree of relevance.

In WA i would say that pretty much most of our sailing is onshore (with the exception of the 2 glamour spots - which arent actually sailed by that many crew relative to all the other spots)

While corros is onshore for most of the day.. and ALOT of fun for jumping-Corros does get good !- hit the late sesh for cross shore action and aerials.

or sail upwind 500m and there is some real power to be found !



I reckon a good all rounder will feel good in all conditions.

Hey if I was riding corros today, id do my usual and keep my stock standard fins on, shapen my g string at 4pm for the late sesh, grab a reheated pie and rip into it. Dont come in till dark....

Its funny how these threads degenerate. I recon that if anyone is seriously curious about wether or not a twinfin is going to work for them or not they should go down to their local shop and grab a demo board and give it a try, thats what I did and I loved the board wouldnt want to be riding anything else and also have been having more fun on the wave than I have in years. Anyone that has tried my Jp's down the beach has also loved them.
It seems strange to me that all these people with really strong opinions (mainly negative) havent even riden one. How can you say a board doesnt go upwind or is slow when you havent even ridden on, its ridiculous. Personally I have been riding them for 3 or 4mnths now and cant say enough good about them.
If you are curious, go grab a demo, theres heaps of them floating aroud and give it a try. Then youll find out if you like the feel or not.

Al McLeod said...

was at hookipa yesterday talking to levi about his twin fins. i asked him when he would prefer a single over a twin he said that he has only been riding twins and definitely prefers them...

Yes, but he is paid to say that. It's his job to ride them and promote them.

Maybe they're good, maybe they're not. But a pro or anyone who is contractually obligated to promote them is hardly going to give an unbiased opinion.

Josh Angulo was quoted in the latest UK mag as saying he didn't like them (after getting Quatro to make him one). Not really any bias there either way. He's hardly going to get the sack from "Angulo Boards".
He'd know more about boards than nearly everyone on the planet, and I'm sure it'd be easy enough for his board company to copy anyone elses twin fin design, bang on the Angulo graphics and get on the bandwagon whether they suit Josh or not.

nutbag, I think youll find levi is paid to ride quatro not twinfin. If he didnt like the twins Im pretty sure keith could knock him up a pretty reasonable singlefin. But yet he still rides the twins, make you wonder why eh?
ps have you ever seen the size of boards that josh rides, if you were to put another fin on one of those it would have to be a centreboard.

I think Dan's right on the money. At the end of the day you can read/research all you want but when it comes to something like this you really have to try it out for yourself. I also think it would be fair to say that you can't jump on a twin, ride it like a single and expect to get the most out of it.

They are certainly an interesting development and i'm sure some of the "oh check that out....gotta get me one of those" applies to quite a few people who have purchased them. The good thing is they have really rejuvenated wave board design, people are trying some radical things which i'm sure we'll all benefit from. Haven't ridden one myself yet but looking forward to it.

I had a go of the Evil twin 80 kindly donated to the NSW Wavesailing Association by Auswind and a 5.7, yesterday at wanda in very light wind with chest height sets.
First couple of waves I needed to get used to the way that it turns. After that I found I was able to milk the waves tight in the pocket, pushing harder and harder it was very easy to control in the turns. No rail skipping out just the pressure i put into the board being returned in smooth speed in my turns. A last minute closeout section I turned vertically up the face and instead of stalling and pivoting on the tail to come down with the whitewater ( as per a single fin ) the board kept excellerating and popped out of the lip.
In the last few months of winter sailing with Dan and Matt C I have found no major difference in pointing ability and straight line speed. My first impressions is if you like to ride waves definetly give twins a go. If you like to do a couple of turns then look for a lip to hit perhaps you may be more suited to the drive of a single. Just like with surfboards sometimes I like to ride my 5'8" fish and other times my 6'2" allrounder the each have their strengths.
I really enjoyed this board and am looking forward to trying the JP ( available for demo at WSS) and the mistral if i get the chance.
So many haters out there just chillax....
1 fin good
2 fin good
3 fin good
4 fin ????

As for the pros the will ride whatever they think feels best, especially if you are at the top.
And remember Josh did ride twins when he was a younger man

Nutbag said
"I'm sure Quatro and JP have created the best of the twins, but I'm sceptical about the other brands who have more likely just slapped 2 fins on anything."

That's a pretty uneducated comment there nutbag. Are you "sure", really sure?
If you had been following the development you would know that Nik Baker and mistral were working on their twin as soon as Kauli rode his in cabo verde 18 months ago. Just looking at the picture above in this thread ,of the 3 boards together, will show that the mistral is not a single fin shape with 2 fins attached. The Evo looks nothing like their single fins - Scotty has been developing his models for about the same time.

Quatro had the head start on everyone else but even Keith T said, they were not for everyone and he did not like the one he was making for Kauli much as they were not his style. It is well known that the first production quatros were shaped much like their single fin shape with 2 fins added. NOT that that is a bad thing if the punters are happy with them.
Levi has stated publically that he has both single and twin boards in his quiver. He didn't get on with twins in all conditions or locations but does like them as alternatives. He could sail rings around all of us wannabes regardless of board type and as a sponsored sailor is free to say what he likes and dislikes about models or conditions as long as the overall view is positive about his brand sponsor

You can believe the marketing about Jp all you want but the production twins are nothing like Kauli's - I have seen them being sailed and they look like nice shapes - they ride well, like all boards, but they look just like all Jp's, which is no problem if you like that feel. The boards were developed by Werner and he did not have lots of time to develop the board before they went to the mold and he did not have kauli around for advice for much of this time.

All of the twins on the market will find sailors that like them and others that don't agree with them as we all have our own style / bias/ experiences and preferences.

No one has made the best twin fin necessarily for all types of sailors or abilities. Or have they? I guess you won't know unless you ride them all

cheers
Paul

Hey Marcus
It's a great feeling isn't it when you try something new and get that wow factor (regardless of brand) from a new board or sail. If it makes you think you can sail better you will, just simply because you are happy to be using the stuff. It sounds like the 68 70's are going to work just fine as replacements for a single fin.
I hope you have a great time getting the best out of you new twin fin board.
cheers
Paul

I've sailed the Mistral Twinzer 84 litre in a mix of conditions over the last few days and it is without any doubt the best light wind wave board I have ever sailed. The conditions were form cross-on waist high to cross-off head and a half high. The Mistral does everything well, it planes early, it floats my 90kg easily in the lulls and it is as loose as smaller boards on a wave. I have owned quite a variety of wave boards over the last few years, but have found that most production boards didn't give a good performance in a variety of conditions, they were either good in classic DTL or good in more cross onshore.

I'm a big fan of Stoney's thruster boards as they are the only other boards I have sailed that I felt give that ability to ride cross-on waves properly and still perform in DTL. I want to ride the same board in Corros and Esperance.

The Twinzer 84 is the first board that I have sailed that I straight away thought offered something more than my thruster in light winds. I think it is equally or more loose and drivey on a wave, and slightly earlier planing. I'm yet to be convinced that there is an advantage to the Twinzer in more powered up conditions. I have ridden the 76 Twinzer in 4.7 conditions which felt great and I was super impressed with how much speed I could keep on a wave even when it was a bit onshore, but the thruster also feels good in those conditions. I'm hoping to be able to ride the Mistral and the SSD back to back soon.

Yep sailed my single fin today with 4.7 ,2-3 foot slightly onshore and didn't like it much compared to my last sail with the twinny. Think when its windy, twiny is the go for sure.

......The twin fin was used 10 years ago, and was nice to ride then and should have only improved with the new modern shapes and fin avalibility ....... etc etc

Intresting scott you say you prefer to ride your twinsa instead of your single fin now.

Riding a single fin requires a lot more accuracy / effort ......and drive to get it to work.

Ive been riding a thruster as my only board for the past 4 seasons and couldnt go back to a single fin........ as the stability and control is more rail to fin , with a thruster you got more variety using the fins to rail.

The thruster goes ok in chop but thats the only time i hate it. No board loves nasty short chops.


What your riding right now works ,,,,,, BUT its about making sailing looser, more fun and easyer to ride the same local wave you sail, whilst being able to draw a varriety of different lines etc etc etc in all conditions WHILST providing a feeling of total control and improvement.

I Know Stoney has been playing around with all sorts of TWIN fin conbinations with Jagger. fin width depth and box locations etc etc

Intresting to hear some feed back ........and im looking forward to jumping on some of these differrnt combinations this summer at coros. Production /custom.