A fin is a small piece of equipment, but does have a large impact on the performance of your board. Just look at the recent downwind hydrofoils to see the power a foil can generate under the water.
A good SUP race fin needs a considered foil design that also has appropriate foil thickness. This stops you from stalling or increasing drag at angles of attack that a SUP encounters. A SUP is rarely travelling in a perfectly straight line, so this angle of travel can create unnecessary drag.
A lot of people underestimate the importance of a good fin, have you ever felt the increase in drag of just one piece of weed on your fin? A poorly designed fin can feel the same. Now imagine the effect on your board for an entire race.
- Technical Racing
Technical racing usually means many buoy turns, quick acceleration, rougher conditions and potentially surfing as well. So you need a fin which has narrower chords to allow tight turns, in addition to having good control in the surf. The fin should allow you to place the board exactly where you want it whether that’s during the buoy turn, on the wave face, or in the draft train.
Pictured here : The “Mako 35” Sup race fin is a Technical Racing fin, with less volume and narrower chords to turn and accelerate more quickly)
- Flatwater Sprints
For sprinting you need a fin which will allow to you accelerate quickly and maximise strokes per side
with low drag. The combination of these requirements determined a short fin for low drag with wide chords (fin width) for directional stability. I’ve had feedback from our team riders that they could paddle a 200m sprint just on one side – that tracking ability also means less swapping and a better overall stroke rate.
Pictured here : The “Mako Time Trial” Sup race fin is a special fin for Flatwater sprints. This is the fin Trevor Tunnington used in 2015 to become the “Fastest Paddler on Earth”)
Chris Ting of VMG blades comments –
My experience in competitive watersports has reinforced that a lighter foil is always beneficial and you also need the highest quality materials to get the best strength to weight ratio. Our fins are so light they actually float.
The simple benefit of light weight fins, is that it is less weight that you are accelerating and decelerating for every stroke. In a race you will paddle thousands of strokes, and with every gram of weight, it soon adds up to a lot of extra weight you have carried.
The SUP HUT will have a range of VMG race fins coming into stock in Late November -click here http://www.standuppaddleboarding.co.uk/sup-accessories/sup-fins/vmg-blades-sup-race-fins
For a more in depth look at VMG Blades go to interview with TotalSUP here http://www.totalsup.com/choose-sup-race-fin/– Thanks Matt
