more tiptime tips from Ki-chan no Korner

Putting on a bigger fin on your longboard probably will not make you noseride better. In fact, you will probably have a harder time noseriding because your board will become too hard to turn.


Remember last weeks photo of TOOTS Hanging Ten ?  Look how much of rear half of the board is in the wave. The fin is not holding down the tail, the RAIL is.


Look how the wave is rolling over the tail.  That is the "lock".   The wave rolling over the rail is holding the tail down at the rear so you can be at the front.


She is walking with no lock.   Maybe she is just moving forward to stay on the wave, but I chose this photo to show you a tail that is not held down


70% of his board is being held down by the wave.  It does not last forever but just a second. But in that second you can do good noserides


Again if you do not create the lock or wait for the lock, the nose will go down.  

Larger fins do create more resistance side to side, but not much up and down.  

It is more important to be able to turn your board and control your board so then you can put it in the correct part of the wave to noseride   


Here I am on my 8'8" Southpoint Bonga Epoxy board. Water is flowing over the rail from the mid-section where the white area is behind my back foot.  You can see that mainly my rail is in the wave, not much of the nose area. My tail is "locked" in. 


Oh by the way,  I did not have a center fin, just the side bites.  

Learn to control the rail , not rely on the fin to noseride