discovered a nice river, round the corner ! shall i dedicate a board to it?

[captain twang]

hi guys, this weekend i followed the advice of  an experienced kajaker and went checking out the river lippe (class 1- sometimes 2, nothing serious). what a surprise! you paddle  2 miles up a channel with wind from behind, hop on a horsemeadow, there is the river going downstream and you have 4 miles downstream. fantastic bang for the buck.
after a short time  on my first sup rivertrip my fin hit bottom and i went over the handlebar, right into the rocks. nothing bad  happenened, but it made me think.
so:
would you put  a supersmall fin on your board, just for the river and try to figure out how to paddle that machine? or would you take the middlefin out? or what?
i have a c4 waterman atb board, 10,6", 8,5 middle + sidebites.
i will take a bycicle helmet with me next time on the lippe.
eddie

[bean]

would you put  a supersmall fin on your board, just for the river and try to figure out

Eddie, it sounds like you are paddling downhill in both directions! 

I would be more concerned about damaging the fin box than the fin, so a smaller or more flexible fin like a Pro Teck (Surfco) might be good.  The Pro Teck fins come with a special fin screw and nut that are desigend to break away at impact; of course nothing is fool proof.

[captain twang]

^^^^^^^^^
thanks for the reply.  these fins are not available in germany, where sup is still a very small sport. so a lot of stuff is out of reach.
eddie

[SUP_Dawg]

Same thing happened to me but I hit a submerged piling. Right over the handlebars in front of a good crowd. Oh well. 

[K1SUP]

You really dont need a fin on the river.  Once you get used to not having it you will be fine.  At least on the moving sections.  If you have many flat water sections you might feel like you need it.  In moving water I think it is just something to hang up on the rocks.  If you are on moving water at all you need a helmet.

[captain twang]

^^^^^^^
next time i will take  a bikehelmet with me.
i chopped a cheap plasticfin down really short for that river.  i still have to paddle 2 miles  to get where i can get into the river. that would be  paddling a neverending wormtrail without a fin i guess.

[K1SUP]

I think a cut down fin is what some others are using on rivers.  Another trick I have heard is when you get to a shallower area where you think your fin might hit a rock, turn the board around and move your stance back a little so the fin/fins are out of or almost out of the water in front of you.

[suprbowl]

When I paddle a local lake and have to paddle through the shallows or the ropes for swim areas, I noseride it to get the fin up and I have a 10 inch. Works every time and helps practice balance and walking the board.