Nubster trial

[nalu-sup]

I know that there are some old nubster threads on here (I read most of them), but rather than reviving them, I decided to start a new one sharing my own experience.
I have been riding my 8'7" Flow switching back and forth between various thruster and quad variations for the past year, since I like some of the characteristic of both (and I have a fetish about experimenting with fins). Most of the time I ride it with a set of quads that I hand shaped out of a set of Compressor fins (I bought them because they had lots of surface area for me to start shaping and foiling down to what I envisioned). The fronts are about 4 ¾" with a lot of chord at the bases and fairly narrow chord at the tips with just a little tip rake,  and the rears are 4" that are pretty upright with a very short chord top to bottom and no tip rake. The lack of chord in the deeper parts of the fins, and the minimal, rake gave me the looseness that I wanted. I now wanted to try to add a little more speed drive out of my turns, and get rid of little twitches that I sometimes get going rail to rail. Today I added an FCS nubster (I believe about 1 ¾") as a trailing fin, and so far it seems to be just what I was looking for. It did not seem to stiffen the board up at all, but I felt that I was getting more speed when I unloaded my legs out of the bottom turns as well as roundhouses, and I seemed to get more flow during rail transitions. It seemed like it combined the best features of thrusters and quads, without any of the tradeoffs. I am pretty stoked at the moment, and plan on getting a nubster for my wife's 7'11" Fanatic which also has a fairly wide tail.
Just wanted to share the stoke from a fun, and apparently successful, experiment.

[supthecreek]

It sounds like you added the nubster to your Quad setup... is that right?
I am curious how that would increase speed, so just sidebites and nubster?

I have had fun with twinzers, so sides and a Nub seems like a good go! I have a couple of very small sides from an old Starboard Cruiser... may try one as a nubster.

[SUPcheat]

Nubsters seem to make sense to me, somehow.

I would have to be completely full of bullshit to even attempt to say I know what they feel like in use.  Since I am only partially full of bullshit, I won't even try.

[kliss99]

Funny, I wanted to start a thread about my recent nubster experience but I wanted a few sessions before writing and you beat me to it.
I surf a 9'2 Flow and for the most part am happy.  I ride it as a quad setup with H3 Nexus fins, I find these fins much better than the Sunova fins and prefer quad to tri.  A few weeks ago I started a thread about seeking the One sup for all conditions, well adding the nubster may have sealed the deal!  Even with the quad and prior to the nubster the flow didn't flow and drive the way I like on my backhand, the nubster seems to have cured that.  Definitely less twitchyness and the board feels really smooth in big and small surf.  Definitely no less maneuverable and seems to have less yaw paddling.  I'm sold!

[mrbig]

A subject near and dear to B-I-G Quadratic Testing Laboratories. The nub eliminates speed wobbles, helps with stability in real world motion in the ocean conditions, and keeps the junk in the trunk from sliding around.

Dave Daum who rips is now using the FCS II Split Keels in his personal micro chip Accelerator. Rumor has it some olde fahrte on the east coast said try and see what you think!

Pic 1 - King's 8'4" Accelerator, Pic 2 - King's 8'8" Punisher, Pic 3 - 8'10" Angulo Diamond Tail!!

Nub 1 - Community Project Small,  Nub 2 - DARC all the way from Australia, Nub 3 - original hand laid glass Kelly which I used in my Focus Smoothie 9' as I couldn't paddle in a straight line at first!

[SUP Sports ®]

Yup...firm believer...
I started riding 5 fin surfboards back in the 80's...and, have found no downside to using small trailers with a quad fin setup on SUPs in waves waist high or bigger...

I run my 2.25" Stubnub all the way back in the center box on most of my wave riding SUPs...allows me to keep the pedal to the metal with more drive when transitioning from one rail to the other...also, helps when taking off late on really steep waves angling in...

http://supsports.com/shop/sup-fins/wd-2-25-stubnub-trailer-center-fin/

[Night Wing]

I also ride the waist high waves down at Galveston Island (Texas) with a 5 fin (quad +1) configuration on my Hammer (which is in my signature). The fins are: (2, 5") (2, 4") and (1, 2.25").

[nalu-sup]

Yeah STC, I added the nubster to my quad set up. Since I am not techy enough to add a picture, I will say that the photo that kliss99 posted looks exactly like my current setup, except that the quad rear fins that I shaped have a lot less rake and slightly less surface area. I used the rear hole for the nubster just like he has in the picture.
In answer to your question about speed; the nubster obviously does not generate any speed by itself when just traveling along a wave, but when you unload leg power into a turn, it seems like the nubster translates more of that into drive/speed than without the nubster. I almost posted a comment about the great video that surfafrica put together on you; and it was just going to point out that watching your legs in action constantly pumping energy into the board and fins every turn is a tutorial that everyone should study. I feel that the nubster helps to translate just a little more of that energy into drive/speed. If you just tip the board up on rail to turn but don't add leg thrust, then a nubster is just an advantage as a high speed stabilizer, and smoother flow from rail to rail (twins and quads often feel a little black and white to me in rail transitions, without the sense of flow mid change that a single or thruster set up gives).

[NorthJerzSurfer]

A subject near and dear to B-I-G Quadratic Testing Laboratories. The nub eliminates speed wobbles, helps with stability in real world motion in the ocean conditions, and keeps the junk in the trunk from sliding around.

Dave Daum who rips is now using the FCS II Split Keels in his personal micro chip Accelerator. Rumor has it some olde fahrte on the east coast said try and see what you think!

Pic 1 - King's 8'4" Accelerator, Pic 2 - King's 8'8" Punisher, Pic 3 - 8'10" Angulo Diamond Tail!!

Nub 1 - Community Project Small,  Nub 2 - DARC all the way from Australia, Nub 3 - original hand laid glass Kelly which I used in my Focus Smoothie 9' as I couldn't paddle in a straight line at first!

Big-

How do you like the controllers with (or without) the nub on those boards?  I thought for controllers to work the front and rear boxes shouldnt have too much width  (side to side) between them.  Both of those boards look like traditional quad spacing.

I ask because i tried out controllers on a  tomo style board I picked up- waves were tiny (knee) but I swore it was more stable (while paddling and standing) and turned better than traditional quad setup.

wondering if I was crazy or if controllers really do work well in regular quad setups or even better with a nubster.

I use that board a lot in chop and the size of the controllers seemed to be very stable without taking too much skate out of the quad.  Wondering if you are finding the same.  again my experiment period was prob only 8-10 waves

EDIT:
https://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=18705.0
Heres the thread I was thinking of that chats about it

[mrbig]

Sorry for the delay. Thread disappeared. The controllers work very well in wide tail boards..

[PonoBill]

I have Controllers on my L41 and I like them a lot. But the boxes on my board are set for them--very close together. I will probably add a fifth box to my L41 this summer to do a nubster. The controllers work fine but there is a marked tendency to crank the board into the wave face when the board is really flying that I'd like to mitigate. All it takes now is a little outside rail toe pressure, but it would be nice not to have it.

[surfafrica]

I'm thinking of giving one of these a go.  I have Futures in my center and was thinking of going with the TMF-2 (vs the TMF-1).  Any preferences out there on the shape of the nubster?

TMF-2.... https://www.thesurfboardwarehouse.com/p-1988-futures-fins-tmf-2-knubster-nubster-versatile-5th-fin-thermotech.aspx

TMF-1... https://www.thesurfboardwarehouse.com/p-1754-futures-fins-tmf-1-knubster-nubster-versatile-5th-fin-thermotech.aspx

[surfshaver]

I have been riding my L41 Popdart for almost a year now, and I have ridden it up to 8-10' in fairly fast reefbreak and I have never once felt like it would slide out or felt twitchy.  However I have not been pushing it to the limit in turns in the bigger stuff.  The controllers seem to work perfectly with this board.

I bought a nubster and it's been sitting on a shelf for months.  I should have tried it out during our last big south swell.  This thread has reminded me it's time to try it out.

[Badger]

I tried the Futures TMF-2 and SupSports 2.25" in the JL World Wide and Stun Gun for about a year and a half and could not conclude any noticeable improvement in performance.

IMO they don't do anything but cause minor cavitation and drag. I'm not trying to start an argument. It's just my observation.

I suppose some setups might gain a slight benefit, but if you have the right fin set in the first place, you should not need a nubster to augment it.