Cross-Stepping/Noseriding: My Personal Quest

[APPST_Paddle]

Great thread - I've had the 10'1" JL B&B (Concave Nose) for 4 years now, favorite board in my quiver, always have fun on it.

I'll be honest I really haven't messed with the fin placement too much, at least to compare directly (changing during a single session), but I'm going to play with it next time we have some nice LB waves. If I can ever get my Soloshot to record longer than a single 4 GB block of video, I'll throw some videos up, my main struggle right now is backside cross-stepping, for some reason the first step always feels pretty awkard.

[WhatsSUP]

A-Paddle:  Would LOVE to see some of your video when the time comes! 

[TallDude]

These seem to be popular nose riding fins for the younger DoHo crew. https://www.surffcs.com/products/fcs-ii-fatboy-pg-longboard-fin  Partly because their newer boards have fin boxes.
Most the older nose riding longboarder's ride their pig's with a big ass glassed in 'D' fin.   

[mrbig]

It's a fun fin. Miki D. did it first..

[Subber]

I've also have a 10" Fatboy fin.
It works well, but generally my favorites on the B&B
are D-Fins or other large surface fins.

People think the D-Fins are hard to turn and that probably
is true with boards from the 1960's but the B&B turns
very easily with a D-fin in it - I think from the extreme
tail rocker (among other things) that it has as Bean alluded to.
And, their huge surface area give lots of stability.

[mrbig]

I had a Midget Farrelly G & S stringerless with this fin! Awesome back in the day!

[abmatt]

I've been riding my old Laird 10 x 28.5 with the stock small center fin (5.5?) and a couple of tiny sidebites, which makes for great turning and speed but some perilous times after cross-stepping up on that wide nose (Laird may be able to spin and survive, but I sure can't, at least not on purpose).
After a glorious chest-high, lined-up, soft day out back, only person as far as I could see, I decided I really wanted to get serious about riding the nose.
So I took off the sidebites and stuck in an old Rainbow 9-inch, which was fun but not quite there. So just ordered the Joel Tudor 10-inch no-flex blocky-looking noserider fin, and can't wait to see if it'll turn me into Joel Tudor. Will report back.
I do know, however, that 10-feet and surfy is a magic spot in the world of SUP.

[PonoBill]

The best fin I ever found for noseriding was the monster dolphin fin Jimmy Lewis stuck on the old 11er. My memory says it was 16 inches tall, but that can't be right. I know it stayed in the water when I got to the nose of that board, no matter what.

[burchas]

The best fin I ever found for noseriding was the monster dolphin fin Jimmy Lewis stuck on the old 11er. My memory says it was 16 inches tall, but that can't be right. I know it stayed in the water when I got to the nose of that board, no matter what.

Recently seen a hatchet fin based on the original weber fin. I think it was 18"
and massive. With your size Pono, I wouldn't rule out that 16", he would  probably put
you on that hatchet if he had it

[PonoBill]

Actually, it was the fin that came with the production 11er, so he was putting everyone on that fin. For a year or so that was pretty much the best selling SUP board, simply because anyone could stand on it and catch waves. In the early days that was a very big deal. The number of people who could stand on a Ku Nalu/Starboard 12'2" long enough to catch a wave was very small.

[WhatsSUP]

January was a good month with numerous outings.  Yesterday (2/3) was the first outing of this month and an unexpected clean surprise.  Mr. Big joined me on what turned out to be  just shy of a 3-hour session.  I've got a good amount of footage now to sift thru in preparation of my next video and perhaps final video (#3 of 3) per my initial post in this thread.  Its taken me a good year of dedicated trial and error and LOTS of discussion (most w/ Zoners here) to try and figure the whole cross-step and nose ride thing out and I'm thankful to all (including the SS3), which has helped me tremendously. 

Here's a couple of snapshots from yesterday's small wave session.  Even snuck in a few Quasi-Quasimoto rides yesterday.   

[eastbound]

congrats whatsSup

now what, tho? after an accomplishment like this............

you and biggie seem to be a good team

[Area 10]

The best fin I ever found for noseriding was the monster dolphin fin Jimmy Lewis stuck on the old 11er. My memory says it was 16 inches tall, but that can't be right. I know it stayed in the water when I got to the nose of that board, no matter what.

I think they were 13”. I have three of them hidden away somewhere, so I should check. They are great for when you need an extreme solution. Many JL boards came standardly with a 11” “noserider” fin, back in the day, so those are actually the most common. Even the 11” is big by today’s standards. I don’t think there ever been another fin quite like the 13” one though - it was nicknamed the “Great White”. If you downwind in super-confused and super-strong downwind conditions, it can be quite useful, especially when you are starting out DWing.

[WhatsSUP]

congrats whatsSup

now what, tho? after an accomplishment like this............

you and biggie seem to be a good team

Oh my.....long list Eastie!  Hang 10's, backwards nose-rides, that 360 board slide/move, create some whacky new poses............Many years of stuff to try to learn!!!!!

 

[supthecreek]

Good stuff Whatz^^^.... looking nosy in the one shot!
Stoked for your next vid!