quad fin boards

Hi, I have recently added an extra set of side fins to my kiteboard. They are located just in front of the rear foot straps. I tried the board with (5 fins) and without centerfin (quad). The result was very encouraging. I think 4 fins is the way to go. Any ideas what works best for side fins wrt size and assymetric vs symmetric fins? I currently have symmetrical fins in back and assymetrics in front but the front fins throw huge wakes on the leeward side. All fins are 4 5/8'. Who else uses quad fin setups and what kind and size of fins are used. Next, I just might chop off some of that large tail area and turn my 230 into a 215. 8-)

With pickle fork you mean an extrem sorta swallow tail? Or is there something else to it? When I'll shorten my board, I will also make it some sort of swallow tail. First (and foremost) it is the cool look 8-). And then I can remove the entire center fin box that way. Should save some weight. My board is bigger (similar to Naish 7'6' so I don't anticipate much of an effect as the rails are not real skinny (nowhere near as skinny as Roberts'. I think the picklefork would only have an effect if you actually sink your rail in real deep.

I'm not sure why Jimmy Lewis would make such a blanket statement. On my board the forward thrusters definitely help keeping the rails set. I don't have hundreds of hours of kitesurfing on my resumee and I'm not real sensitive to fine differences in the board yet. When I added the forward thrusters it made a very noticable difference. Maybe the thrusters don't help with Jimmy Lewis' shapes. I can easily see how that would be different with board width, rail thickness, rocker and riding style.

What are the dimensions on the fork and how thick are the rails on the Jimmy Lewis' board? What fin box do you use for the twinzer fins. I got Futuresystems boxes in and I don't think there are bigger fins available for those.

Later,

Yes....you can see a picture at http://www.jimmylewis.com/kitesurf.htm

I think the picklefork would only have an effect if you

That may be true.

I think that is the difference. My Cabrinha had forward fins, but rode more on the bottom. The Lewis rides more like a wakeboard, turned on edge, as much as 80 degrees. It works flat too, but on edge it handles a lot of wind. I can sink the Lewis rail even going fast. I couldn't do that with the Cabrinha.

The board is 1 3/4 thick at the middle. The fork is 6 1/2 deep and 4 1/2 wide at the tail edge. The tail edge is 6 1/2 wide. So I have 1' wide 'points' on the rear. The fork is 1 1/4 thick at the 6 1/2' distance in from the tail.

The boxes are windsurfing style boxes. The fins have to be custom fit because the board is so thin that most of the fin box gets ground off. This leaves the fins base sticking above the surface.