Multi-Fin boards - Will we see any around here?

So, any windsurfer who picks up a magazine or even glances at a computer screen will have noticed that multi-fin boards are everywhere (unless perhaps your brain is broken). Where as 3 years ago there were zero companies marketing multi-fin boards (aside from perhaps a few custom manufacturers and HiFly), now there are probably zero companies WITHOUT a multi-fin board in their production line-up. In this most recent wave/craze for multi-fin boards, it appears twins came first, followed rapidly by quads and perhaps thrusters and all sorts of variants. Certainly proud to say QUATRO was at the forefront of this development! I am sure there are different perspectives how and who led this recent industry push to multi-fins, and I am no expert... nor do I care to be.

I love this photo by the way:

Anyway, I am curious what Great Lakes and non-ocean sailors think of these boards. Very curious to see if they will start popping up here and there. What do you think? Do they have a place in our quivers or are they just too specialized for us to get our money's worth?

In most cases, I reckon it will be the lads who maintain recent gear who would be most intrigued and most tempted. In one regard, those individuals are the least likely to feel daunted by the risk, since they typically turn over their equipment every 1-3yrs. On the other hand, they gotta be worried a bit about re-sale given the questionable applicability to real-world/non-ocean conditions and how long this multi-fin trend will last. It may not be so easy to sell a multi-fin board, because of the conditions we sail for starters, but also due to changes in trends in the industry. I am in this category, for now.... Tempted, but very dubious... and my gear turn-over rate is dropping fast with these children who need to be fed.

On another note, Tabou has been producing a twin-fin freestyle line called the Twister. In one sense, one can certainly understand that in the drive to make a board work with the smallest fin possible (for freestyle trickery), the notion of twin-fin would allow those fins to be that much smaller (albeit with two of them). Does anyone have any experience with twin-fin freestyle boards? How do they compare?

Back to the wave boards. As I say, I am tempted. Recent days in quality waves at Sandbanks certainly have me pondering. One thing for sure, I wouldn't even glance at any multi-fin board unless, at minimum, it would perform reasonably well in on-shore and straight-line high-wind bump. Err, well, OK - I would probably glance at it, drool, then look away to something else.

For interest, Boardseeker.com just did a test of ~85L waveboards. Check out the article here. Gotta hand it to Boardseeker, they do some pretty good testing so far as I can tell.

The stick that appears to come out with top marks from the Boardseeker.com test is the Goya Quad, for quite a wide variety of user abilities and wave conditions. Its main weakness, unfortunately - straight-lining and B&J. Next in line, perhaps the Quatro Tempo - pretty damn good in all wave conditions, but also shining in top-end and B&J amongst the tested board. Maybe that is just my interpretation of the results, but hey, of course I am biased. Next in line, the JP Thruster.

So, testing indicates that maybe, just maybe, multi-fin boards can also work for high-wind B&J, admittedly probably the biggest use of smaller waveboards in this neck of the woods.

What do you think?

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