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I just have acquired Airush Choptop 2010, 5'8". The board came without fins, it has 5 fin boxes.

What sort of fins setup will be the most versatile for this board and 84kg/185p 190cm/6'3" me? Do I need to fill all 5 boxes? Can I get away with 4 or even 3 fin setup? What does it affect?

I plan to ride the board at Crissy or Ocean Bean when the conditions are right.

Started reading more about fins and fin templates... Damn, that's a science.

Don't ride it with 5 fins in it, just get some large thruster fins for it (like the FCS M7). If you are asking if you should run 5 fins then you aren't going to be able to tell the difference.

Pop down to wise and tell them you need a large cheep set of thrusters in FCS

What if I get a set of quads and a single thruster, and then mix and match to find the best template?

Also, considering that there isn't any waves I can ride in the channel, what's best for Crissy - quads or thrusters? Or is it really matter of preference?

You can get a 5 fin set. It allows you to run the board as a thruster or as a quad. There are some that say that quads have lower drag and work better when the wind is marginal. You can experiment and see what you like. I like running a quad setup on my Vanguard (has a 5 fin box set).

By the way, I have Ventral fins. They seem to work pretty good and are fairly cheap to replace.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1& ... %3AVENTRAL

Quads are going to be better for crissy, I find that quads are better in generating speed and upwind performance, while a thruster set up is going to be better for ob, as it's going to provide more control and precise performance on the wave. Although it's all going to be subjective, as different things work for different people. You should experiment with both and see what works for you, fcs should have a 3/4 package that you can switch in and out.

I have a firewire sweet potato that I ride with a seaworthy quad setup and it absolutely rips upwind.

alexl wrote:
I have a firewire sweet potato that I ride with a seaworthy quad setup and it absolutely rips upwind.

This is going to be the closest we in the FCS world get to the Futures Controllers

Rainbow Fin Quad Heater

http://www.shop.rainbowfins.com/Quad-Wh ... rowfcs.htm

Also seen these but the quality I hear is hit or miss
http://www.indofins.com/index.php?optio ... duct_id=50

I ended up buying cheap thruster and quad sets. Will experiment and post my findings!