Joe Blair 9-8 SUP with 6 inch Center Fin – Video
Here’s a short video I took of Joe Blair’s 9′8″ SUP custom board which he made for my friend Jeff and I ‘borrowed’ for a while. The board has a slightly pulled in nose, round pin tail and originally had three 4.5″ fins on the bottom. I’ve had pet peeve about the Blair boards that I’ve ridden. Although they surf amazing and are super stable, it takes a bit of getting used to due to the way it yaws side to side when paddling. After thinking about this, I decided to replace the middle fin with a 6” cutaway in the center fin and leave the 4.5″ side fins. I tried it at Diamond Head a few weeks ago and at Leftovers on the North Shore the following week and the difference was night and day.
The board paddled way straighter and it had much more drive for me out of the turns and was easier for me to turn. I thought that the longer fin may stiffen up the board but that wasn’t the case. I made a short video to show the new fin setup.
6″ Cutaway for the middle fin and 4.5″ sides
Side of Blair SUP 9′8″
Nice full nose
Blair SUP has lots of nose rocker for steep drops
Joe prefers rounded pintails
(click thumbnail to launch video)
Evan,
What board do you surf the most now?
Have you demoed the 9′3 C4?
Well, now is all relative. I’ve been traveling around 3 of the last 8 weeks. The last month I’ve been mostly riding this blair 9′3″ since most of my surf sessions were on the north shore in overhead waves. I surfed my distance boards a couple days in town in small surf. The majority of my SUP these days are on a distance board of some sort. This week it’s a new blair 12′6″ race board that is super fast.
I’m waiting to demo the C4 sub vector…hopefully soon. I heard it’s good.
That’s the one thing that brings me down on the Blair 8′8″ that I have. It yaws to an extreme degree, making hard to paddle into waves. I’m going to play around with the fin set up when I get back to Hawaii, cause once it’s on the wave it’s super fun.
Tony – Try the bigger middle fin. You will be surprised at how much better it gets. For bigger guys like us, the bigger center fin gives a much more positive feeling during turns and way more drive.
Would the middle fin switch make as much difference for a lighter person (150lbs)? Looking at the Blair 8′11″
I think so