Radical new fin design! (Seriously)

This is the future of surfboard fins. Mark my words.

http://biomechanics.bio.uci.edu/_htm.../whaleturn.htm

Maybe it should, but I don't think it will. Even with Futures and FCS, the surf industry is still to provincial (and bumps on the leading fin edge too weird looking) for this to take hold. That's my guess. Pretty cool stuff, though.

That is a very interesting article, however. Thanks for the link!

looks like a good idea, but in theory, don't you think with every fin maker out there, this shape/idea has already been tried.

i recently went to australia for 5 months and you should see what those guys are doing over there. no one uses fins bought at the store. all those guys are making their own. gboards is doing some really cool stuff with composites and carbon fiber for both tradtional boards and tow boards.

to bad they run about $150 american.

I don't think it has been done, because it's so counter intuitive. The finished product would look like a fin with M+M size bumps on the leading edge. Longboarders and sailboarders will pick it up first. Then it will trickle down to big wave riders

You don't have to believe me. But just remember you heard it here first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bossass

I don't think it has been done, because it's so counter intuitive. The finished product would look like a fin with M+M size bumps on the leading edge. Longboarders and sailboarders will pick it up first. Then it will trickle down to big wave riders

You don't have to believe me. But just remember you heard it here first.

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Yeah, I've never seen anything like it. The whole fin industry is wrapped around the axle on double foils and lighter materials. We'll see!

I've been dabbling with the FCS red tip which is a variation of the winged keel that Cheyne Horan used in the 70s. Fuck! This thing is sweet. Adds lift to the board, like a hydrofoil amnd works both in small and solid surf.

http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/5462/...es/k0jebpp.jpg

Not sure about the whale fin concept. On a similar note as imitating nature/biological designs, I remember reading somewhere that a good place to start is to use some composite material to make a flexible fin (vs. a solid brittle fin used these days). Think of a dolphin/shark/whale fin, then apply that to a board fin. I'm not sure how that would work. I'd miss the solid drivey feel of a solid fin.

This would be a completely different concept from the soft fins that SurfCo markets (usuallystandard on gaper boards), which are using soft for safety reasons, not performance.