Hi Bill, You’ve been shaping for a long time. I’m curious about three fin boards. Back in the late 70’s before the thruster was invented was there anyone that you know of (other than those blokes making bonzers) that was experimenting with three fin boards?
Am I the Bill you are addressing?
Yes indeed.
This is Ben , not Bill , but …
spud ,
if you watch the 1972 movie
" Morning Of The Earth "
closely !
… you will see ? owl chapman? walking down a track in hawaii [ with terry fitzgerald ] , with a single fin with two little “sidebites” [ is what they seem to call them , nowadays ?] .
It is also clearly visible under his arm , as they sit on the beach , prior to the sequence of Terry Fitz absolutely ripping . I’m told it is Rocky Point. Then , Terry Fitz is shown ripping at Sunset…
in 1978-80 [and onwards , to this day !] Terry was , not surprisingly , working on models of what he called the ’ Drifta’ , at Hot Buttered Surfboards , his brookvale [Sydney] factory. Again , with two little side fins , in front of a standard single fin .
How do I know this ?
I was living in Sydney from 1964 to 1983.
'Surfing World Magazine ’ also used to do articles on him regularly , as he was one of the hottest surfer-shapers around , along with Simon Anderson , and a few others [eg : Ted Spencer] , working at Shane surfboards , at the time .
The australian surfboard site
also features a few of these boards in their catalogue section …
and , as you mentioned …
in America … the Campbell brothers , Duncan and Malcolm , were of course playing around with their three fin deep concave ’ Bonzers’, in the early seventies …
…which aussies Peter Townend and Paul Nielsen , among others , rode , here in Australia . [Also documented , in movies of the time ]
cheers !
ben
Well then, here is the timeline: In Sept. 1964 I did a 3 fin board, with equal size fins, center fin back, sides forward. In Oct. 1970, I developed the removable tri fin system, PressLock, which needed no tools or screws to mount in the board. By Feb. of 1971 the injection molded fins were being sold to other surfboard manufacturers. (Weber, G&S, Hobie, SurfSystems, Bing, Surfboards Hawaii, and others) In the summer of 1970 some of the guys in Hawaii were beginning to glass on some small side fins in the tail area. Might have been Brewer, and his crew. Many years later (2003/04) I came across a photo, taken at Palos Verdes, (late thirties) of several fellows posed with their planks. A close look revealed three small halfmoon fins across the ‘‘stern’’ of one of the planks. I was well ahead of the pack, but that guy was ahead of me. I hadn’t even been born yet !
Dis guy ? :-)
Thanks for the info! That was as I had suspected. I'd say a lot of people probably think that Simon Anderson came up with the thruster out of the blue. In truth it looks like a lot of other people were experimenting with three fin boards at the time and in earlier days. Simon Anderson surely must have been influenced by these developments in some way. I suppose an advantage the thruster had was that Simon Anderson was a pro surfer and was able to showcase his system to the world in at Bells.
Bill, do you have any photos of some of your old tri-fin designs?
Spuddups, pull up the thread 1971 Surfer Mag Discovery. A photo of one of the setups, appears on the last page of that thread.
Simon has been for the most part pretty open in his discussions on the development of the thruster.
He was looking fora twin fin that he could surf. He was a powerful and big surfer. He over powered twins but saw that advantage that smaller surfers in reno had with the twin. Like many discoveries it was taking a problem and looking at it from a different angle.
Not intending to create a debate just give credit where due, Simon put together a 3 fin combination that worked so well that at the time on the NS of Oahu he put all the shapers on notice of a refinement that no one before him had yet fiqured out.All the great shapers of that era i am sure would credit that.Many would like to claim human nature ,[no disrespect intended],but those beautiful single fins dissappered almost over night,shame really even those had not reached their pinnacle.Just one case in point years from now people will speak of a young man named Tomo whos revolutionizing surfing as it is today many will claim again nothing new under the sun but his quick rise in the above the wave surfers is a testament to his contribution. This generation of surfers like many before them has set the bar so high literally.Surfing is like fine wine great vintages ,wish you could drink one from 40 years ago but some just dont taste the same like then and our skills have changed with time, but we remember them as being great and overlook how great the ones are today.Because truthfully we cant ride them to their fullest potential. Read an article about world class violinists doing a blind test of a i believe a million dollar stradivarius and a current masters violin they almost all choose the current masters which suprised them all ,kind of like surfing ??? One board to rule them all .the Quest for the Grail continues, its on the back of some school kids book cover, Aloha…
Hi Bill. Don’t know if you “do” PM’s or not (I will understand if you don’t). But I have sent you one with a design question peripheral but sort of related to this.
RDM, I just checked my messages, last one was rec’d Mar. 10. Your PM has not come in. Try again.
Thanks Bill. I sent it to what must have been an old account of yours (listed under the username BillThrailkill).
I have resent. Thanks.
Thanks Bill, I checked out that link for the “Surfer Mag” topic. There’s some really interesting stuff there. A lot of the photos aren’t showing up now, but there was one showing your removable side fin system. Certainly ahead of it’s time… by about 40 years!
" I came across a photo, taken at Palos Verdes, (late thirties) of several fellows posed with their planks. A close look revealed three small halfmoon fins across the ‘‘stern’’ of one of the planks. "…
… GREAT stuff !
was that a leroy grannis , or a doc ball photo , by any chance ?
I recently borrowed the leroy grannis photo book from the local library , is why I ask …
cheers
ben
yep , thanks Greg !
was brewer making many of them ?
cheers
ben
There were no credits associated with the photo.