Firewire will be selling a new rear fin that rotates on its base to mimic the cant of the front fins when the board is leaned over to turn.Didn't Blakestah have a fin system like this?So what do you guys think just a fad.Oh yeah there was extensive testing done and it was said that it reduced drag and increased speed through turns.I believe it is called the deviant fin by radcor.
i think Blakestah's fins rotate their toe-in.
this other fin system is varying cant.
at least that's what i gather, i could be way off.
looks gimmicky but interesting. seems like a lot of gimmicky surfing things are getting actual attention nowadays. after sifting through the usual bickering at the surfermag bulletin board, it looks like firewire will be offering them.
i'm wondering if it is a fin system in that you have to use their fins or is it something that will take standard fins from other systems.
edit: oops, you already mentioned that firewire will be offering it.
The only other reference that I picked up on this was at a post by donniedarko on SurferMag.com
In his post, he briefly discusses the use of this (passive) variable-cant fin as the rear fin of the standard thruster configuration. By passive I mean, the cant will change with respect to the total force (load) on the fin.
(By the way, my initial interest was in the possibility that someone was bringing out such a beast to be used as a lateral fin – which would have resulted in some pretty strange behavior, as fin function goes... but there's still hope?... see comment below.)
There was no mention of whether or not the would be a way to fine-tune the response -i.e. an adjustment which would allow for a different relationship between fin-loading and cant response. It would seem reasonable if there was – as one level of response is unlikely to fit all conditions or rider preferences.
My guess is that it attempts to span that functional area between having a rear-fin and having no rear-fin at all, -i.e. between thruster and twinzer, if you like. No great insight there. However, I'm probably not alone in my guess that if it does come to market it's likely to be tried in other configurations too, for example in quad laterals too, or even on the laterals of a thruster setup.
It's surely curious, and definitely gizmo'ey. It will be interesting to see how they bring it out, either as a system (installation required) or as a stand-alone fin (no special installation required, sort of a plug-in and play model.)
I can imagine scenarios where it might result in some funkiness, especially if the relationship between fin-loading and cant response is too loose, as not all fin-loading occurs during turns, and most definitely, if it is used as a lateral (in pairs of course.)
But like most other gizmos, it's likely to find a market.
kc
I wonder if you’ll have to buy the fin seperately since Firewire quit giving fins with boards.