Came in off the water and ran into a guy that builds a board or two that asked about what I’d been up to so I showed him a recent shape test which has been developing a few nicknames - Son of Sparkles, Ugly Stick, Butt Fugly Flong board, HCTTPGACEWBYNTTTR, etc.
The thing that seems to get attention - once past the crappy coloration - is the fin arrangement:
“Why do you have the forward center box?”
“Ohh - hmmm”
A few different fins have been modded and built. It works well enough that the 6’2" fall storm wave board on the table will feature six boxes. The open slots are typically filled with scrap plastic and/or broken fins made into plugs.
So who else is hacking Future Fin arrangements and what do they look like?
That is an older plain resin fin recovered from a basement board score by a bud who had no use for it and dropped it on me. ~ 5/16" of the base chord was sanded back to up the AR to what you see now and to clear for the backside insertion angle. A few of the follow-on fins in the studio (both being made and/or modified) maintain a wider chord with the bare minimum of relief needed at the base to rock the fin into place which is good because Son of Sparkles is almost to fast in the thruster configuration and runs away in the flat with that single fin.
I’d actually like to see that particular box get ripped out but suspect it won’t happen due to the board dynamics - it’s tippy. The board has to be put up on the rail hard and has no wrap in the edge so past a given angle the board just loses it, pitches up and kicks out. When the rails get tuned in a more forgiving fashion on the 6’2" there will probably be more opportunity to stress the box configuration but the tail of those boards feature a core approach that reduces the odds of straight up foam loading failure.
Anyway, the point of the post was interest in what others are doing with respect to thinking out of the “Box” with respect to the Future (fins).
Brian, have you tried a small center fin behind the single? It may ride like the fin has more base to it. Maybe 2-3" in height. Might be cool to try. Also you can put a high-density foam block where the boxes are to support them after or before you shape the board. It will strengthen the area the fin box is. Have fun, I like it. Barry
