There’s been discussion of the Future keels here in the past, but seems like no one had actually tried them - they were just newly released.
I’ve got a fish with a Futures setup - at the moment using the MR twinnie style fins 2+1.
I really want to hear from anyone out there that has tried the Future Keels.
I’m keen to know because I prefer to ride my board as a twinnie, but have noticed while it’s now a more responsive ride without the stabiliser fin, there is a bit less drive.
I want to get more drive, and keep the twin fin feel so figured the keels might be the way to go.
The only Futures keel I’ve seen in the water here is the K1 and that was on the 5 8 or 510 surftec fish which is altogether a horrible board. However as I recall there was a post by JJR/Lokbox on surfermag a whilst ago regarding the K1 being a copy of the CI keel that he developed. If I am correct there is a going to be more feedback from people who have used the CI template. The Futures copy was ridiculed for having some deficiencies in the shaping (flat spots on outline) and the back cutaway. However there are more fins on the market now with those sorts of cutaways so may not be a disadvantage after all. If you find the post in Surfermag design forum and its as I remember you can always send a couple of dollars to the originator if you feel guilty.
I used the Future keels on one of my fish. The board worked good and the fins were foiled nicely. I didn’t notice any flat spots. There is nothing unique about them except the ramped rear bottom edge for installation purposes. The template does resemble the CI from lokbox. If I did not have access to lokbox I would use them again for a boxed fish. I had no problems with stress cracks around the boxes as some reported after riding the board regularly for about six months. It’s on consignment as I type this. Mike
those cutaways are so you can fit the fin in the box. with out it the fin will slice into the board as you put it into the box. What I can say about future is they never have anything in stock, its coming next week bro 3 months later.
Agreed that the cutaway is because otherwise the fin couldn’t be inserted into the box because of base length but perhaps this also coincidentaly changes the way the fin responds given that there are now cutaway versions of canards for example being marketed.
Hilarious. Funny how people misinterpret what you say, and keep bringing it back up over and over. Not sure what they are offering these days, but back when I wrote that I merely was making a comment that the credit should go to Channel Islands. I designed that template in conjunction with Rob Machado and Dan Malloy. The idea was to stand the fin fowards, and increase the tip area. A very different template than what you normally see on a fish. Helps a wider tailed board initiate turns due to the narrower base, then hold them thanks to the increased tip area. It was then Given to Al as one of CI’s stock templates. Then THEY popularized it. It’s a great fin that tons of people love so having it copied is nothing short of flattery.Thanks! But it was designed for a modern fish not a retro fish.
(((I designed that template in conjunction with Rob Machado and Dan Malloy. The idea was to stand the fin fowards, and increase the tip area. A very different template than what you normally see on a fish. Helps a wider tailed board initiate turns due to the narrower base, then hold them thanks to the increased tip area.)))
This approach to fin design is IMHO quite valid. It’s one I’ve be working on for sometime. It’s yeild some interesting templates and some grand tube rides that could have been accomplished without the fin design.
Carry on Lokbox ~ who can know where the next frontier in fin design will be?
Thanks Rich I appreciate that! Yeah someone said to me the other day “it’s hard to imagine surfboard performance getting any better than what it is now…” and my response was “it will get better, and we get that proven to us with each new year…”
I have a set of the K1’s that I’m not particularly found of primarily because I haven’t found a proper board for them.
I swapped them out on my Mandala quad just to see and found I like Manuel’s 4- fin set up better.
They are expensive though I believe I paid like $85 USD for them and only used them once.
I have a much bigger futures 5-fin (quad/thruster/twin) fish I’m finishing which I’m going to give it another go with as they are alot of fin… So we’ll see. The new K2’s seem a bit more interesting…
Lokbox has a much better selection of fish fins and their boxes are way more versatile than futures but I did find a set of two tabbed keels from Island Fin here at Fiberglass Hawaii that I’m trying as well in a fish with proboxes.
BTW
I’ve ridden the FCS big twin the MR glass set with trailer as well as the future TC1 set along with the Futures K1 keel but still prefer a quad setup with either the new Futures Vector2 Quad or Vector1 657(?) with 420 rear quad or the pavel style split keel speedialer quads over the straight keel twin or twin with trailer ala MR… Oh yea and my Griffin 5fin setup is better than any of these quads anyway.
Some other crazies and pickleforkers I know ride either a 5 fin with those curved FCS CRVs in the front and carbonlite AMs in the three rear positions while another rides his Rex Picklefork with four of those bent Vector1 657s(?) . Strange looking setups but the guys like them…