after a brief foray into finless dimensions, I looked more at how fins work and it seems that you get the performance thru ouline and consistent construction, but why not consider making a fin that has varibale performance.?
You see fins where the construction and materials outline/mimic the performance...
Upright design give upright performance.
[IMG]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/SURFFOILS/SURFFOILS%202011/futures_machado-fin.gif[/IMG]
Looks niice.
But what about unbalanced design to create variable performance ?
[IMG]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/SURFFOILS/SURFFOILS%202011/TheG-RangeFin.jpg[/IMG]
By moving the construction materials to where they are most needed you can make a fin that gives drive under pressure thru the outline and forward materials but under extreme pressure, it can be more flexible in performance than any other fin...
[IMG]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/SURFFOILS/SURFFOILS%202011/TheG-RangeFin-flexlines.jpg[/IMG]
Im working on this fin where I have an Innegra laminated wood/ XPS foam insert at the front of the fin for extra drive but Ive reduced the rigidity behind it so that theres a greater variation between the initial drive of the fin due to the stiffness at the front and the exit flex at the back of the fin...especially under heavy pressure.
Keep the strength in the front along the blue line for drive and flicking down the line on smaller waves but introduce more variation with-IN the same fin just by altering the materials that will flex under greater pressure along the pink line.
[IMG]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/SURFFOILS/SURFFOILS%202011/TheG-RangeFin-flexlines.jpg[/IMG]
Same fin shape, more variation.