For those of you guys who’ve been doing it for way too long, could you recall the first thruster you shaped and what influenced you to make the switch from other designs.
The switch was very gradual. It didn’t happen overnight because there were many other good designs by that time. Twins were great for small waves and singles had evolved quite far as well and were equal to three’s in many respects before the evolution of rocker, thickness and concaves in conjuction with the thruster. Today we still see these designs in the lineup even though three’s dominate. Three’s just happen to be the most versitile design.
In my area when the thruster first came on to the scene there were alot of guys who hated them and that was from both sides (twinfin and single fin riders)but thusters where at the basic stage of their design and the more that got made and ridden the better that the shapers got them to go for the majority of surfers. I do believe though that if Simon had not have won the comps like he did it would have taken alot longer for them to be accepted. One down fall for the insertion of the thruster was that nearly every shaper had to drop what they were working on and go gung ho for the thruster because of the media push. If as much concentration and push was put on some of the other designs, who knows what we might be riding today, I am not saying that the thruster is bad and that I have’nt liked some of their qualities but for me my favourite boards have been other styles of fin setup. Yes, I,m no Simon Anderson but neither are most of the surfing public, after all its what you like to ride not what some magazine tells you what you like to ride, so for the media to say that the thruster is the only line of surfing advancement is constraining the boundries of surfboard design and the last five or more years have proven that. The sooner people are more accepting of something different, the quicker that more designers will go off in different directions and open up more paths to go down and explore. The true and original fun of being a shaper-designer. KR http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/krcomweb.msnw