Anyone here ever made, or EVEN HEARD of a “reversed thruster”, meaning
the side fins are placed BEHIND the center fin?
My brother made a big guy twin fin, and insisted I ride it. I did, but
said I preferred singles, quads, and thrusters. On a lark, I put a
temporary fin in front of the twins, at an almost normal spacing, and
rode it in some head high surf, and actually preferred the “wrong”
set-up on that board. I never did another experiment like that, but
can’t help but think there is a very, very slight chance we have been ignoring
an actual improvement for some new shapes.
there was a shaper in australia doing something like that in the late 90’s, early 2000’s…i remember ads in the aussie surf mags…it was called the “driver” …basically the side fins were placed in the normal (relatively speaking) position with a short fin box routed in on the stringer ahead of the fins…i actually retro-fitted an existing board but gave it to someone before i ever got around to riding it.
i know i’ve got it in a notebook somewhere at the factory…i tended to archive a lot of crap from that era…i’ll try to find the shaper’s name, he deserves the credit if something ever comes of it
