what happens if you make a single fin fish, does it work and how effective is it. does anyone know what the ride is like?
fun
fast
manouevrable.
I love it !
…in fact , that was all I had to ride , in terms of “fish” type outlines , growing up in Australia !
I never SAW a "twin keel " fish in the flesh until a few years ago.
Plenty of twin FIN wide swallowtails , of course , a la the 1975 bertlemann , shaun tomson , mark richards models.
make one and find out for yourself ! [my 5'8 and my 5'11" both have finboxes and side plugs , for the single fin option.]
cheers ,
ben
The very first fish I made in 70-71 from a garbage can recycler had a long single fully raked hand made fiberglass fin with slices made in the rear like a comb to cause a weird fan like effect. I don’t know where I originally saw it but I decided to try that fin instead of the classic keels. Twins weren’t all that big back then yet too…
Anyway the board rode quite strange but a fantastic small wave board.
You’d come down on the backside layout into a full bottom turn straight up and then the fin would snap back with a big twang. If you timed your turns right you could listen and hit the top turn with the twang and snap the board around like a rubberband. The board would snap back past 180 degrees with a slip out as that big a**ed tail ripped through the lip. Weird sounds though humming like playing a comb with paper during the turn and then a twang with the snap back and some spray to boot. Made me look like a better surfer in 1-3 foot haubush (the real haubush) than I really was. Alot of my friends wanted to try it but no one could adjust since it was so weird. My first “singing” board
I ended up getting a big head and paddled it out to 4-5 foot shark country and snapped the fin off on my first wave and broke the board in half. We glassed her back togethor and tried to bondo her rocker back into shape. Slapped on twin wood keels and rode it as a fish till it snapped for good later. I still have those hand made keels from '72 they look like Michael Mackey(?) fins…
I think I sent Chip a pic of that bondo’d bottom fish in my old 68-71 quiver photo.
Bondo was king in those days as was white parrafin wax
I think if you go single in something that wide I’d go really raked with a bit of flex for an interesting ride. Something like the true ames skip frye raked mal fin. I’d even have it raked beyond the butt crack for added effect. Maybe slap on even one of those Surfco big red super flex fins.
that’s a great story , bernie , thanks !
your brother DID say you were the “mad scientist” of the two .
I can see why now .
cheers
ben
I , however , am not a scientist …
"I know I’m mad
I 've always been mad
been over the moon for years"
( Pink Floyd , “dark side of the moon” album , 197?)
So, Chip, what was the typical fin placement on those single fin fish of your youth, and how deep the butt crack?
-Samiam