I like surfing, but I love fins. Fin design ,the variables of cant and foil, the different bases and ways interesting people have developed their systems that succeeded or failed.
I’ve gone through a lot of the archives and there’s some smart people here, Tom at daum, ckasey, Halcyon have some great threads and comments that are really inspiring.
What’s happening with fins now, where’s it going, anyone got any ideas ?
Stiff and solid.
Flex is snake oil.
Thick works good.
Where is the industry going? Nowhere
Where is fin design going? It’ll become available to everyone interested.
what’s the go with buy a new board these days, and it doesn’t come with fins?
That’s as big a scam as any.
So, the consensus is: thich, stiff, and solid.
Rimshot
SGO unless it’s a Griffin board, I don’t want the fins they used to give with the board anyways. Garbage.
Hans, I’ve read heaps of your comments on lots of fin threads and had a serious try of your free fin foil software, ,so I guess you’re in touch with what’s going on. I too think the ‘fin-dustry’ is not going anywhere, theyre doing colours and patterns but it’s dorsal, dorsal, dorsal as far as the eye can see. I’ve looked at your Finfoil program but where does it go from there ? My enquiries about 3-D printing fins reveals that there are no materials that will actually survive real waves, unless you’re paying a fortune or post laminating.
SGO, not supplying fins is a way for board makers to ask the same price but supply less, it’s a $50 profit bonus. But in their defence, unless it’s your first board, you should have a set already.
Crisp, it’s good to hear you’ve got an honest quality fin supplier in Grifgin.Why are you happy with theirs ?
I think the folks at 5 Oceans are doing some cool stuff with their ecoFin.
The clue is that you should not get your own printer, these home printers are all garbage.
I order them at a professional print service. These work fine, however still quite flexible, but you can make them thicker for stiffness or do post lamination indeed.
Another great option is to 3D print moulds, after some trial and error it’ll give you great results.
Printing a single fin is still quite expensive, but there are tricks you can do with professional print services that can get you a bunch of very good truster fins for a competitive price.
I’m still waiting for the prices to come down more to start up a print service on top of finfoil. Today it’s still too early and too expensive to be a viable alternative, but times will change.
These days fin design is still only for the brave 
These days I’m working on other projects that are better supported by their community, but I’ll be back!
I enjoy all the photos on this forum that show my hard work on finfoil had a small but good impact on this industry.
Old is new again.
Been making a few as of late.
Surf Supply in Oceanside can’t keep 'em in stock.
Modern keels are very popular these days.
The practice of fins not being included may have come from a number of considerations. One is to reduce liability - which brings to mind someone telling me that C.I. (Burton Corporation) was sued by an attorney who had reamed himself on a fin and decided the first case he would try after passing the bar would be his personal case brought against his surfboard supploer.
This may be B.S. and quite likely is, but is said to be the reason C.I. quit including fins with each surfboard with others following suit.
Another reason, which seems more likely, is that some guys have big quivers of fins already and eliminating the fins can bring down the price for a buyer.
My personal practice is to include cost efficient fins that I have determined work well with my design or designs. I think it is the responsibility of a responsible designer to provide fins because IMO a surfboard isn’t complete without fins unless the design was specifically created to be ridden finless.
**The only exception I can think of that negates my usual practice is to readily supply information of which fins work well in lieu of actually supplying them. **
I have had wholesale accounts that I supplied the fins then was later told by buyers that the shop did not supply the fins or charged extra for them. I have no control over the practice of each account. In contrast I offer fin upgrades at cost plus 10% yo my direct customers.
Thanks for the great reply Deadshaper.
With the GG fins do you hold with the high aspect theory of better performance ?
Those H-Fins look to have a concave inside foil ?
And I appreciate the photo showing the straight edge from rail to rail and then the protractor indicating the fin angle. The cant is always from the horizontal as I thought it would be rather than the curve of the hull.
Not all home printers are garbage.
Stuff sold in the shops as home printers are garbage, but open source printer kits have been leading the way all along, and some of the latest ones are truly capable.
Have a look at the Original Prusa I3 MK2.
The Mair Hanalei fins were installed with the boxes of a custom I sent to Oahu for the customer to install after we glassed the board. I’d have to ask him if the H fins were concave foils or not.
On the other note, yes, you are correct that the fin cant was calculated bt using a straight edge from rail to rail versus the concave which was part of the “Venturi” inspired by Malcolm Campbell’s original “Bonzer” design.
Per a customer’s request, I was asked if I would do my take on a Bonzer, which required a good amount of study in order to wrap my head around what Malcolm and Duncan had developed over the many years of dedicated design. The Bonzer runners are very diferent in their depth of cant compared to your typical tri or quad fin configurqtions.
It is my personal belief that fins can make or break a surfboard, so my dedication is in providing what fins will work with my designs from the get go. It’s a shame that quite a few shapers take the easier route of letting the customer figure out what will work best.
One final word on flex… as Shakespeare once said “nothing is good nor bad, thinking merely makes it so”. In that spirit, one is best served to look at what George Greenough has been able to execute on waves using high aspect flex fins in his unending search for “more horsepower”. Stiff fins certainly have their place, but… not always.
As far as thick foils, look back and research the ultra thick foils and chords of the wide based Dick Brewer wide based fin and the Hynson designed “Dol Fin” along with a 9" George Downing fin, that were introduced back in the 70’s in lexan by Fins Unltd. The Dol Fin was a pantographic scaled & foiled fin courtesy of “Cindy” the a resident dolphin at Sea World in San Diego. Greenough and others, studied the chord placement and foil of swordfish off our coast inthe Channel Islands. Nature has been a fantastic educator for the astute.
I have been very fortunate to have relationships with such insightful & inquisitive minds like GG to influence my thinking and approach to design, as well as living thru and era that has allowed me to design sailboards that we could quantify what was fastest or provided more hold in any number of given situations by either using radar or personal go outs in double mast high days at Jalama or Hookipa.
At the end of the day, the proof is in the ride as to what comes up to being a hero versus a zero.
How did you get the print on the fin in the 3d photo from the top? Was it printed on rice paper, and then laminated over the foiled fin? It looks really nice.
New with fins and their direction; China. But I guess that’s old news. I do as D’S does. A basic workable fin system supplied with board, with the option of an upgrade.
