It seems the single fin is something everyone wants know. Im lucky enough to have one. I love riding singles but can’t find much resources on the web. If any one has some good links, can ya post em up here?
also whats everyone riding (single fins)
I’ve got a old shitter $30 board that im doing up and so fare its turning up great (no longer an old shitter)
Dimensions
6ft x 21’ ( i think) x 3’
once my camera works ill post up some pics.
also has anyone seen ‘riding waves’ I’ve got the single fin buzz now im looking for some vids to (ive already got morning of the earth.
I like singles on my longboards and have recently tried a Cheyne Horan Star fin on a 7’0" egg with good results. Here is a 6’4" swallow tail (circa 1977) I loaned to my friend some 20 years ago. I found it half buried under his house last year. It was shaped by Gabe Garduque, he ghost shaped for Ben Aipa in the 70’s, went on to HIC (shaped the gun Brock Little had that huge tube with during the Eddie meet). This board was influenced by the Bertlemann/Buttons school…swallow tail, the fin ridden way up. I really liked this board back then. I cleaned it up a bit, but have yet to ride it. You might want to check out the DVD “Way of Life”, mostly longboarding, but there is a cool segment with Harbour shaper Tim Stamps laying down some clean lines on a fish and some dude ripping on an orange single fin. Think you’ll like it…
My Channel Islands Machado single fin started me in the right direction( 7’0" x22"x3". Now I surf my morning star(see resources)(7’0 x 12 1/4" x 19 1/2 x 12 x 2 3/4 ,widepoint 3 up from center ) with a 7.5" tk flex fin placed way forward. slowly leaning towards twins/ older style twin fins… I’m glad I strayed from thrusters … i still like to make my single fins with futures sides for versatility/test bed/ experimenting purposes.
used to ride singles. Then twins. Then quads, twinzers, thrusters, five fins. I still ride single fin guns & longboards… it’s good to experience it all. Ontogeny follows phylogeny, or so they say!
Sorry to stray from the subject. But I want to make a single fin board that can also be a thruster what sort of boxes can I use that will not create too much drag when the are not used. I noticed in your post that you do something similar. I am afraid that FCS plugs will not take the strain and pressure of such a large single fin.
Those two lines you see on the bottom are actually two concaved flutes, Gabe called them “jets”. He would put as much as two sets of them if you wanted. The other set he would put inside the swallow. His theory was that they’d act like little side bites and give a little more grip in turning. I could’nt really tell if they were doing anything, but they sure looked cool. Gabe and Eric Arakawa lived within a mile of each other here in Pearl City, each doing their own backyard thing, Gabe called his boards Hawaiian Spirit, Eric’s label called Maranatha. Gabe’s stinger and swallow tails were noticed by Ben Aipa and he was soon ghost shaping for him at Surfline Hawaii. Eric was picked up by HIC and his collaboration with Micheal Ho took both surfer and shaper to another level.
In answer, use what you want for sides but I recommend using futures for your front/side fins and a bahne box for your rear/center box. I think you can’t go wrong with a bahne box for your rear fin box.
The longer the box, the larger your test bed( I’ve seen up to 15"). If you get a long one you may be able to put 2 fins in it to see for yourself what happens. This allows you to fine tune your board when you ride it as a single fin, experiment with fin placement of rear fin for a thruster, and ride it as a twin fin for sheets and giggles.
As for drag?.. you can always make filler plugs for your boxes if you are really that worried about it. Hope it helps. either way experiment and find out for yourself. You learn more when you do it yourself. Just a few thoughts I hope help.
