There has been some discussion about this on another thread with claims and counter claims …
So in the interests of stirring the pot let the question be asked …WHO and WHEN ?
Was it Reno ? Maybe MR or McTavish or could it really have been Herb ?
Talking about boards like this http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000040.html
Cheers
Mooneemick
I was living in Pacific Beach (San Diego) in 1969 and '70. It was around that time that I saw my first twin fin and my first board under seven foot. Single fin shortboards were I belive being shaped by Hank Warner for San Diego Surf Shop in Mission Beach. Saw lots of boards in the five and six foot range at that time with the SDSS lam and they were reported to be shaped by Hank. The early twin fins I saw at that time were being framed as a Steve Lis design. G&S was producing twins and a lot of shapers got on that bandwagon, In 1970 I had Ron Cunningham shape me a 5' 8" twin fin, with glass-ons. It was a work of art. Beautiful little board. Not the thick, beaked nose type that we saw so many of back then. A nice soft, low rail. Blunt nose with no beak and a wide square tail. A little Simmonesque. Ron surfed Simmons Reef occasionally so maybe he was inspired by the "Gimp". All I told Ron when I ordered the board was that I wanted something I could hitch hike with that would fit in the back seat of a VW bug. Maybe Ron Cunningham didn't invent the twin, but he was one of the earliest to shape them.
PS--------------I never heard of MOST of you before Sways.
Come on! the idea that Mark Richards invented the Twin is preposterous. He certainly was the main proponent of the design, but it already had a huge following in San Diego and Orange County Calif long before Mark Richards ever got his mug in a magazine.
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Come on! the idea that Mark Richards invented the Twin is preposterous. He certainly was the main proponent of the design, but it already had a huge following in San Diego and Orange County Calif long before Mark Richards ever got his mug in a magazine.
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I have read elsewhere that Geoff Mccoy was shaping twins for Mark Richards when he M.R. about 12 years old . I remember he was called the twin fin king a longtime before he was famous for single fins
…about as contentious and controversial as who designed the first thruster. --which is to say not very.
Thankyou for your insight Otis.
Nice when people contribute.
Cheers
Mooneemick
It was roy :)
Beery
Come on mate be fair…
He can’t be blamed for everything !!!
Cheers
Mooneemick
Dick came up with the fins ? Major contribution in it’s own right.
And influenced MR …
Cheers
Mooneemick
i came up with my rakes back in the mid 70s..........long before brewer or m.r.
but as far as the industry knows............the t&c group over in hawaii or most likely..................................................
..............joey thomas.......................... if you know you're surfing history.
herb
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''................ if you know you're surfing history.''
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I confess, it was me, in 1970.
Come on the Dyno Nuuhiwa thing had already come and gone by the mid seventies in the OC area. I never heard of you Herb, before sways, but that doesn’t mean much, other than I was as surf stoked as anyone in the area, at that time. I have always considered myself an outsider, but I knew all the players in the area in one capacity or another. I haven’t been able to claim a design as my own, because I like to be proficient at shaping them all, and to other shaper’s specifications…
My perspective from what has been portrayed in the media and some of my own personal experiences, leads me to believe that Mark Richards, (with influences from Reno and Dick Brewer), played a large part in the development and popularity of the modern twin fin. He streamlined the outline to where it was almost like a regular winged swallow with two fins. I had the opportunity to meet MR through a good friend of mine who is close to him that winter (1977) when he first brought it to Hawaii. It was nothing like the previous stumpy, wide tailed, flat bottomed twinnies of the very early 70s. The outline was of a slightly wide wing/swallow template, a moderate rocker, super hard rails, a steep panel vee and two toed and canted scaled down fins that were reminiscent of the wide based Brewer template popular at the time. My friend who introduced me to MR happened to work for T&C at the time, and I think I can safely say his relationship with MR had a lot to do with T&C introducing that design to Hawaii (he even was featured in a swimwear ad riding a T&C twin that MR shaped for him). I do realize the rocket fish and maybe some other twin fin configurations were also being developed/refined by others at this time, but the exposure being bestowed upon MR during this period with the Free Ride generation media blitz probably overshadowed their efforts.
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Two country hick shapers from my neck of the woods were dabbling in the twin fin thing.
From 1974, in conjunction with Billy Tolhurst and influenced by Reno Abellira’s early Fish designs, Ronnie Goddard began experimenting with twin fins.
Local interest was negligible in these designs until the contest success and media recognition of Mark Richards’ Twin fin, circa 1978.
LOL. Herb’s behind the modern twin fin. Yeah, right.
I posted something about this on another thread a couple of years ago. Frank Emerson was making lots of roundtail twin fins, with the fin boxes moved up the rail, in 1971. Dusty Welch plugged in two 8" high-aspect fins and did some very progressive surfing on the things. Emerson moved from Florida to Australia shortly thereafter and I always wondered what became of him…
...no one has thrown Bob Simmons (or Bear Mirandon's) name in the hat yet?
Can we say Who invented the modern performance twin fin, or should we say Who refined the twin fin to a more modern performance shape?
Simmons and Bear both made twins but I don't think those boards would really be considered "high performance"; at least by today's standards.
My vote goes to Steve Lis who shaped his first twin finned fish in '67.
Twin fins go all the way back to the 1950s. Raked fins go most of the way back as does the use of rocker to aid in turning. Pulled in tail templates go all the way back. You guys are basically arguing about the origins of a combination of elements that had all shown up prior to 1970.
I think the more relevant question is about whether these combinations have created style or resulted from it. I think the shortboard revolution happened because surfers wanted to do different things and surf different waves than the existing equipment previously fit.