Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right | The Beachside Resident

By: Lani Mucha

Article Category: C.B. Surf Museum Leave a Comment

Cocoa Beach Surf Museum

You can see the image on any given day — a surfer with his toes on the nose, arms swept back, the rail of his board slicing through the face of the wave above the blue ocean surface. Onlookers in their beach chairs wonder in amazement: How does that board stay locked in the wave?

Just beneath the surface, an unseen action is taking place. Like the horizontal stabilizer of an airplane that splits the air and keeps it centered, the fin steadies the board. Walking through the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum, I checked out the display of fins on exhibit and wondered at the variety.

Being an avid bodyboarder, I use a finless board with vacuum-tracked rails that suck the board into the face of the wave. So I wondered, what are the hatchet, fat boy, cutaway, keel, foil, wingnut, dolphin and finger, and where do they fit in the evolution of surfing?

Even though I hail from Hawaii, I wasn’t around during the infant days of the sport of surfing. It’s hard to imagine surfing on those huge “olo” boards without any fins.

As the sport developed into maneuvering on the waves, the surfboard was in need of something to control its direction. In the early 1930s, Tom Blake took the keel of a beached boat, cut off a chuck a foot long and 4 inches deep and attached it to the bottom of his surfboard. In time, he was able to maneuver the board around with ease and control.

The fin was born. And innovation commenced.

As a grom, I remember a surfer named Mark Richards making all the surfing magazines. He took the Bob Simmons twin-fin design and Steve Lis fish setup to find a radically new way to surf. Simon Anderson answered the call with his tri-fin or thruster fin placement to allow surfers to hold the edge on much bigger surf. Today you can find quad and even five-fin setups on surfboards.

The fin is one of the most important factors in how fast the sport of surfing has developed. Look around the corner to the next big thing: hydrofoil fins. I even found an Internet site about hydrofoils for bodyboards. Okay, I’m a kook, but not that much of one. I’ll just stick to my finless bodyboard.

See an exhibit of surfboard fins at the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum until mid-September, and read more at: www.surfinghandbook.com/surfboard-fin-history.

On September 19, a new exhibit will open to the strains of live surf music by The Aquanuts, as well as food and beverages. “The Board Show” will exhibit surfboards spanning the entire history of East Coast surfing. Some very significant boards will be on loan to the museum from private collections. The full exhibit will run until late October, and the exhibit will continue with a smaller rotation of select boards through December.

Visit the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum at 4275 North Atlantic Ave. (A1A), in the Ron Jon Watersports Building. If you’re interested in volunteering at the museum or just enjoying our many activities, see www.cocoabeachsurfmuseum.org or call 321-258-8217.