surfresearch.com.au    glossary : f

circa 1934 Tom Blake's Nub - Keel Fin  solid timber  2 x 12 b @ 4 inches  (Approximation) Tom Blake's first fin with Big Surf Handle Photograph and hand written caption  by Tom Blake. Surfer Magazine, March 1981, Volume 22, Number 3,  page 37. See Fin Catalogue

HEIGHT  (INCHES)   BASE (INCHES)           SPAN (INCHES)   @ (INCHES) FROM TAIL

Apparently there was some experimentation was during the solid wood era. but the most significant application were experiments in the mid-1940's by George Downing and Wally Froiseth in Hawaii.
They made a test board with a removable fin slot and rode it, as a control, without a fin and then with different fin designs in different positions.
Their conclusion was that the finned board had superior performance, virtually regardless of fin design.
(Kelly, page 121)

The first production models appeared in the early 1960’s in the USA.
Since many boxes were limited to the manufacturers' sole fin design, the impetus to manufacture boxed boards was enhanced by the cost advantages in freighting finless surfboards.
This was certainly a consideration for the larger Californian manufacturers in the mid-1960's, for whom the East coast was a major market.

At first fins were not universally interchangeable as each manufacturer used a different locking system, but in in 1965 Tom Morey  at Morey-Pope Surfboards developed the TRAF system of molded fins, available to a small number of Northern California board makers.
In 1966 the design was improved by the introduction of thr Wonder Bolt system, again by Tom Morey.
In February 1968 Morey introduced the Waveset box and a range of molded fins for general use.
This design was essentially copied by the Safe Set system.
The most popular and significant fin designs were by George Greenough who produced three models for Waveset - Stage I, III and IV.

In the late 1960's, continuing reductions in board dimensions saw extensive fin design experimentation, with some designers focusing on sideslipping, note Skipp Frye's New-e-free fins, circa 1969.
The original Waveset box was too bulky relative to the smaller boards and circa 1970 it was updated with a male notched fin base slotting and locking into a molded female box.
This design was replicated by Guidance Fin System and other manufacturers.

In 1971 Bill Bahne (USA) introduced his Fins Unlimited fin box, that by 1974 was to become universally adopted and replicated.
It is still in current use.
It's huge success was a direct result of the box's ability to accept laminated fibreglass fins of a multitude of designs.
Note that ...
- many riders considered the fibreglass fins superior in performance to molded plastic.
- the fibreglass fins could be manufactured by any experienced laminator.
- the fibreglass fins could be easily reshaped and repaired.
- they were interchangable with boards from different manufacturers.

In Australia in the early 1970's Bahne's design was manufactured in fibreglass (see #83), but this was shortlived as the large scale production of molded boxes substantially reduced the unit price.
In 1974 an Australian company, Wakefield Surfboards, unsuccessfully attempted to market an aluminium model.

With an expanding number of fin designs in the late 1970's for kneeboards, waveskis and the twin-tin surfboard, boxes were available in a variety of lengths to either fit small based fins or allow maximum variation in fin placement.
Many Thruster designs of the early1980's featured two fixed side fins and a short centre fin box to allow the rider some variation in fin selection and placement.
In the 1980's the fin box was an important feature of sailboard design.
They allowed extensive fin experimentation and were also fitted into the deck as the mast track.

As surfboards became finer and thinner in the late 1980's the use of fin boxes in shortboards almost disappeared, but in the early 1990's a fin plug system for surfboards.was developed (initially by FCS, subsequently by others).
Further developments in the 1990’s include bolt-through  boxes for sailboards (Tuttle, USA and others).
Revised and updated May 2006, thanks to Nick Van Bruggen.

flyers / wings - extremities, usually at the tail, in the template that greatly reduce width over a short distance. First adapted from rail side fins on a bellyboard by Bunker Spreckles circa 1972. Flyers normally retain the rail thickness – compare wings.\\ SURFER Volume 13# Number 3 September 1972 There are NO flyers in MOTE. Terry Fitzgerald noted for developing flyers in Australia late in 1972 after his time with Brewer and a chance sighting of Bunker Spreckles winger contraption during the Hawaiian winter  of 1971-1972 (from which we get that massively inspirational sequence of Fitz at Rocky Point) did not commercially advertise flyers (orig named wingers) until 1973. Unusual stepped-deck flyer swallow tail by Kuda Surfboards, 1975. Designed and shaped by M. Crisdale, No. 1001

Foil, The Model name of Keith Paull design for Bing Surfboards (USA), 1968-9. Designed by Keith Paull, circa 1968 - 1970 Usually 7 to 8 ft, pin nose, round tail. Commonly Waveset fin box and moulded plastic fin. Commonly Australia theme logo

Football fin  S-shaped fin with a narrow base, originally a sailboard fin design, circa 1983. Surfboard adaptation credited to Bobby Owens (Hawaii).

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