Futures Fins Alpha
Don't you love the idea of a piece of surfing hardware with a dazzling Made in the USA stamp? (Lost Surfboards have it too!)

How to: Make Fins Great Again!

Discover a fin made with enormous, sincere and difficult effort!

We here joke about very many things because very many things are funny. Everything, in fact, in our surf world is funny except the actual feeling of surfing a wave. Can anything beat it? Does anything come even close?

No. It is as close as any one of us will ever get to redemption.

And so we take these bits seriously. Boards. And trunks. And wetsuits. And fins.

And there’s a fin out there you should back and it ain’t FCS. Oh sure I poke at them because are part of the larger Surfstitch x CoastalWatch empire but I also poke because they make an inferior product.

I have wandered Futures Huntington Beach factory more than once. I have watched the precision. I have seen the fire in my eyes. And so, like very few things, I completely back their product and… the only thing that matters… they work on a wave.

This fin is better than anything out there. Better than FCS’s molded plastic.

This is the only fin you should ride.

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KRIS
KRIS
9 years ago

… t’was chatting last week with a current WSL CT shredder about the direction of fins and fin systems… he (name withheld) reckons NOTHING beats ye-olde-school laid-up glass fins – and he’s tried ’em all! Fella’s been involved in fin development programs using all kinda technical flex patterns, foils, plastics/carbon composites etc etc et al… AND paid handsomely for his involvement and endorsement – even has his own signature label fin on the market. Glass fins “… feel more natural” he remarked. What’s old is new again.

Kennypowersmullet
Kennypowersmullet
9 years ago

but what about josh kerrs fins? dimple technologeeeeee so cutting edge

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

Sorry that you don’t understand fractions. I’m sure that the German rocket scientists were smart enough engineers to work in any unit of measure. The German technology did contribute to the rocket program, but that was only a portion of the technology needed to land men on the moon. The rest was purely American.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

I have always preferred futures, I feel like they give me more drive out of my turns.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

Fractions are very simple math, I guess that some countries chose the metric system because their people are not smart enough to understand fractions.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

As the saying goes: there are those countries that have put a man on the moon and there are those countries that use the metric system.

omlete
omlete
9 years ago
Reply to  ?uzzled

Sorry to burst your little American Exceptionalist bubble, but it was Germans and German rocket science that put America on the moon. Try reading more.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago
Reply to  omlete

Then why didn’t the Germans set foot on the moon. German engineering did contribute to American rocket technology but the moon landing required far more engineering than just the rocket motors. What the fuck have you been reading that tells you otherwise? Please splain me.

shootsthen
shootsthen
9 years ago
Reply to  ?uzzled

Ok, ok, ok, you win! Americans are the greatest! America is the greatest! F-ing who cares. Geesh. Get off your couch, sell your guns, and use that money to travel to other great countries; maybe you’ll learn something.

Limbless Jack
Limbless Jack
9 years ago

What is the avg speed of surfer? I mean I feel like you are only pulling maybe 10mph-15mpg tops…a quick google search found that the top recorded speed of a surfer is 30 mph. Is drag really that big a factor. I think drive and grip(or lack of grip) are the most important thing in a fin. Anyone else find that fin that has a good amount of flex feels really good to carve with?

Jocks
Jocks
9 years ago
Reply to  Limbless Jack

Control vs Speed. Weigh off

I found flexy fins help drive board better out of bottom hand turns. Having a fin with wide enough base is as important

Al Merrick template. Pick the size to match you, good for almost all conditions
Futures Blackstix. Great if you feel you need more speed
Quads. Only on grovel summer boards for me

Limbless Jack
Limbless Jack
9 years ago
Reply to  Jocks

But you could argue that speed comes from the wave. I understand that if you had bricks for fins that would slow you down. but you are only hitting 30 mph tops, is drag an important consideration in building a fin.

I agree that it is important to have a wide base, and I also think that these alphas are just a marketing ploy, drag for me is not an issue with my fins. the proper size is my problem

Jocks
Jocks
9 years ago
Reply to  Limbless Jack

99% of all fins are marketing ploys

Unless you’re KS you just need a proper sized set of thrusters. Anything else you’re kidding yourself really (unless you want to go weird on keels or such)

Foil is important and can help control or speed. Blackstix baby

Nick Carroll
Nick Carroll
9 years ago
Reply to  Limbless Jack

fucken hell where’d you read that Jacko, people travel a fair bit faster than that at times. But what counts with a fin is water speed, which is often a fair bit higher (and sometimes lower) than your apparent point to point speed. And drag in water is much greater than drag in air at relative speeds (as is lift). Trying throwing a ball underwater for example. I think people’s sense of a fin similarly varies – like you are into a flexing fin for carving, I am a fan of two things in fins: a) as low area as possible, and b) as stiff as possible. like least drag most effect sorta thing. But then I am also a fan of contours that do a lot more lifting than most (ie deep concaves, channels etc) and so take away some of the need for a fin to lift.

Christ how did I get sucked into that babble? Fuck you Smith! Fuck you and your finny passion thing!

Chas Smith
Chas Smith
9 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

I love you Nick Carroll! As much as fins!

Longbrownsmear
Longbrownsmear
9 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

very good

Kooks_die_young
Kooks_die_young
9 years ago

Because Japanese or German = Precision.
American = Ya get what ya get.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

American = innovation. We invented the stuff that matters in your shitty country.

Kooks_die_young
Kooks_die_young
9 years ago
Reply to  ?uzzled

You re Right!
Meth addiction Nationalism and the grossly obese are all on the rise round here!

Goodbye Horses
Goodbye Horses
9 years ago

What if surfboard dims were in metric?

SB_Guy
SB_Guy
9 years ago

Dude in the photo is using Japanese made calipers…

german_surfer_007
german_surfer_007
9 years ago

I have michael schumacher fin

Jocks
Jocks
9 years ago

Doesn’t quite know which direction to go in? Seems a little lost?

Audit In Progress
Audit In Progress
9 years ago

I demand them for my nascent World Title Campaign!

Chas Smith
Chas Smith
9 years ago

Oh it’s been proven you can’t win without!

Audit In Progress
Audit In Progress
9 years ago
Reply to  Chas Smith

Then I’ll just skip the WQS!


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