DRIFT: a new way to look at fin design by Tom Wegener
By focusing on the alaia surfboards for the last three years, I have been able to step back from my finned boards and look at them from a distance. Starting from a flat rectangle of wood I can see how every cut makes a difference in the way it will ride a wave. Now I can see how adding a fin, putting rocker in and rounding the rails further defines how the board rides.
The most amazing thing about “primitive” alaia surfing is the “lala,” defined by the Hawaiians as “the controlled slide in the wave face.” I interpret this to mean the side-slip as well as trim. The alaia is more like a hovercraft that can go forwards, sideways and backwards. The finned boards are meant to go straight ahead with the tail following the nose. But finned boards do a little bit of the lala as well. They do actually slide sideways a little. It is not really a lala in the real sense because of the fin so I will call it “drift”. I never really thought about this element of surfboards much until now but I think it is very important especially for my traditional longboards.
The theory behind my boards is that they will work best when hanging ten in a steep section or deep in a tube. They turn-on when you need them most. For example, when on the nose and I see a very steep section coming, I want to walk and hang ten and not worry about the fin coming out of the water and side-slipping. I would rather gain control in a beefy section of the wave more than have a little more speed out on the shoulder. Or when in a tube I want the board to keep driving, when other boards would have pearled or popped out the back of the wave. Admittedly, the boards do not do fast drawn out bottom turns and this would be partly due to the drift. But, I have traded this aspect for control deep in the pocket. More than anything else, I want to be able to make it on challenging waves. When on the nose or back in the pocket, I have felt the tail drop down or lift up in the wave as needed. The feeling surprised me and I felt that it is what really helped in that situation. I can feel a touch of the same feeling when on the alaia.
In the pursuit of more control with finned boards, I found that the thick fin works best for both the Model A fin and the D fin. I built my boards around the fins and I have often said that the most important part of a board is the fin and fin placement. I think that the thicker fin with more curve lets the board drift just a bit when you really want it to. Water sticks to a fin with more curve to it. The fin can waver sideways or drift just a bit without cavitations or losing control. The thick fin drifts just enough to keep the board from bogging. It gives just enough lala to regain control in a tight situation. The opposite to drift is tracking, where the fins are going in a straight line and can’t break free. The opposite of water sucking (to a curved fin) is an air-pocket (created against the fin) which renders the fin useless and leads to a spin out.
One great example of the element of drift came when I was at the beach break at North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, and all I had to ride was my wife’s Model A. There were gaping overhead tubes and I had never ridden these waves on this style of wood board. I found that the board had more control than I expected. I could be in a tube and easily climb and fall where other boards would track. If I could not make the tube I could lean on the outside rail and go through the lip. I had more control than I expected. Now that I have ridden the alaia in tubes, I felt a touch of the same feeling as on the model A. It is a feeling of control over the board when it does not track.
I had the opposite experience the first time I went to Puerto Escondido in the early 1990s. I was riding more modern style tri-fin longboards, as was Bill Burke and Joel Tudor. We were pulling into tubes but not often making it out. When you first pulled into the tube you had to set your edge just right because you could not readjust your trim when in the tube. I clearly remember trying to climb higher in the tube as the wave would start to shoulder off and the tube would get smaller. I would get clobbered time and time again. We were shooting a movie and I got to watch my failing over and over again from the out takes. A few years later Joel and I surfed Puerto again for the movie “Siestas & Olas” and we both had single fin longboards for the situation and they rode much better.
In the last few years the thick wood fin has become more popular on lots of surfboards. I suspect that is because other people like the feeling of smooth control. For example, the fish has come back with the fins foiled on both sides. This gives a great feel and they work great in challenging surf like onshore conditions. |
