This is the next fin for the fish. 7.25"
<img src="http://www.trueames.com/stage6paddlebig.jpg" alt=" - " />
True Ames write up follows:
"Back ground information on the evolution ofthe Greenough Stage 6 Paddle fin.
Around about 1981 George began what was to be a keen interest in windsurfing. He took what he knew about surf board construction and directly applied these concepts to windsurfing. We all know he was in to flexible vehicles to ride waves. They could easily bend to the curve of the wave face producing incredible performance results. He took this same concept and applied it to his sailboards and fins.
As far as fins were concerned he noticed his boards started spinning out when using conventional fin designs. In his words "....so I started experimenting with different fins. It soon became obvious the more area cut out of the base, the better they worked." George evolved this concept in to what he calls the Paddle fin. His fins were ultimately constructed in ground, hardened stainless steel. Windsurfing fins take far more load than surf board fins and no other material seemed to hold up under the high stress levels.
George always encouraged me to try this same design for surfboards, but with reluctance (somewhat joking around but with underlying truth). He didn't want surfers to have any further advantage where competition for waves is already heated. ... George used to have many days at Rincon where he could use as much wave face as he wanted with his flexible spoon.
I have toyed with this design for many years until recently a few respected riders encouraged me to get this out to the public. "It is valid enough and you can work on it as you get more feed back." So our quest at True Ames to offer the seemingly impossible.
Theory and application.
These fins are designed as power fins and need to be treated as such. George's description of the foils go like this..."The foils are compound; a surface-piercing foil is used in the leg and a flatter foil in the blade. The leg acts as a torsion bar, letting the blade bend off in the turns." He also refers to the blade as an active paddle and the leg as a passive support. You can haul ass around the turns, is the theory. WellÉ we also have found these fins to have EXCELENT nose riding results. The 9.75' is rock solid on the tip of your 9' + single fin long board.
Materials and construction.
Currently we are using the traditional fiberglass sheet lay-up for the 7.25'-9.0'. We will be studying the loads on the fins and try to move towards the molded technology that we are in production with on the 9.75'. We are finding that we can get a stiffer leg and a more "active paddle" using fiber orientation with a molded glass construction."
