Surfboards Get High-Tech, Flashy Fins
A new type of fin will soon be circling the lineup at breaks across the U.S. and Australia, and this one promises to be a good thing. Created by a new Australian company, 3DFins, the high-tech surfboard fins promise to make surfers faster than ever before.
The fins employ the same technology as golf balls (and Nike track suits)—dimples—to create cavitation, which cuts down on drag and provides more lift to the back end of a surfboard. 3DFins claims to have tested their design in a series of highly scientific "Computational Flow Dynamic" tests, which showed that the design works. And now they've signed on pro surfer Josh Kerr (pictured, left) to prove it to the rest of us (see him in action in September's Hurley Pro 2012 at Lower Trestles). In theory, the faster board will help surfers—pro and amateur alike—make it around close-out sections and through tubes that formerly would've swallowed them whole.
To see more of the futuristic, edgy designs, check out 3DFins' Pinterest page.