TT1

The Thompson Twin gives you the surface area of a small keel, in a classic upright-twin template with modern hydrodynamics for less drag and more hold through turns. 

The bottom two-thirds of the fin features the Apogee 3 foil designed by Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel director and MIT professor Mark Drela for his gliders.

Every other example of using airfoils on twin-fins has involved concave on the inside surface. This foil is different in that it uses a tiny fraction of convex.

The reason we went with it is the fins are one third thicker than normal twins that are just designed to fit onto Futures bases. Very few fin-designers realise it but extra thickness can be more effective than adding an inside foil when it comes to delaying water-flow separation and giving you more lift and hold through turns. 

Obviously when you go thicker you have to offset the extra drag you'll get when running down-the-line - which we did by adding the Apogee 3 glider foil. Glider foils do exactly what they're designed to - they glide perfectly.

Through the top third of the fin as the foil straightens, so do the fins.

And the tips have 0.9 degrees less toe-in than the base. This points the thinner, straighter foil more up and down your board. And that lets us ensure there's still a healthy amount of flex and twang in the tips.

The thicker bottom on the fin, paired with the solid G10 fibreglass construction gives a feeling that's smoother with more glide - a lot like traditional glass-ons. G10 features double the fibreglass to resin ratio of traditional polyester panel and the resin is harder as it's cured under high temperatures - instead of using a catalyst.

Be warned these fins are heavier than standard twins but it works when you're trying to create a glidey glass-on feel. Their massive surface area also means they deliver a huge amount of drive.

These fins were designed to let you get the benefits of toe-twist on mid-length and larger twins which usually have their fin-boxes set a bit straighter.

They work best at a toe-in between 1/8" and 3/16" and lean towards bigger, more powerful surfers due to their large surface area. To me these are the types of twins the 1970s twin-fin pioneers would have shaped if they had access to modern fluid dynamics.

If you don't know what toe-in setting your fins are at, ask your shaper - or reach out and we'll help you measure it. 

Specifications

Depth: 6.2 inches (157.48mm)

Base: 5.44 inches (138.26mm)

Cant: Six degrees

Surface area: 25.9 square inches
(16,728mm squared)

Thickest point: One third of an inch (quarter inch is standard on production fins)

Toe-twist: 0.9 degrees

Material and colour: Black G10