Twin fin Life

Waves have been firing here at the end of Europe.  Super long period hurricane swells and powerful Atlantic storms have gone back to back the last couple of weeks to make this small little Country known as the Ass of Europe a surfer's paradise.  Portugal...Bring it on! Sometimes the conditions conspire to make magic.  With consistent off shores and incredible long period swell sweeping in we've had a doozy of a couple of weeks.  Magic surf has been the special of the day.  Surfers are eating up these classic Fall conditions.  Surf looks set to keep on pumping...So with this all this liquid magic I had to reach up into the shelves of my shaping room and try out one of 2 of the Pheonix Fish Twins that I shaped last winter.  I have kept one, while its twin is for sale at The Magic Board Centre in Lagos, and the other is now well and truly mine.  Definitely the hardest thing about making a board is selling it..even a shitty board...So, with pumping surf I grabbed the Phoenix Twin Fin and headed to a lesser known spot for a special surf.  Surfing a new model is always fun and interesting.  Sometimes boards do unexpected things. They surprise you...Sometimes they even surf like shit.  Sometimes they light up like a London night Club on Sunday morning techno hour.
To be honest, I waited a long time to try this model.  Its a red and blue polyester board with a gloss finish and hand made and glassed in Bamboo fins....Man, I worked so many hours on this baby under stressful conditions last winter.....A lot went into making this board. I learned a lot in the process of its construction...  I thought I might sell it. I thought I might even make some good money on it... I put it away in the rack of my glassing room... I looked at it a lot...I mind surfed it... but...I waited...and I wanted...
What made testing this board also crucial to my understanding of surf craft was that I had never ridden a true twin fin.  Sure, I have been a "fish" rider for a while...years..quads fishes...."Performance fishes"  Fishes that blurred the boundaries between fish and short board....But fuck, this is a twin fin we are talking about.  There are reasons why this style of shape has stood the test of time.  I believe it was legendary San Diego shaper Skip Frye who came up with it in the late 60's...early 70's?  Thanks Skip.  You're a legend.
The fish surfboard to many old school surfing purists is the holy grail of boards. To be a true fish in the eyes of the purist, a few requirements had to be met.  I studied what old school shapers thought defined the classic keel twin fin...I wanted to do something classic...traditional....beautiful...
Here is what I found out...a  fish has to be at least 21 inches wide...5'10 or smaller...and thick...at least 2 3/4 to 3 inches thick. The bottoms also had to be classic...flat...or rounded with some vee... concave need not apply...Then of course there is the classic curved swallow tail (not the straight angled dove tail)......and 2 fins...  Ahh...what a recipe I had to follow.  So, I made a couple of twinnies with hand made bamboo fins cut out of a chopping board...I made them with a wide base... I rounded the bottoms and put in some pronounced vee out the back to add balance when putting the board on rail..... I glassed the boards heavy with 2 toned colors and gloss finish....And then....I waited...
Sitting here after 5 sweets surfs in a row, and maybe the best waves I have ever ridden in Portugal....I have learned even more about the twin keel surf craft....They rock.  I don't really know about small surf yet, because I have been surfing my 5'8 Phoenix in solid 4-6 foot surf. Not just any 4-6 foot surf...the periods have been 14-16 seconds on some days which translates into some very long waves randomly detonating with over 150 meter walls....some sick waves dudes.
What people usually say is true.  Twinnies are fast, loose, and skatey.  But, I have found that they also have great hold and can drop beautifully down the face of some big blue sculptures of water.  Never once in the last 2 weeks have a wished for anything  longer.  On some super critical drops, I found the twin fin held strong and unflinchingly in crunching hollow pits.  With a few pumps, the board found speed unaparalled by anything I have ridden except for maybe my old bonzer.  But what I love most about the board is just the good loose feel and I get throwing it around in the less critical parts of the wave.  Its like, the board just wants to party!

The Pheonix Twin Fins

Summer moves on...Small swell cometh...The North wind rips down in to the Algarve threatening to blow us all to Africa.  Thats how it feels here in this windy pocket of Western civilization.  As most people, I wish I had more time to...Surf surf surf..
Short and sweet...or not so sweet...which is the real mood I'm in. But hell, its not about my moods, its about these boards.  I have here 2 twin fishes.  I call them the Phoenix Fish series.  They are not identical, but they are twins none the less. Born in the same time period which was January 2016.  These babies were my winter's work, and they took a solid couple months to finish as life sometimes has other plans for us.  Anyhow, both have hand made and glassed in bamboo fins. They are both 5'10, while the red Pheonix is a more bulbous and voluminous 21 wide.  The Green Phoenix is 20 1/2 with a slimer and more agile figure.  She is a built with a bit more performance and speed in mind with a flatter bottom moving to vee out the tail.  The red Phoenix fish has a rounded belly to vee on the tail as well, but everything is more pronounced and fleshy.
They are a couple of special boards.  I imagine they will shine in small to overhead surf.  I have been tempting to but have abstained from whetting the fins of these twinnies....however, I reckon I am not going to be able to hold out much longer.  My shack is filling up quickly so if anyone is interested in taking one of these beauties off my hands...say the word.   Peace and love...