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Wavegrinder's new fin features NASA technology.
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FEATURES
Winging It
By Joshua Hunter
Posted 03.02.2007
For once, retailers ordering
winglets in Orlando during this January’s Surf Expo
won’t be sitting on bar stools in Hooters. Instead,
they’ll be ogling a new fin system offered by
Wavegrinder. The fins—which feature the same type of
winglets found at the tip of NASA shuttle wings and
America’s Cup sailboat keels—are designed to reduce drag
and enhance performance.
“Surfers are reporting exciting
tail lift, especially when dropping in and when
turning,” explains Wavegrinder Spokesman Doug Simpson.
“This makes complete sense because of the winglets.
Winglets make the surface area of a fin more efficient,
which means you can get away with a fin that has less
surface area and thus less drag. Less drag means a
faster, better-turning fin.”
In theory, when a surfboard fin
moves through the water, the displaced water moves from
the high-pressure side of the fin to the low-pressure
side. “The water moves sideways in a circle from one
side to the other around the tip of the fin,” says
Simpson. “As the fin goes through the water, the circle
elongates or stretches into a vortex. This process is
called a downwash. The larger the vortex, the more drag
created and the less effective the fin becomes because
the turbulent vortex decreases the fin’s lift. Winglets
are designed to prevent that movement of water from one
side of the fin to the other. In the process, it reduces
drag and increases lift.”
The 9 1/4” long fins are made
of Lexan and are currently only available for single-fin
boards with a MSRP of around 60 dollars.
“Although I designed the
Wavegrinder fin specifically for use on performance
longboards, surfers report excellent results on
single-fin shortboards,” says Simpson. According to the
company’s Web site, www.wavegrinder.com, a thruster
setup will be available soon.
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