Now…I had this set of Mark Richards twin fins (with a small nubster) sitting in my ute, my office, out on my veranda. It was like they were just hanging out in different places waiting patiently for me to realise: hey, imagine a twinny on a sup. Fast, loose, good release. All positive attributes to help a SUP become a bit more agile, along with the fuller nose outline and bit more area in the tail in front of the hip, allowing you to go shorter with added stability. So I kept looking at them thinking, I gotta make a board for those fins.
As they were Mark Richards fins, I took the concept of his hip and also picked the brains of Nathan Rose, a local shaper down in Margaret river who’s done quite a few as well. He tuned me in to what he’d figured out about fin placement.
It’d been a while since I’d been so excited to try a new board, for although it wasn’t the first time I’d played around with twins, it was the first time on a sup. Right up to the water’s edge I was super positive thinking that it was going to be insane, but as I paddled out I was suddenly struck by a wave of negativity. What if it’s a piece of shit?
Being the V1 board it was a complete stab in the dark, or throwing a dart blindfolded, apart from having one of my favourite rockers. It was the most apprehensive I’d been about trying a new board in ages.
