Surfer: Lance Carleton
Photo: Andrew Shields
This section discusses technical details related to our fins and their construction.
Many technical things go into the manufacturing of our fins. These include things like the different types of materials and manufacturing techniques. Additionally, we have incorporated several design advances into our fins. These include the different types of foils and enhancements to the fin profile. HANALEI FINS supports all of the major fin bases in use.
FLIP TIPS is the term we use for the unique design of the tip extensions added to some of our fins. These tips significantly enhance the fins' performance.
WTF, XTC, DS, and WS2 designs utilize these tips.
Example of FLIP TIPS
FLIP TIPS are set at between 14º - 16º angle (outboard) to the fin's blade and provide a couple of essential attributes to the performance of the fin.
The hollow foils on the inside faces of the fins are designed to utilize these tips. The addition of the flip tip improves the efficiency of these inside foils. This is accomplished by allowing the hollow foil to extend to the tip, making the unflipped portion of the fin much more efficient.
The tips also have a slight hollow foil on the inside face to improve their efficiency and better couple with the foil in the blade.
One of the most essential attributes of these tips is how they allow the board to transition through turns. If you visualize these fins in use, you can see that as the board transitions to the rail, the tips of the engaged fins become more vertical in the water.
Not only does this improve the fins' feel, but more importantly, it helps the board come around during the turn, providing something to pivot around. All of this is done without losing any speed!
The illustration above shows the WF2-S fin and the shape of the flip tips. These tips do not alter the fin's outline and are only noticeable when viewed from the front or back.
It isn't easy to describe how they feel and work, but once you try them, you won't go back. There is something magical about them!
The following fin designs feature FLIP TIPS: WF2-S (Split keel front fin), DS-400, WTF-425, and the XTC range.
FLIPTWO is the term used for our refined tip extension design. These tips add subtle performance enhancements to the fins.
QFT, Q5, WS2, XT2. and F8 designs all utilize these tips
Example of FLIPTWO tips
Details of the FLIPTWO hollow foils
FLIPTWO tips are flipped between 4º – 6º angle (outboard) to the fin's blade and provide a couple of essential attributes to the performance of the fin.
Due to the hollow foils on the inside faces of the fin designs that utilize these tips, the addition of the flip improves the efficiency of the inside foils. This is accomplished by allowing the hollow foil to extend to the tip. It makes the unflipped portion of the fin a lot more efficient.
The tips also have a slight hollow foil on the inside face to improve their efficiency and better couple with the foil in the blade. Compared to the older versions, the newer tips are significantly thinner, reducing the chance of cavitation.
One of the essential attributes of these tips is how they allow the board to transition through turns. If you visualize these fins in use, you can see that as the board transitions to the rail, the tips of the engaged fins become more vertical in the water. Not only does this improve the fins' feel, but it, more importantly, helps the board come around during the turn, providing something to pivot around. All of this is done without losing any speed! This newer, refined version is slightly more subtle than the previous versions but still has similar characteristics.
The photo shows the WF2-400F fin and the angle of the flip tips. These tips do not alter the fin's outline and are only noticeable when viewed from the front or back.
This newer version enables this tip style to be added to some of our CNC-machined fins. The older style tips would not have been possible due to the panel thickness required to accommodate the flip.
Currently, the following CNC fins feature FLIPTWO tips: WF2-400F (Split keel front fin), QFT-500, QFT-425, Q5-600FT, Q5-550FT, Q5-500FT, Q5-475FT, Q5-450FT, Q5-425FT, XT2 series, and F8 series.
Foils play a crucial role in the design of a fin and can dramatically impact the performance. Most of our foils are loosely based around the NACA 00 series of wing sections ideal for fins.
Our customs are unique in that we have perfected the use of inner hollow foils on the inside faces of all of our fins. We use these foils to increase performance and efficiency. In many cases, we also couple these foils with twists and turns in the trailing edge of the fin to better manage the ejection of water from the foils.
These foils dramatically impact the overall performance of our fins, but in particular, on the speed! Our term for these inside foils is HOLOFOILS!
PHAT FOILS is our name for the thicker foils deployed on some of our fin designs. By making the foil thicker, we dramatically improve the fin's efficiency. Plus, on fins that also use our FLIP TIP technology, the PHAT FOILS allow a much better transition from the blade into the tips.
These foils are now available on all of our fins.
Many different fin systems with unique base styles are available on the market. HANALEI FINS supports the three primary bases: GEARBOX (our base is also compatible with ProBox), DUAL TAB, and FUTURES for side fins, and the REGULAR base for standard longboard fin boxes.
The GB24 base does not need a bridge cutaway, as the system does not have a bridge. However, it uses the GEARBOX base outline for backward compatibility. This shows what a base that is not backward compatible would look like.
The GEARBOX base is used in our fin system GEARBOX, and it features a full base for a solid feel and greater strength. The GEARBOX base also features vee notches where the screws land that allows the fin base to be forced down into the box when tightened, creating a compression fit.
The GEARBOX base is also compatible with the ProBox Fin System.
The DUAL TAB base is widely available because many boards have twin plugs installed. It also fits in the GEARBOX fin box. These bases are designed to break under load and, therefore, tend not to be very durable, breaking at inopportune times. The other problem with these bases is that they flex in the base instead of the fin. This is due to the narrow interface between the fin base and the box.
The bases come in two different depths - FUTURES Deep and FUTURES Shallow.
Due to the box design, the FUTURES fin base is much longer than other bases. Due to the nature of the fin box design, the cant angle is built into the base of the fins instead of into the box. This complicates making fins for this system, especially if they are custom fins, as the angle must be machined into the fin base. Fit is critical for these bases as there are no means to tighten them if they are loose.
These bases can also be much heavier because they are almost double the length of a GEARBOX or DUAL TAB base. This is why you commonly see these bases heavily machined to lighten them up.
The REGULAR base is the standard longboard center fin base. Designed to fit in most modern center boxes.
A lot of modern techniques are employed to manufacture fins. For custom fins, the majority of the work is done by hand.
We currently only employ a CNC machine for the custom fins to create the bases for FUTURES boxes. Due to these bases' complexity and close tolerances, this is the most efficient way to manufacture the base.
Fins can be made from a wide range of materials, but the panels are almost exclusively made from fiberglass for custom fins.
Custom fins are made of panels built into solid sheets of fiberglass and resin. The number of layers can vary from 30 to 40 layers. This is the standard material for hand-foiled fins.
G-10 glass cloth reinforced epoxy natural is typically yellowish to light green in color. The most versatile all-around laminate grades are continuous glass woven fabric impregnated with an epoxy resin binder. These panels are made under high pressure, so the panel has no air, and the resin-to-fiber ratio is very high. This makes for an incredibly strong panel.
Because these panels are manufactured, it is much simpler for a fin manufacturer as one purchases the panels and then cut fins out of them as needed. The panels are much more expensive than a standard fiberglass panel, but they are worth it for their strength.
We occasionally combine pieces of G10 with regular fiberglass panels to make DUAL TAB fins that require more base strength.
Effective Date: 2025-06-02
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