Aerial specialist, Matt Meola, unpacks his quiver and almost apologetically explains why he has so much foam and fibreglass crammed into his travel cover. “When I told a few shapers about this trip they all wanted to shape me a board and I didn’t want to say no to any of them, so I just brought them all.”
As Matt starts hauling the boards out of his bag, the other surfers stand around and ooohh and ahhh, grabbing them off him, clutching the rails; tucking them under arms and imagining the ride. The unveiling of twin fins carries a distinct sense of ceremony.
On some pro surfer trips, boards can take on a kind of utilitarian quality – bleached white, dispensable – tools of the trade that can be readily replaced and replicated – but the twinny still seems to inspire a sense of mystique and wonder. Just at a glance twins promise transportation to a more Zen-like space; a path of least resistance where speed, flow and style trump the more forced jam, hack and slash of a thruster.
Despite the eagerness to please his litany of craftsmen, Matt professes ignorance when
it comes to this trip’s chosen board genre. “I really know nothing about twin fins,” he cries as he tries to decide which one of his shapes to ride. The island of Maui, where Matt is from, goes pretty much flat in the summer and Matt becomes consumed with chasing fish and hunting. He hasn’t surfed in three weeks when he arrives on the boat, whippet thin and wearing a beard that is somewhere between biblical and rockabilly. Despite his professed lack of knowledge, Matt seems equipped with the essential ingredient for an exploration of design – an open mind.
He eventually selects the smallest board in his quiver for his maiden surf. It’s “between 4’3 and 4’6”,” he thinks. A tiny little coffee table slab of a thing with a big, wide square-tail and no rocker to speak of.
“What fins should I ride Asher?” he asks Asher Pacey, with the deference of a disciple consulting a guru.
Asher, ropey-limbed and sun-kissed beneath a sweep of sun-bleached blonde, has already been roaming the Maldivian atolls for three weeks, working as a surf guide on the Liquid Destinations charter boat we are aboard. A cache of sponsors support his peripatetic twin fin existence and his eyes gleam with the contentment of one who has figured out how to be a fish-riding, surfing gypsy, while most of the western world are still floundering between nine and five.
Asher is the veteran of multiple Maldivian sojourns and has many of the waves in the region dialled. As the crew prepare to make their first leap into the blue, he readily dispenses the necessary intel’ on the break. “This right has a really fun wedge on the take off but not that much of a wall, so you kind of want to get your work done early.”
Meola doesn’t waste time scratching into a few transparent side-bends on his slab. Any doubts about his capacity to carve on a twinny are soon dismissed as he begins weaving all over the dreamy little rights like a kid whose been handed a new orange crayon to play with.
“This board is sick,” he bellows as he returns to the lineup. “I wasn’t even sure it was going to work.” Four waves in Meola can’t suppress the aerial instincts and he’s already trying to manifest a backside back-flip on his new craft.
The right offers enticing little pockets, but the dreamy serenity offered by the translucent water is soon spoilt by a jet-ski driver who is towing a beginner surfer across flat water just beyond the line-up. The prized twin fin glide is disrupted by the ribs of water washing through from the jet-ski wash and it becomes clear how easy it is for one inconsiderate sea-jockey to ruin a session.
A few heated words are exchanged as the ski roars into the channel, but by now the crew is fixated on a left in the distance that coils and zippers with empty seduction. The tender is summoned and moments later Matt, Chippa Wilson, Robbie Rickard and Asher have laid claim to an empty, left line-up off a palm-fringed island.
The left is a complete drag race – haul in, leap to your feet, knife a rail and hit the gas. Twinnies are supposed to be fast and if any wave is going to test that proposition immediately, it’s this one. Surfing front-side, Meola and Chippa quickly find the full-throttle, sweet spot for their rides.
“They’re breaking the sound barrier out here,” exclaims the filmer, Tyson Lloyd, who is standing in chest-deep water doing his utmost to keep the surfers in frame as they blur past.
“I can’t believe how much speed Chippa generates,” marvels Asher as he zones in
on Chip’s malleable frame bending and compressing down the line. In the line-up pro surfers pay very close attention to what their peers are doing. This kind of cross-referencing defines the possibilities of a given wave and session. Once a benchmark is set nobody wants to look obsolete when the footage and the photos are reviewed later. Freesurfers never have to win a heat, but that doesn’t mean they don’t compete.
Chippa is riding a Neal Purchase DUO, which features two big fins, placed four inches apart. Paddling over the shoulder of a set wave, I watch him hook down the line, whip the board at the lip, and take flight at maximum velocity. The two large fins project beyond the lip, swing through the air like unhooked talons, before gripping the face again. What’s striking to the onlooker is that he exits the weightless move with as much, if not more, speed than he goes into it with. It’s not a big or technical punt by Chippa’s standards but it’s a totally functional air, performed at maximum velocity, on a board inspired by an era when that kind of approach was surfing fiction.
By the end of our first outing it’s clear that Matt and Chippa are in no way bound by some preconceived, classical notion of how a twin fin should be surfed.
ASHER PACEY
Asher Pacey is undeniably a leader of the modern twin fin movement. Torren Martyn, David Rastovich, Tyler Warren, Derek Disney, Rob Machado, Bryce Young and Ryan Burch (there are others) are all part of the tribe, but few have ridden the twinny with the same level of devotion as Asher over the last five years.
So where did the binary romance begin for this lanky natural footer who was once part of the short-lived but fondly remembered air-show tour? The way Asher remembers it he’d already started experimenting with quads when he tried a twinny while taking part in a board test around six years ago. The twinny trial left him buzzing with a sense of flow and freedom, and inspired him to order one from his regular shaper, Darren Handley.
“My first one that I got off Darren just went really, really good out at Snapper. It was more of a performance outline and a bit thicker.”
Within a year of riding that first DHD twinny, Asher was solely committed to the two-fin design and was by then riding a shorter model with more of a fish outline. When explaining how he and Darren refined their modern twinny, Asher, who is famously laid back, suggests it was a fairly organic evolution.
“I usually just put a few ideas in the suggestion box. The fins are definitely a lot further back now to tighten it up… We’ve probably made four or five changes since the original.”
In the course of that evolution, Asher has become the ultimate twin fin journeyman, riding his craft in all kinds of conditions in Portugal, Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Caroline Islands.
Not really the type to preach, Asher’s method of converting others to the twin fin faith is simply to achieve an incredible synergy between surfer and board. Watching Asher effortlessly manifest down the line speed and then tilt into a cuttie like a lick of melted butter is enough to make you wonder why you’re not riding a twinny.
Asher admits that his twin fin prerogative has raised a few eyebrows in line-ups around the world. “People would quite often ask you about your board and be quite surprised that you were riding it in slightly bigger kinds of waves.” Watch footage of Asher gliding nonchalantly through cavernous P-Pass barrels and you soon become aware of just how comfortable he is in the absence of a trailer fin.
Humble to a fault Asher is unlikely to talk up his own influence on the resurgence of twin fins, but does concede he enjoys being part of an era where surfers have license to ride such a broad range of equipment.
“I think a lot more people are appreciating it now. I think it’s cool to be in that time where it’s having that resurgence and there’s a lot more interest in it and a lot of weird and wonderful boards being made.”
Although Asher’s twinny act owes much of its refinement to the hypnotic coils of the Coolangatta points this trip forced him to focus on a backside interpretation of
his treasured craft. “On the normal boards that I ride at home, it was interesting to surf them on lefts. I’m not overly confident on my backhand because I don’t get to do it that often. It’s really fun and exciting just to feel out my boards on lefts… There’s a general thing of twinnies being difficult on your backhand. I’ve definitely experienced that, but I think the right board can defy all that.”
In half a decade Asher has chiselled out a distinctive niche and a major following with his twin fin antics. We make heroes of pro surfers and marvel at their ability to conjure brilliance in situations where most of us are happy to make a turn, but we might also ask what other purpose the pros serve to the broader surfing community. In this sense Asher might be thought of as a raider of the lost art, a kind of surfing archaeologist reopening the door to a design that has much to offer to the modern surfer.
Someone more cynical might argue that Asher has fashioned an image around his twin fin persona and he’s exploiting a niche to pay the bills and perpetuate his surfing life. Fair enough; that’s more or less the goal of any pro surfer, and there’s little doubt that Asher’s identity is borne out of a meaningful devotion to a particular surfing genre. It’s not some contrived marketing scam he came up with yesterday and as suggested his two fin act has helped empower thousands of surfers to sample the pleasures of twin fin surfing.
On a more directly commercial level Asher’s twin fin focus is also earning him a well-deserved sideline profit.
“I get 10 bucks a board for the DH ‘Mini’ model,” he offers a little proudly. “Just got a cheque in the mail for two and half grand for a financial quarter.” Do the math and it’s apparent that Darren Handley is selling a lot of twin fins, while Asher is spearheading a surfing movement.
A RIGHT WITH NO NAME
There are still empty corners of the earth where a surfer feels they have been furnished with all that they need for the good life. We are anchored opposite a
cute right that rolls you into a tight pocket, tickles down the line at a perfect speed and then horseshoes through an end section that bends the wall right back at you. Get the line right and it’s a neat barrel, an off the top and a cut-back section that lets you load up everything you’ve got on the rail. For natural footers on twin fins it’s a mini Utopia.
“This might just be one of my favourite waves in the world, if only it were a little bit bigger,” exclaims Tyler Warren after cramming his twinny into a couple of micro tubes.
Of all the boards on the boat, Tyler’s are the most alluring, the ones you are most inclined to pick up and run your mitts over and examine from every angle. The curiosity they inspire is achieved through a combination of classic outlines and artistic sensibilities. One is an Autumn orange 5’2” with a wide, rounded square tail and
a more pulled in nose. “I kind of wanted a mini Simmons tail with a fish nose,” explains Tyler in relation to the design. It also features arc-shaped, glassed-in, wooden keel fins. Tyler insists the keels are more than an aesthetic garnish, and that the elongated bases deliver maximum drive and hold through turns. After a couple of sessions, Tyler is concerned he’s placed the fins too far forward on the orange board, but it’s ok because he has made himself an equally impressive coral blue version with a slightly different keel set up and a crescent moon tail. I scratch at the wax and note the stringer is marked ‘bullet’ alongside the dimensions. The suggestive label makes me want to ride it even more.
Now 31, Tyler finds himself producing between 30-40 custom orders a month.
A firm advocate of the ‘ride everything’ approach, Tyler makes and surfs everything from old-school logs to big wave guns, but it’s his alluring twinnies that have been most in demand over recent years; everyone from Joel Parkinson to Tom Curren has ordered one. (See interview for a more comprehensive list).
Tyler’s surfing and shaping are influenced by varied and disparate forces but as a kid, Joel Tudor’s exactitude, was a major source of inspiration. “He just always seemed to be on the right board for the day,” suggests Tyler.
Tyler recalls being a wide-eyed grommet at a Californian long-board contest when Joel showed up. “I remember the first time I met him; we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out the back of his van.”
Perhaps the best thing about being a good surfer/ shaper is that you don’t have to sponsor team riders to promote your craft. Tyler’s surfing is the perfect marketing strategy for his own boards. Something in the bend of his arms and the low crouch style gives his surfing a classical, throwback quality, but it’s blended with the raw edge of a modern power surfer. On the little Maldivian right with no name he tears into cutbacks and off-the tops, revelling in the looseness his craft delivers, but never once looking like he is trying to emulate the style of some bygone era. Tyler Warren most definitely has his own way of doing things.
We spend two days posted up at the right with no name. The swell never really arrives but the wave is so magical it doesn’t seem to matter. Riding his mini-finned bevel-railed, Ash Ward design Chippa seems to invent a whole new genre of surfing. The poor board is never at peace as Chip conjures every kind of trick there is – backside carving 360s, pop shove its and varials, finners and double front-side spins. Every ride is like watching a skateboarder perform a run on a snake park; Chippa’s inventive approach proving a little creativity can make any situation fun. After one dizzying ride, he kicks off right in front of me and with a bemused look
on his face says, “What even was that?” Chippa’s surfing is so improvised that sometimes he doesn’t even know what he does.
Asher’s almost poetic interpretation of the twin is again on display. Riding his 4’10” bat tail, every jink and trim forms part of a perfect whole. A single wave can span entire generations of surfing. A pure twin fin high-line followed by an air; a tail whip carve backed up with a cute parallel stance exit, a heat-winning snap used to set up a cheater five tube ride. There are no rules to his surfing and the evidence of so many influences makes it perpetually interesting to watch.
When I ask Asher if he’d ever go back to thrusters, he winces and says with complete honesty, “I don’t know, everything just feels a little inferior after twin fins.”
Meanwhile Robbie Rickard seems intent on dispelling any notion that twin fins are only suitable for lip tickles and nursed turns. Utilising his hulkish frame, Robbie slams the lip and furrows the rail without ever questioning the validity of such an approach. Board- wise he is mixing it up between three 5’8”s, all with over 30 litres of volume – an epoxy, Lost MR model with distinct flutes on the flyers, a jet-black, Ash Ward Eagle sword and his trusty DMS.
Out of the water Robbie laments the fact the WSL aren’t a little more creative with their contest formats. It’s apparent that Robbie has grown up in an intellectually fertile environment. His Mum is a state senator while his father is a gifted engineer who designed the AKU shaping machine and software, which is used by top shapers around the world. Meanwhile Robbie is a part time law student, juggling WQS contests with uni classes and other sponsorship commitments. He even squeezes in a couple of days of part time work at a café to create the perfectly rounded life. Robbie’s anything but arrogant, but given his academic credentials he’s certainly not afraid to voice his opinion. He is concerned that the conservative, country-club vibe on the WSL is suppressing self-expression. “I don’t want to see any more scripted post-heat interviews,” he insists.
Tyler Warren is content to tuck, weave and trim his way all over his new favourite wave. Enraptured by the little right, he puts in more time than anyone else – experimenting with different boards and even paddling out on his air mattress one afternoon. His comical persona is an ideal antidote for the long lulls; between sets he
likes imitating the funny narrator in an old-school surf movie and is always looking for a left field or goofy take on the surfing situation. Get him talking about surf-craft though and his design knowledge is quickly on show. He’ll flip a board over that someone else is riding, stare down the curves and break it down in his excitable brand of Cali drawl while stashing the visual info in his shaping brain for potential later use on one of his own craft.
Resigned to the fact that tiny, offshore rights don’t fit with his aerial inclinations Matt Meola dons a radical looking, camo dive suit and sets out in search of good fishing spots he can access later. Instead he finds a cluster of painted-crayfish huddled inside a reef crevice. Matt is eager to make the most of the unexpected catch and after plundering a dozen of the spiky sea treats, resolves to make a final dive. His head is buried in a hole, clutching for a cray when he feels something bump hard against his leg. Startled, he spins out of the cray- stacked crevice to see a black-tip reef shark darting away.
By the time he returns to the boat the typically upbeat castaway look-alike is spooked. He’s swum with sharks plenty of times before but definitely never been hit by one. His head is running through all the things, which could have gone wrong – like suffering a severed femoral artery in the middle of nowhere. Once he’s settled down he replays the scene for all of us in graphic detail – the size of the shark, (about as big as him) the force of the bump and the moment he spun around to see a predator slinking off into the deep. “I’m just baffled at how lucky I was,” he tells me later.
That night we dine on fresh lobster – prepared with a little butter and lemon sauce it’s a gourmet feast for a motley crew. There’s enough for one whole lobster each and two for a few. Afterwards we all sit around and try to guess at the restaurant price of the dozen lobsters we’ve devoured. Meanwhile, Matt is enthusiastically congratulated for delivering the haul and not getting his leg bitten off.
MATT MEOLA
Four years ago Matt Meola was in the Maldives with Asher Pacey when the waves bottomed out. On a whim Meola, who is best known for his gymnastic-inspired aerials, borrowed one of Pacey’s DHD twin fins and glided into a whole new world of possibilities. “I remember it was like the funnest thing ever and I didn’t want to get off it… I didn’t expect it to be as loose and as fast – it was just like a really good board.”
Although the twinny made an impression on Matt, he didn’t revisit the design until he was recovering from a knee injury just over a year ago. “I wanted to make a fun board that I could ride coming back from injury and that I wasn’t going to try crazy shit on, he explains.”
Convinced a forgiving twin fin would be the perfect craft to gently hasten his return to full confidence, Matt found himself plundering the internet for inspiration. On the DHD website he tracked down the board that most resembled the one of Asher’s he’d ridden in the Maldives a few years earlier and did his best to reproduce it. “I took a picture of the outline and tried to make my outline on the computer just like it.”
Matt’s partner in the well-intentioned fibreglass piracy was Marlon Lewis. The
son of iconic Maui-based shaper, Jimmy Lewis, Marlon had access to a shaping machine and was happy to participate in an experiment that at first glance seemed akin to helping a Formula One driver to race in a vintage go-kart.
Once the board was glassed and finished Matt was hoping for something that urged him towards cruisey cutbacks and down- the-line speed runs, instead the board proved to be a major source of temptation for the injured aerial junkie.
“I started riding it and thinking it was going to be some board that I wasn’t going to try airs on and it ended up being super high performance… The first session I pulled a back-flip on it and I was like ‘holy shit this thing is crazy’.”
When Matt got the call up for this trip he instantly realised it was an opportunity to explore the twinny from a range of different perspectives. His diverse six-board quiver featured everything from flat and fat 4’3” slabs to rockered out fibreglass slippers and everything else in-between. The experiment taught him that like all board-types different twin fins have their distinctive nuances, but there also seemed to be some common elements.
“I brought a pretty big variety of boards and each one had its own special thing, so
I don’t want to say all twin fins do this or that. However, one thing that they all had in common was speed. They’re way faster than a normal short board and I felt like I could carve way better on them. On my normal shortboard I feel like I’m stuck with the same carve that I always do and on these it was like I could do a real long, drawn out carve or I could do a tight one and pull it short … I felt like I had way more control in my carve, which was weird because I expected to have less control.”
And what of the twin fin’s suitability for launching high trajectory flips and spins? “The conditions we got were terrible for airs, but I got a few sections and I didn’t feel like it held me back at all,” insists Matt.
Matt laments the fact that Maui’s howling trades don’t always make for ideal twin
fin conditions but by the end of the trip he’s adamant that he will be making use of his alternative quiver whenever the waves clean up.
“I’ve got six of them now so I’ll definitely be busting them out.”
SEA OF JOY
Chippa Wilson tickles his fingers to test the wind and states matter of factly, “You could do an air right now.” Chippa is sitting off an open-water, left reef, which blends deep blues with turquoise patches and every shade in between. Apart from our boat over in the channel and a distant atoll, there’s nothing but bowly lefts in sight. Chippa has spent his morning tucking into the spinning kaleidoscopes of blue, but now, like a skipper plotting his next tack, he senses the wind shift to a light, cross-shore and changes his strategy. For aerial specialists the cross-shore that blows back towards the face is a magical wind that facilitates not only the gift of flight, but also makes the prospect of landing far more likely.
Matt Meola paddles out, his face barely visible behind the growing tangle of beard on his face. “Is it tubing?” he asks eagerly. Most of the time Maui is ultra-windy, so Matt gets excitable when the ocean is clean and curling. Matt squeezes through a few pipes of his own but pretty soon he’s on to the wind situation too.
It’s not long before he launches high beyond the ruffled blue and whirls through a skyscraper, front-side air reverse. When he lands hard and rotates out, the film crew erupts. There have been other punts, but now they have hard evidence that two fins can really fly. In response Chippa soars through a giant, straight air that has the big Duo fins knifing at the sky.
As Chippa makes his way back to the boat to refuel and rehydrate he turns to see Matt paddle into a perfectly formed air wedge. Meola is riding a channel bottom, Super Brand twin that delivers him all the speed he needs as he aims up at the lip, springs like a sugar glider and rotates way out into the flats.
Somehow his spindly legs absorb the impact of the landing and he rides out into the clear blue before a stunned camera crew. “That was a proper, Matt Meola air,” comments Chippa back on board, obviously inspired by what he’s seen.
And so begins a seven hour surfing marathon where the surfers rotate and the filmer and photographer are too scared to move from their post beneath the searing Maldivian sun because they might miss a special moment of which there are too many to mention.
Riding his coral blue, keel fin bullet, Tyler Warren looks in complete control; taking smooth drops on some of the biggest, steepest waves and arcing backside carves out of the pocket. Every turn has the echo of a bygone era but borrows just as much from the now. His intimate understanding of his craft translates directly to his surfing and not once do I see him over-cook a turn.
On one of the biggest waves I watch him lay the board all the way over so that the rail is buried deep and the outside fin is on display as he torques back into the pocket. Later, I sit with Tyler as he critiques the footage of the wave and chides himself for not putting the board even more on edge.
If Tyler is carving out of the lip with consummate style, then Robbie Rickard
is destroying it on his backside. Although he has experimented with other craft he really finds his range on an Ash Ward twin with glassed in fins, a jet-black spray and 30 odd litres of volume to harness his 90kg frame. Out in the water Robbie concedes that he’s finding the backside approach more challenging on the twin, but there is no suggestion that he is compromising his vertical attack. On his best wave Robbie hucks off the bottom and chucks the glass-ins into a hefty finner. Watching the footage later I wonder if a twin fin has ever been pushed so hard.
Asher is surfing with a piece of gaffer tape crudely wrapped around his leg to protect a cut he incurred when Tyler’s board speared him the day before.
He suggests his leg feels stiff beneath the thick, silver taping but the wound does nothing to disturb his brand of radical grace. Deep backside roundhouses drift so far into the pocket that his whitewater rebound is more like a front-side snap.
As the waves grow hollower, Asher grows bolder, reverse paddling the take-off to put himself as deep as possible on the glassy tunnels. If twin fins are hard to tube ride backside then Asher is obviously enjoying the challenge.
By day’s end Chippa’s tube count is into the twenties and his completion stats on aerial variations are mind-boggling. Asked if the twinny is ideal for airs he pauses to think before stating, “The Duo maybe not but you can definitely do airs on it… I just like it because it’s a completely different sensation and you can get creative… I do have a twinny at home though that I ride with a stabiliser that is the best board I’ve ever had for airs – but only when it’s not choppy.”
At the beginning of the trip it had been agreed that, in the spirit of twin fin authenticity, stabilisers would be taboo. Not once is the code violated during our time at sea. In fact the boys even make a crude attempt to strap a board to the bottom of a sea kayak so that it functions a as twin fin.
THE RIGHT LINE
You know it’s a good day when you have had your fill of waves by 3PM. After a late lunch, Asher and Chippa decide to take on the funnelling left in a dual sea kayak. It seems like a mission fraught with disaster in the shallow waters, however, much to the amusement of everyone else, they manage to steer the cumbersome kayak along the faces of several rolling lefts.
The mastery of a new craft brings a genuine sense of satisfaction and after
one successful ride they celebrate with both oars raised overhead like gold-medal- winning Olympians.
Later, the skipper, Louis, takes the helm position with Chipper in front. Miraculously they manoeuvre the kayak into the curling pocket and get covered up simultaneously. Louie throws a layback and only a pinching lip prevents them from exiting the tube of the trip.
The day already has a special feel about it when we board the tender boat on dark; assured by one of our Maldivian guides that we are close to a prime fishing spot. Soon we are in position with hand-lines and rods hung expectantly over the side by all members of the party. Matt, as per usual, is the most focused; fussing over the right combination of bait, tackle, line and reel as he claims the best spot, on the back of the boat. When not fishing or surfing at home,
Matt is hunting for wild boar or deer (he eats everything he catches). On his phone he shows us graphic footage of a deer he and a friend shot. Upon discovering the deer is pregnant he and the hunting buddy cut the fawn out of the womb and revive it. In a bizarre twist, the fawn is now Matt’s pet.
Asher is also an experienced angler but most of us are content to let the skilled Maldivian crew set us up with lines. Fishing is a way of life for the Maldivians and they seem to know every combination of tackle and lure, and when each one
is most appropriate. One of the guides explains how an epic, fishing adventure on a Maldivian boat resulted in an escorted exit at the hands of choppers and a battleship when they ventured south into the Chagos islands, which are occupied by the US and British military.
Chippa hauls in the fish of his life after fighting for a solid 10 minutes on a hand line and looks like he’s just landed the elusive 720 rotation. It’s a solid Job fish or Uku as Matt calls it – good eating and perfect for fresh ceviche insists Asher. There’s barely time to celebrate Chippa’s catch before the lines are getting smashed on all sides. One by one everyone lands a decent fish. Meanwhile, Matt Meola is down the back
of the boat quietly taking his tally to six in an hour. Asher matches his efforts when he pulls in a sparkling red sea bass that’s big enough to feed the boat. Before all the lines are up we need a wheelie-bin-sized bucket to hold all the fish. Seeing an obvious metaphorical link between the excitement over our bumper haul and the craft we’ve been riding, Tyler Warren turns to me in his typically animated fashion. “Hey, I know what we should call the story and the movie we’re making ‘Fresh Fish’. Like
all the boards are a fresh take on the fish design.” Staring down at a bucket filled with our still-wriggling catch, after a marathon day on twin fins, the name seems like the perfect fit.
Back on the main boat we stretch a white sheet across a wall and project the day’s surfing action onto a makeshift linen screen. The banter flows thick and fast, good-natured ribbing mixed with genuine appreciation for the best rides.
At Tyler’s insistence Matt’s air reverse to the flats is on replay multiple times. It’s cool to see the guy who embodies the historical aspects of the twin fin design digging the surfer who is taking it to a completely different space. “Twin fin revolution,” states Tyler with a chuckle at his pun and then poaches the cool-looking footage from the big-screen sheet and post it straight on his Instagram feed.
TYLER WARREN
Tyler Warren – artist, shaper, surfer. It’s a loaded title but there’s nothing trivial or opportunistic about Tyler’s multifarious existence. His house in Capistrano, Southern California is customised for his various passions – neatly divided between curated rooms for his living area, art studio and shaping bay or ‘fun zone’ as Tyler likes to call his creative spaces.
Take a moment to glance at some of Tyler’s surf-themed prints online and you get an immediate sense of authenticity in the lines – the waves and the board-riders featured in the art-works instantly look like the work of a surfer. You quickly find yourself drawn in to the image, mentally riding the wave or enjoying the moment alongside the illustration’s subject. While Tyler exhibits his art, in the past he’s also been commissioned to produce commercial work for companies likes Rip Curl. When you look at the finishes and sprays that feature in Tyler’s boards, it’s easy to see how his artistic inclinations easily spill over into the shaping bay.
At 32 Tyler has been making boards for more than 15 years and gives himself license to explore just about any kind of design. His mini-Simmons inspired twin
fins are perhaps his most popular models and he’s one of the few shapers who have been capable of sending the world’s best shredders on a retro tangent. Just consider the list of surfers who have ordered Tyler’s boards – Joel Parkinson, Tom Curren, Creed McTaggart, Lisa Anderson, The Gudauskas brothers, Dylan Graves, Jack Freestone, Jamie O’Brien, Kolohe Andino, Koa Smith, Wade Goodall, Tony Moniz and Joel Tudor. Even Kelly Slater borrowed one of Tyler’s boards off the Gudauskas brothers, just to see what all the fuss is about.
Perhaps Tyler’s capacity to sell modern pros on his designs, hinges on his own surfing ability. Exceptional and distinctive on everything from a log to a performance thruster; Tyler has a knack of making you go, ‘Wow, I wonder what that guy is riding; because he’s sure making it look good.”
Although he travels extensively, most mornings you will find Tyler trawling for waves somewhere between San Onofre and Trestles. While his surfing varies from craft to craft his goal is generally always the same – to be riding the best board for the conditions of the day – or at least the one he knows he will have the most fun on.
Below Tyler talks a little about his shaping and surfing journey and his connection to the twin fin.
You mentioned that your first board was actually a twin fin?
My first board was made in around 1980. It was a channel bottomed Bruce Jones, 5’8” winged swallow. It was like a relative had it laying around and gave it my dad and my dad gave it to me.
So everyone around you would have been on thrusters?
I was young, I didn’t really know anything about surfing too much. I think I was nine.
I rode it in a couple of contests in high school. I think I made the semis on it once. Yeah, it was around 1996, so that was at the height of thin, chippy shortboards.
So at what age did you start experimenting with making your own boards?
When I was 14. Then I made about a board every year after that. My first twin fin I made was my ninth board… I made it for this girl, but it went good so I kept it and made her another one. I was about 22 then.
What was the influence for that first
twin fin?
That was a mini-Simmons inspired, swallow- tail soap. They were so different to what people had been seeing and they were super-fast and drivey and kind of anybody could ride them I guess. Those were kind of like my hot item for the first 100 or so boards I made, I guess. But I tried a lot of variations of boards and then riding different twin fins from other shapers. I’ve kind of always been keeping my mind open and trying other stuff.
When did you realise that shaping was something other than just a backyard hobby and you could supplement your living with it?
I guess once people started ordering them and buying them…
Was the so-called ‘ride everything movement’ starting to generate a following around that time?
Yeah, I think around early 2000. People have been experimenting more with boards, but people always have been if you really look into surfing. I think surfing is always constantly evolving – different shapes and concepts and different ideas.
So when people think about surfboard evolution they probably think of the evolution of the performance thruster, but other board types, like twin fins, are also still evolving?
Yep, for sure. And you can tell on this trip. For a lot of them, that concept of board hasn’t been made before. They’re all pretty ‘fresh fish’.
So the modern twin is really borrowing from a lot of different influences rather than just being a straight replica of something from the 80s? Is that something you like to do with your boards?
Yeah, I usually like to modernise it. Maybe the rails are thinner or more forgiving; deeper concave, putting little hips in the template – different bottom contours. I’ll get inspired by old boards but it’s not like I’m replicating something. I try and make it work even better you know.
What’s the function of the spiral V?
It creates speed, lift and also makes it looser.
Tell us a little more about the keel fins?
They’re made out of marine ply. They’re pretty far back, about 4 and a half inches off the tail. On those boards you’re not really doing too much vertical surfing, but you go really fast and push really hard. For me I just want to go really fast, draw good lines and do big carves.
Do you have to put them a little further back because they are not as tall from base to tip regular twin fins?
Yeah, exactly. And the tail’s so wide too that you loose your drive if they’re too far up.
How was the sensation jumping from your board to the MR twin fin?
Yeah, it was fun to ride the MR because that wave had a really tight little pocket backside; it was fun to mix it up and try something different. It felt skittish at first but then I figured it out. Had a couple of fun waves.
Do you think the average surfer can benefit from having a twin fin in the quiver?
Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of progressive shapers – the boards they’re making – the average surfer is usually riding pretty average waves, some boards don’t really allow you to have fun. But a fun twin fin or a board with like a wider tail or less rocker. Just a more forgiving shape can allow a surfer to have a better time, which I think is important.
CHIPPA WILSON
You might not expect Chippa Wilson to have a thing for twin fins. The North Coast air specialist boasts one of the most progressive repertoires in surfing. In a surfing sub-genre where your worth is measured by a combination of height and variation, Chippa is the ultimate gymnastic astronaut. Frequently his clips and photos require a second and third glance to fully appreciate the technical difficulty involved in his big, lip jumps. Matt Hurworth thrusters are his usual spacecraft, but a few years ago Chippa couldn’t help but fall under the spell of a particular kind of twin fin.
Celebrated surfer shaper, Neil Purchase Junior, shares Chippa’s North Coast hunting ground between Kingscliff and Blacks. When Neil started showing up on random peaks, tearing on a board with two big fins, Chippa was a little tortured.
“They just looked too weird, strange. It just looks odd so it took me about six months of watching him absolutely shred for me to get the courage to order one.”
NPJ’s unorthodox looking ‘Duo’ model features two big single fins, placed four inches apart. The extra length in the fins equates to more drive and the closer than normal placement of the fins allows you to push a lot harder than on a normal twin, while still preserving some of that twinny freedom and flow.
For Chippa, who loves to go as fast as possible and then load up and throw the tail as hard he can, the board was instantly addictive.
“I finally ordered one and it went as good as it looked in the water and from then on
I was just hooked on twin fins. The biggest thing that drew me to them is just the lines. You can get from A to B on a twin fin way quicker than you can on a three-fin board. That means you can draw different lines – go straight for a couple more seconds; really draw out your bottom hand turn and still have enough drive to hit the lip.”
Smitten with the Duo model, Chippa explored other variations on the twin fin and suggested that a two-plus-one model he got off Neil was one of the best boards for airs he’d ever owned. “I feel like it helps your surfing because different lines put you in different situations … you can do some crazy stuff, I think it helps your style. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough that people should always try and mix it up… They’re so much quicker than normal boards but the only downfall is if it’s choppy you’re kind of screwed.”
On this trip the 5’5” stringer-less, epoxy Duo was Chippa’s regular go-to. As the photos and footage indicate, Chippa’s aerial inclinations were in no way stifled by the absence of a third fin. Commenting on the board and his experimentation with different fin combinations Chippa was clear about how to get the most out of the design. “It was so responsive and actually quite good for airs. I did swap the fins around in that Duo. I thought having smaller fins would make it a lot looser but IlostalotofdriveandIwouldbog–you shouldn’t be scared of big fins.”
TWIN FINS TAKER OVER THE WSL
As the day draws to its end we are anchored off a populated island where
the water is an alluring jade green. On the palm-fringed shore kids toss a ball in the shallows while another rides a bike adjacent to a long, mauve coloured wall. Many of the Maldivian dwellings feature simple aesthetic designs and bold, pastel colourings that are pleasing to the eye. As I try to imagine what life might be like on the equatorial island, the evening Muslim prayer punctures the softly lit dusk air. Truth be told there is something soothing in the melancholy warblings after a day of high volume Spotify, but the speaker-sounded prayer serves as an immediate pointer to an existence that is far removed from the one we know.
Inside the crew is under the spell of a different kind of hooter system – J-Bay is on. We’ve managed to secure a reliable connection and unlike the strict Muslims who occupy the nearby island, we’re relishing the rum and beer with the webcast. It’s been on all afternoon, live in the Maldives thanks to a rapidly depleting local sim card, an iPhone hotspot and a USB cable. At one moment earlier in the day I’d looked out of the boat window and spied Matt Meola and Chippa Wilson hucking turns on a crumbling, onshore left. Then I’d looked up at the screen and seen Ethan Ewing nailing a nine-plus ride on an offshore-brushed J-Bay grinder. It was as if surfing’s two universes were simultaneously pulling at me – twin fin dabbling, aerial focused free surfers on one side, jersey clad contest heroes on the other. Bamboozled about which action to watch, I’d done the sensible thing and gone surfing.
or J-Bay? Bring on the wildcard.
Back in the cabin, the crew are critiquing everything from the surfing action to the commentary. Medina scores a good wave but then loses major points from our peanut gallery for an outlandish claim. In fact anyone who claims is treated with vocal derision by this band of freesurfers. “Should only ever claim when it’s an uncontrollable response,” suggests Matt Meola sagely. It’s interesting how engaged the crew is by the contest action, however as we watch flawless lines and down the drinks there is general consensus that we’d all love to see Asher Pacey taking on the CT in pumping J-Bay, whilst riding one of his twins.
As if the WCT has scripted the entertainment to perfectly complement our trip, they’ve scheduled a twin fin heat to be held at the end of round one. Tyler is more excited than anybody else about the concept heat and starts ringing the ship’s dinner bell to let everyone know it’s about to start. When the WSL’s Facebook feed of the heat initially malfunctions he’s livid; like a kid who’s been waiting to watch their favourite TV show only to have the aerial go out right at the start.
Eventually the feed kicks in, by which time Tyler is several beers deep and determined to absorb every minute of the action. They’re showcasing a style of surfing he’s dedicated his life to, both in the water and the shaping bay, and be dammed if he’s not going to enjoy this episode of WSL . As it transpires Tyler’s at his comedic best. When Seabass links a series of flowing turns and ducks into a barrel, Tyler screams, “Why don’t you ride it in your regular heat, you surf way better,” and then chuckles at his own twin fin fascism. When Joe Turpel calls it ‘retro’ equipment Tyler erupts, “What do you mean retro? It was made last week Joe!” Tyler boos Jordy for his faux, ill-timed soul arches while Californian, Connor Coffin is wildly celebrated for an approach that combines traditional lines with contemporary flair. When Connor lays down a fully committed grab rail carve, Tyler can’t stop talking about it.
Tyler’s slightly self-mocking, twin fin rants have everyone cracking up, but beneath the comedy show, his passion for seeing waves ridden with a smoother, less broken approach is apparent. “Look, there’s no bumps or hops in between,” he bellows as a WCT surfer glides down the line at J-Bay.
The next day Tyler tells us he was still bubbling over when the rest of us went to bed so he messaged Connor Coffin to tell him he was stoked with how he surfed in the twin fin heat. For Tyler Warren, twin fins are serious fun.
ROBBIE RICKARD
Robbie Rickard breaks the mould in more ways than one. The Fingal based natural footer is built like a rugby league second rower but surfs with all the twinkle-toed agility of a tap dancer. Truth be told, his game was AFL and he played at a competitive level until surfing took over in his late teens.
While enjoying the spoils of surfing sponsorship, Robbie is also completing a law degree at Southern Cross University. That means he’s studying Karl Marx and communism in property law, between cutbacks and surf contests.
A confident figure, Robbie moves freely between surfing’s different tribes. He will happily throw on a singlet and overpower his competitors in a QS heat (This year he made the quarters of the WQS Keramas contest) but if the points are on at the Goldy or closer to home, he’s the first one to grab a twinny and enjoy the glide.
Although not one to trade on the achievements of his parents, Robbie also has the benefit of access to the world’s most sophisticated shaping machinery
if he so desires it. Robbie’s father, Mark, created the design and software for the Aku shaping machine, which is used extensively by shapers around the world to refine and produce boards.
Despite his Dad’s close connection to the miracle of modern board manufacturing, Robbie’s romance with the twin fin began the same way it does for so many young surfers. He and a mate found one when they were 15 and it instantly opened the door to a bunch of new surfing sensations.
“We got hooked because we could do spins on it and we’d never done that before,”
he reflects. The original twinny proved a revelation on the beachies around Fingal, but the first custom didn’t come until a few years later when the family put in an order for a Jason Jameison twin. This time Robbie discovered the merits of the twinny at the nearby Coolangatta Points.
“They’re just so functional at points. They’ve got so much down the line speed and it’s just fun sometimes to not be so worried about belting it as hard as you can. You just cruise past sections. You just go as fast as you can. It’s pretty addictive.”
These days Robbie rides for DMS, but still sources the occasional twin fin from Ash Ward. Interestingly, given Robbie’s family ties to the shaping machine, Ash generally handshapes all his boards. In the Maldives the jet-black, 5’8” Ash Ward, Eagle Sword emerged as Robbie’s chief instrument for lip destruction.
“The black Ash Ward one was definitely my favourite. Maybe because I’d surfed it at home more. Just really fast and flowy but you can get it vert in the pocket. Just a bit of a dream board.”
Inspired by his experience in the Maldives, Robbie suggested he was keener than ever to tinker with his Dad’s shaping program. “I’m looking forward to going home and experimenting with twins on my dad’s Aku machine.” Your own shaping machine to conduct twin fin experiments with and a bunch of right points nearby – what more could a natural foot surfer want?
A MOMENT WITH MR
It’s a story that’s been told before in this mag, but it doesn’t get old. Mark Richards returns from Hawaii to Newcastle after the winter of ‘76, ‘77 with a head full of Dick-Brewer-inspired ideas and his heart set on making a board that he can win contests on.
Back In his Newcastle, Mark spends several months working on the new design. Fuelled by competitive ambition, the project takes on an obsessive quality. Mark paints a bedroom wall black so he can hang up his cardboard outlines and stare at them from his bed. After numerous attempts he finally settles on an outline he’s happy with and spends a solid eight hours shaping the board. Taping up the iconic, shooting-star spray takes even longer. The swallow-tail twin (also known as the Free Ride twinny) features fluted flyers, fibreglass fins cut from a skate deck, and sharp rails from nose to tail. The Free Ride twinny model propels MR to four world titles between 1979 and 1981. It also inspires a golden era of twin fin designs as shapers around the world develop their own interpretation of MR’s sleek design.
In honour of Mark Richard’s contribution to twin fin evolution we’d decided it would be fitting to ensure there was an MR on board. MR shaped a 5’8”Supa Twin, specifically for the trip. Far from a replica of his title-winning board, it’s more like a classic car that’s been fitted with a modern engine.
It features a pronounced rocker and a deep, single concave through the tail. The flyers are there but the flutes are not and it arrives with a stabilizer option, just to tempt the no stabiliser policy that’s been enforced on this trip.
Tyler Warren’s been eyeing it off all trip, but has been conscious of ensuring he has enough shots and footage on his own craft before he starts experimenting with anybody else’s. While his own twinnies also incorporate modern design elements, their core inspiration are the mini-Simmons twins, which feature wide square tails and keel fins set way back.
Eventually Tyler’s curiosity gets the better of him and he grabs the MR twinny for a backside assault on the bowly left. Truth be told he had to kind of wrench it out of my hands because I’d been having so much fun on it. “It should be pretty grippy with that deep, single concave,” suggests Tyler, whose shaping brain ensures every board ridden is subjected to some serious pre- surf analysis.
On the first few waves it’s clear he’s feeling it out. For a surfer like Tyler
who subscribes to the ride everything philosophy (or more accurately ‘ride the right board for the given conditions’), the decoding of a craft is part of the fun. He knows that the body and mind take a wave or two to adapt to different equipment. Many surfers miss out on the benefits of riding a diverse range of equipment because they are too anxious to make a board work straight away, or too readily inclined to try and force it to ride like the one they are accustomed to.
Watching from the boat it’s clear when the board clicks for Tyler and he becomes comfortable with its nuances. Once confident, Tyler suddenly goes from relaxed turns to full-blown backside hangers and buried rail carves; even tucking into a few grab-rail, backside tubes without a second thought.
By the time I paddle out, Gold Coast-based photographer, Simon Williams, is shaking his helmet-capped head in a sign of admiration, as he treads water in the channel. “Tyler Warren is tearing that MR a new one!” he exclaims in an accent that still gives away his Cornish roots.
After the session, Tyler is flush with the stoke that comes from a good session
on a new craft. “It felt like a performance shortboard,” he suggests. “I’m really glad you brought it on the trip.”
Although he may still dabble in the occasional longboard comp, Tyler probably hasn’t pulled on a contest singlet to ride a shortboard since his school surfing days. However, Tyler’s not surfing to satisfy some sort of ‘alternative’ cliché, and will happily explore the possibilities of a board built by a four-times world champion who developed his twinnies with the singular purpose of winning contests.
A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
As Murphy’s law would have it, the swell picks up on the day of our departure.
We’re back at the right where the trip began and the 4ft lines are being sculpted into idyllic, pyramid peaks before running down the line at a forgiving pace. It reminds me of a good day on the south shore of Oahu and while the pros sleep in after giving it a good nudge on the final night, I surf for an hour and a half alone, making a wave-pig of myself on a Channel Islands twinny; relishing the fact that it’s still taboo to reach for the comfort of a thruster.
After 10 days even I’ve grown accustomed to the benefits of a twinny. Sections are chased down with little more than a subtle speed trim and every turn has a sensory quality that you won’t find on a thruster. Maybe it’s because you can connect to all the moving water underneath, flowing straight down the board and out the back via the sexy swallow tail; instead of relying on that back fin for leverage and control it’s about feeling the rail. Whatever it is, the sensation is addictive and part of me knows that it will be hard to return to the more controlled, wave- gripping suction of a thruster. The twin fin has opened up another dimension and if not ridden exclusively it will at least become a regular part of my surfing ritual.
The surfers eventually wake up, squint towards the lineup and realise there’s waves. Despite nursing hangovers, made more severe by a memory-taxing, drinking game introduced by Matt Meola, they quickly find the zone on the long-armed, right bends. It takes more than a few Margaritas to stifle that kind of surfing talent and pretty soon the crew are in attack mode.
Content with my morning haul, I kick back to watch the last show of the trip from the tender. As Tyler squares up and slashes at the coping on his coral-blue bullet, Robbie snaps violently in the pocket and Asher melts through a carve that would be the envy of any competing pro, it occurs to me that perhaps I had come on this trip to peer into surfing’s past. However, instead I’d discovered that the twin fin was not some revived relic from a bygone era; its development and the refinement of the way it is surfed has never really stopped. Its evolution exists in a parallel universe to the thruster, occasionally dropping in and overlapping to borrow a few design concepts from the design, which had made it go out of fashion. The twin fin is neither superior nor inferior to other craft; it’s just a totally different trip that many surfers and shapers have been enjoying for more than half a century. There is however no doubt that the twinny is in the midst of a renaissance. Absorbing modern refinements in curve, materials and construction, the boards are better than they’ve ever been, and there are shapers in every surf town producing high quality interpretations of the twin fin design.
Ultimately, it is only clichéd notions, thruster preoccupations and a little impatience, which stand in the way of appreciating the two-finned glide. If you are open to it, the twinny has the potential to transport you back to the pure sense of Zen and freedom you felt when you first witnessed a surfer flying across a wave and thought, “Wow that looks like fun.”
A big thank-you to Louis and the crew
from Liquid Destination for delivering us
to dreamy set-ups, empty line-ups and good fishing spots.
