Something that's been important to me the last 7 years is seeing how far twin fins can be pushed in large surf. More particularly in Hawaii. Waves like big sunset, Jaws, and Pipe. Seemingly counterintuitive, but it's been fun to see how much it's allowed Jimmy to open up in some of these waves. Thinking about the pairing of fins with the board just as much as what surfboard I'm building him.
The surfing from above is from a film project called "Positive Dissonance". Searching for counterintuitive beliefs and seeing if they fit into the narrative. Watching Jimmy surf the 6' 10" above at Sunset for the first time, it was pretty special how everything clicked together. And then I got to see a few clips of him on the 9' 4" gun below at Jaws, he was able to go some places on the wave that got us both very excited for more.
It's rare to find someone that is willing to experiment in waves of that much consequence. Usually others just sticking to what they know relying on the predictability of their equipment because the waves can be unpredictable enough. Jimmy gets excited by a new feeling or idea, which makes it easier for us each to try things out of both our comfort zone. Searching for whatever makes us excited to keep surfing.
A lot of time and mental effort spent on building these boards. It's scary knowing that he'll be surfing the waves he is and feeling a certain responsibility if he gets in a bad situation. So we're always calculating risk and experimenting where we can while adding things that we know are easily trusted. Fins are a huge one with those guns in that he has been using the same set of fins to eliminate at least one of the variables in something we know works. This helps where I design the board around a particular set of fins, the Rumour. Especially with the Waimea and Jaws guns. There are not many opportunities to ride these boards in a Winter seas so I don't want him having to play with fins when we have found what works. The Rumour fin has worked really good for these big wave, narrower surfboards.
For the full Film of "Positive Dissonance" look below.
