Steve Brom has been shaping twin fins since 1970. These early twins' closest cousins resembled today’s popular mini-Simmons. Steve’s early twins had two short boxes, toed in and naturally slanted out with the “Vee” in the tail. Those boards rode so loose and quick, they made single fin boards obsolete for Steve during the rest of that design period.

 

Soon enough though, new design influences were being advertised from around the world through surf movies and magazines. In the interest of keeping current and his single fin friends and longboard customers happy, Steve added wings and channels and more wings and stingers.

 

In 1973, as the youngest head shaper in Huntington Beach for the renowned “Dyno” Surfboards Company, Steve was asked to re-develop the Fish design and refine and define it’s potential.

 

Never forgetting the incredible qualities of the short square tail twins, Steve harnessed the potential and the power of a split tail, a powerful set of glassed-on fins and the driving turning radius that was unmatched at that time and for that type of design.

 

Riding Fish exclusively for the next 6 years for “Dyno”, Steve experimented with the team riders and made many many nuance discoveries that have ultimately led to today’s most imitated and popular Fish Surfboard on the market today.

Steve made one adjustment after another.

 

Starting from the volume displacement (initiating the design of its “foil”), to the curve of the deck,  then blending into the proper shape, volume and curves of the rails. “It’s so important from the nose thru the wide point and exiting out to the tips of the tail”. Says Steve.

 

Look at the bottom of this Fish. It’s designed with blended, sophisticated  details that add to speed, holding power thru the most radical cut-backs and bottom turns, coupled with the maneuverable control of a perfectly balanced craft.

 

The design of this bottom, as sophisticated as it is, includes the obvious low entry at the nose, back to a slight and shallow concave from just behind the nose and developing back thru the next 1/3 of the rocker. It then blends seamlessly into a subtle and peaked “Vee” bottom all the while maintaining a slight but natural tail rocker.

 

The outline of a great Fish is probably the most obvious feature of this surfboard design.

A short format with a wide nose, that blends quickly into a relatively parallel set of rail lines. It has just enough curve in the tail area, so as not to be sticky in a tight and critical place under the lip or in the trough of a quick shore break moment, finishing with a distinctive deep split “fish” tail.

 

The curve in the outline in the tail area, is one of the things that sets the Brom-Fish apart from its split-tail kneeboard heritage and some of the current fish style designs with that straighter tail outline shape.

 

As a design with a wide nose, smooth rail to rail transition is an important and critical aspect to a great performing super fast fish. Steve has incorporated subtle rail band chines along the bottom that straddle the concave, which free up the downrail tucked edges.

 

These chines along the bottom on either side of the concave, stretch from the nose to the tail, from 0 inches, then growing incrementally wider as the chine approaches the wide point, and then incrementally diminishing as these chine bands bend back and approach the area of “Vee”, then disappearing completely at the tip of the tail.

 

 As with any short compact design, every square inch of the surface makes an important contribution to the overall performance of the entire design. It’s as if this Fish is one big fin or Wing. It moves through the water with the efficiency of a bird’s wing moving through the air!

Leading edge, trailing edge … entry/exit … it’s as if you are standing on the surface of one giant fin as it effortlessly carves it’s way through hard banking turns, generating it’s own speed with the incredible power of these fins.

 

Second only to the importance of the board shape, the design of the fins is critical to the power and responsive sensitivity that this board should possess. After years of experimentation with the placement and the design of the fin, the exact location of the Brom-Fish fins is what keeps the board driving hard. It holds in the water through a turn with confidence, creating the ability to “pump” tremendous speed out of the fins with a rail to rail squirt while still allowing the board to rotate in that last second of critical positioning under the lip.

 

Now your setting up for a new look at driving down the line across the face of that wave as your thinking … let’s do that again … have fun!!