The new 25 year anniversary Winged Keel surfboard fin is a good example of why old fashioned domestic craftsmanship is still important. Larry Allison is a 40 year veteran fin manufacturer and one of the original distributors for this Australian fin design from Cheyne Horan and the late Ben Lexen.

Cheyne first unveiled the fin in 1983’s Gunston 500 beating his old nemesis Tom Carroll in a duel of long rights. Tom Carroll would eventually win the world title the same year. Notable surfers of that generation such as Mark Richards stated it’s the best they had seen Cheyne Surfing since making his run for four world titles runner up on his McCoy Lazor zaps . Like many functional surfing products the winged keel suffered in sales eventually because of the strong push by most major surf companies for multi fin surfboards and mass production. You would have thought it might disappear forever, but for the long board resurgence of the late eighties. With long boarders and other single fin hold outs, the fin found a home. Even winning a U.S. Amateur long board championship in the late eighties.

For years since, this fin has been sought by long boarders and those who ride single fins because of it’s looseness , hold through turns and uncanny nose riding ability. Over the years you have rarely seen them hand made like this one because few fin manufactures figured out how to make them where the wings last through long term use. They have also been available in molded polycarbonate whose flesh characteristics are much different than fiberglass or bamboo, so this will be a new take on a old proven design. The cost to make this type of hand crafted fin is expensive because they can’t just be put into a production line, but must be made start to finish by the fin master himself.

What your seeing in this fin is the pride of craftsmanship and not something whose quality can be mimicked by Asian or other third world country production lines. It just wouldn’t be cost effective for them and it‘s doubtful it could be copied with the proper wing angles or foils. With a craftsman of Larry Allison’s experience it’s equally difficult with his busy schedule, ongoing fin business and Pro box fin system development, but seeing the near perfection put out with this historical fin reproduction you will see a testament to his art and what it means to really be one of the last remaining domestic manufactures who produces his product exclusively in the U.S.

For the anniversary edition Noel Whitman of Revolutionsurfer.com who is the distributor of the fin asked Larry Allison to try something unique and different and Larry in turn asked the aid of Green light fin company for their cooperation in shaping a bamboo wing for the fin. The results as you can see are outstanding and the bamboo something unique to winged keels.

What you will get out of this fin versus the plastic variety will be much more projection through turns and noticeable speed. Something you can not only enjoy as functioning art, but will be able to hold on to and appreciate for years to come.

Each fin will be custom made to order and not put into a production line and only available for a limited time at revolutionsurfer.com