Rob Dougherty

I read a profile in The Surfers’ Journal last year about a legendary Santa Barbara surfer/shaper/innovator legend named John Eichert, or “Ike,” as his friends called him.

Paraphrasing, “The most significant breakthrough came when Eichert took the era’s state-of-the-art D fin, reversed it, slanted the front, and cut a deep vee into the base. He then tapered it so that the fin thinned gradually from front to back. The idea, inspired by center keels on sailboats, reduced fin tension so that a board could pivot harder without spinning out. And taking a v-shaped chunk out of the standard fin added both stability and turn-improving flex.” 

Marc Andreini says it was “a complete game changer.” Direct descendants of the revolutionary V-slot design include Dewey Weber’s hatchet fin and George Greenough’s Stage 6 fin.

I was blown away by what I saw in the article (slide 5) and felt compelled to try and make some of my own. The only difference (other than quality and experience) was the medium: I opted to use wood instead of fiberglass.

The blue one is for show, sanded to 2500 grit, and the red and black ones to 220 grit as I’ll glass them onto some upcoming builds (eventually).