How Does The “Feb Fish” Go Without Mikey At The Helm?

In 1981, Simon Anderson officially released the “thruster” — the first recorded instance where a shaper designed a board with three identically sized fins.

We all know this.

What we as a surfing collective mightn’t talk about as much is the reason why Anderson built the thruster in the first place: to surf Pipeline better.

It wasn’t, ostensibly, designed to surf Lowers better, or Burleigh better, or even Bells better, where he first unveiled the tri-fin design and rode it to a win.

The thruster has since become the de rigueur fin configuration of the world’s best — for good reason. But when we see videos like the one above, it makes us wonder if we’re making our surfing lives harder than they need to be. Boards really seem to have more glide sans center fin.

Even Mikey Ciaramella, our Joyride driver-cum-Editor-in-Chief — who is closer to a QS infantryman in terms of board preference than a Torren Martyn — seems to be having a 1/3rd-life crisis. At Stab High Japan last week, whether in the pool or in the ocean, he rode exclusively twin fins (including an asym) for eight days straight. “The crazy thing about this little board is that it’ll work in half-foot waves like this, and then it’ll work in overhead tubes back home.”

In this vein, take a look at Kian Martin’s valiant piloting of Mikey February’s “Feb Fish” (yes, Mikey will be getting royalties) in the edit above. Kian covers more ground with less bobble and effort than would be conceivable on a thruster. Despite not going 12-o’clock or blowing his fins out the back on every wave, we dare say he might be having more fun than he otherwise would.

There are moments where Kian has to show some traditional twin-fin restraint: Holding a bottom turn steady with his big toes, letting the board slide after a wrap instead of driving through, jamming on the back foot to keep the nose above water on steep transitions, etc.

But, not only does Kian provide conclusive evidence that the “Feb Fish” works under the feet of a non-Mikey February — he also gives us cause to wonder if we shouldn’t ride our favorite twin in waves larger and better than currently do.