Who Were the Pioneers of Fins?
Surfing was a straight-line sport until a few people decided to glue something to the bottom of their boards.
The Short Answer
For most of surfing's history, boards had no fins. You steered with your feet and a lot of hope. That changed in 1935 when Tom Blake attached a small metal skeg to his board. Since then, three names have defined the physics of how we ride waves: Tom Blake (the first), Bob Simmons (the engineer), and George Greenough (the genius).
Without these three, we’d still be riding heavy wooden planks in straight lines. They moved us from "steering" to "carving," and every fin you buy today—from a US Box single to a Futures twin—is an evolution of their work.
| Pioneer | Contribution | Why it Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Blake | The Fixed Skeg (1935) | Invented the concept of a fin. |
| Bob Simmons | The Twin Fin (1940s) | First to use multiple fins for speed. |
| George Greenough | Flexible High-Aspect Fin (1960s) | The father of the modern performance fin. |
Tom Blake: The first "skeg"
In 1935, at Waikiki, Tom Blake pulled a small metal fin off an old speedboat and attached it to his 14-foot hollow surfboard. He called it a "skeg." It was tiny, but it changed everything.
Before the skeg, surfers had to drag their feet in the water to turn. Blake’s invention allowed the board to track in a straight line and hold a rail. It was the birth of control. Every time you feel your board lock into a wave, you’re using Tom Blake’s original idea.
Bob Simmons: The engineer who saw double
Bob Simmons was an aeronautical engineer who applied his knowledge of lift and drag to surfing. In the late 1940s, he developed the "Simmons Dual Fin"—the first real twin fin setup.
Simmons understood that one fin created a single pivot point, but two fins could create more drive and speed by managing water flow across a wider tail. His boards were wide, fast, and light-years ahead of their time. If you ride a modern keel fin or a wide-tailed fish, you’re riding a descendant of a Simmons design.
George Greenough: The tuna fin revolution
If Blake gave us the concept and Simmons gave us the speed, George Greenough gave us the performance. In the 1960s, Greenough—a kneeboarder who spent more time underwater than on top of it—noticed that the fastest fish in the ocean didn't have stiff, blocky fins. They had narrow, flexible fins with a high-aspect ratio (like a tuna’s tail).
Greenough started making thin, flexible fibreglass fins that could store energy through a turn and "snap" back at the end. This is the "flex" we still talk about today. His 4A template is still the gold standard for longboard single fins. He turned surfing from a 2D experience into a 3D one.
The Takeaway
We take fins for granted, but they are the most important piece of hardware on your board. They are the engine. When you choose a fin with a bit of flex or a wider base, you’re playing with the same physics that Blake, Simmons, and Greenough discovered in their sheds decades ago.
The next time you're carving a bottom turn, give a quiet thanks to the guys who dared to glue something weird to their boards.
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