HISTORY
After the historic America’s Cup win by “Australia II”, I decided to phone Ben Lexcen and ask him if he would be interested in working on a surfboard fin design. I thought the speed and stability demonstrated by winged keel on “Australia II” to win the America’s Cup would have to apply to surfing. The keel that Ben Lexcen had designed for Australia II was quite controversial and Ben was an inspiration to me. Ben must have thought designing a surfboard fin would be a breeze after designing the winged keel for an ocean racing boat like Australia II! I met Ben Lexcen in 1984 and I was quite nervous because I admired Ben a lot but he was friendly and easy to get along with. We discussed fin design and went straight into testing using advanced hydrodynamic methods including tank testing and what we came up after many testing sessions was the STARFIN!
THE SCIENCE
Ben Lexcen created an exciting new option for surfing. The hydro mechanics of the Starfin make it fast, loose and hydro-dynamic. After riding the starfin design the major advantage is your ability to get from point A to point B quicker than any conventional fin. I’ve had bottom turns together with friends on regular fins and they are still loading up the power on the fin when I’m already powering away at the rate of knots. Also when cutting back normal fins start to loose efficiency and the rail starts to take over. With the starfin you still have a fin vertical in the water allowing cutbacks to gain acceleration. When you kick out of a wave you ride out much longer and faster. When this happens you realize the fin is making the surfboard move faster than a regular fin. If it was any faster it would be an engine!The Starfin will turn on a dime, They are especially good in sloppier surf under six feet (sound familiar… yes that’s the surf we all surf most of the time!) and have a tail lift effect and positive drive that is very easily felt once you ride one. We get excellent feedback from lots of people saying how stoked they are at the performance of the STARFIN.
TODAY
The Starfin has proved very successful with surfers of all skill levels. The Starfin is shipped around the world and is a great tribute to the skills of Ben Lexcen.The STARFIN has been very popular with long boarders for a long time now probably because they have a good percentage of single fins amongst them. Anyway try one and see what you think. Today I still ride STARFINS! STARFINS are available in White, Black, Orange, Red and Blue some colours do sell out.
The STARFIN costs $AUS79.99