Dan Malloy, two’s company. Photos: Burkard.

The twin fin came and went in the blink of a late 70’S early 80’S reddened eye.

MR’s twin’s helped him win four consecutive world titles, chiefly by allowing him to widen his tail, and thus gain speed and looseness, with control, and thus get that bit radder. Then twins pretty much went out of fashion about as fast as they came in, mainly down to the performance leap facilitated by Simon Anderson’s 3 finned thruster.

Considered good for slopey soft beachbreaks (or “never” according to C Bradley), twins have been popular in some form since the fish revival of the late 90’s, and more two finned surf craft have proliferated via the more recent ‘Mini Simmons’ renaissance. In fact they’ve kinda been back ‘in’/ acceptable longer than were first time around.

Overall, twins are loose, free and fast as fuck. They are generally considered a weakness backside, where the physical demands of the backside bottom turn often result in spinning out. Exhibits a) b) and c) by Dan Malloy show much variety that can be had off two fins, although it is perhaps important to note all of this variety is forehand.

First seen: Bob Simmons 1947 / MR 1976
Who? Probably not as wholesome a development tool as the single, better for a change of feeling once you already have the basics down. If you are a regularfoot and live at G-Land, or are a goofy and live at J-Bay, probably not you.
Where? Softer, slopey waves, up to 4-5ft, anywhere you want to go fast and have fun, probably forehand.
Why? You know those kinda soft 2ft days when you don’t want to ‘low performance’ wiggle, but can’t be arsed to hump the log up the beach? That’s why.