“I’ve been thinking about for this for a long time,” says Neal Purchase Junior, over a beer at the end of the day in his Casuarina home. “I love single fins, but I wanted more drive and something a bit smoother. About two months ago I took a stab in the dark and tried this.”
NPJ is a referring to the board he calls the Duo. In the most simplest of terms, it is a twin fin set up that uses traditional single fins. It is both so supremely odd, and so strangely familiar, it’s a wonder we haven’t seen more of them.
“I had a blank that I wasn’t that happy with – it was a bit thick and bit wide, so I used that for this,” continues Neal. “This is 5’11” x 20 1/4″ x 2 3/8″ x 16″ Nose and Tail with 7″ double foil single fins. The first surf I had I used 7 1/2” fins in, but there was just too much fin. I reduced the fin size and started tinkering and thought I was onto something.”
Neal is pretty good at tinkering. The son of one of Australia’s best shapers (the name is a giveaway) and one of our most smoothest surfers, since giving up on thrusters about ten years ago NPJ has been handshaping around 10 custom boards each week, always looking for new and old ways to find fresh stoke on a range of craft.
“I was taking two or three boards down to the beach and just kept trading boards off and feeling it out, which must have looked fairly weird,” he laughs. “By the third surf I kept coming back to the Duo. It was really smooth and drivey, like mixing the best of a single and a twin fin’s pivot and performance. It’s a cliché, but it felt like a hot knife through butter. It was the start of a love affair, it really was.”
And like with all love affairs in the modern age, Neal started to do a bit of research on his new love. “This fin design and board has been just a thought in my head for a long time and it’s funny how things work out,” he says. “Since I have made this I found out about a a few guys doing these. Nigel Beckham was a local who used it on his mals in the ‘90s and Bill Thrailkill has used them on mid lengths since the 70’s I think, although still quite different from mine.”
Of course it’s not just about the fin set up, the plane shape also has to be right. “You need less tail lift and also a fair bit of beef and rail,” says NPJ. “That’s why I think it will work for bigger boards and for bigger waves. Oh and it needs a wide tail, which is a good thing in my eyes.”
For now Neal has been taking the Duo out in anything from one to six feet waves around his local haunts and has been loving the feeling. “It’s early days and it’s such a in between grey area, but I keep coming back to it, so we’ll see where we get with it.”
Follow NPJ on his blog http://nealpurchasedesigns.blogspot.com.au/
