Whoever wrote this:"Surfboard Fins Get No Respect 1/27/01 Surfboard Fins get no respect! When you walk into your favorite surf shop and get all googley eyed over the masterpieces in the racks, its not the fins youre drooling over. Think about it for a minute though. What is a surfboard, but a summation of hydrodynamic surfaces. Just as an airplane generates lift from its wings and control from its tail; your boards bottom generates lift and affects speed. But, its your fins working together with rail and bottom contour that most influence the feel of your board when turning. And lets face it how many short boarders straight-line the waves they ride. Few surfers really understand how fins affect the way their board rides and leave all the specifics to someone else. Rail and bottom contour assist fins in performing their function. But, what really influences the way your board turns is the combination of several important fin factors. No wonder so few surfers pay attention to the "Fin Affect". Its fn complicated! But, today, as the form shape of surfboards goes through finer and finer adjustments, the biggest gains you can make to your boards performance have to do with your fins."