Futures Fins x Cord Surfboards = 2+1

Fins are an essential element of modern surfboards, providing drive, hold, and allowing the surfer to control their direction of travel with ease. The number, size, shape and foil of fins make a huge difference to a surfboard’s performance, and interchangeable/removable fin systems not only allow a surfer to travel with their surfboards without risk of damaging their fins (and to fit more surfboards in a boardbag) but to fine tune their surfboard and experiment through their choice of fins.

Over the last couple of years Cord Surfboards’ head shaper Markie Lascelles has been working with the team at Futures Fins to design a set of fins specifically for some of the most popular surfboards in the Cord range.

“Fins are so important but also so expensive, so I felt like it was a great thing to offer our customers to be able to have a couple of boards from Cord that work with one dedicated set of fins. They can add boards to their quiver and know that their current fins will work in them, or travel with multiple boards and a single set of fins, all the while knowing that those fins are absolutely the best choice for those surfboards.”

—Markie Lascelles

The most popular surfboards in our range are our bestselling Ark channel bottom twin-pin and its swallow-tailed sister the Otter, alongside our performance fish and hybrid models such as the Swordfish. Markie’s aim has been to create a fin set that works across these models.

“I just want to be able to go really fast and keep engaged. That's all I care about, and that's what these fins do. I've been riding the Future Akila Aipa upright twins a lot in my boards and I also really like the Futures Rasta 2+1s. I wanted to make a 2+1 set that worked across our boards because I was chopping and changing a lot of boards but using the same or similar fins, so that’s where the inspiration came from.”

— Markie Lascelles

The Cord fin set is a 2+1 with an upright twin fin set and a larger trailing fin. The slightly larger and more upright side fins give you the ability to drive and pivot through turns, a feeling that Markie really chases. They are designed to work as a twin fin set for performance-shape channel bottom twins like the Ark and the Otter, where the fins work in harmony with the directional stability and drive provided by the channels, and the hold of the pin and swallow tail shapes. The central trailing fin can be added to short hybrid/performance-fish shapes like the Cord Swordfish to make a 2+1 set-up for high performance surfing in smaller waves.

“My first impressions of the fins are that they’re relatively similar to the Akila Aipa Futures, except that they’re slightly larger and I'd say a bit stiffer as well, so they provide a bit more stability and a bit more drive. I think the tip of the side fins come up a bit narrower too, which gives you a bit more release as well.”

— Isaac Dakin

Designing the perfect product on paper is one thing, but as with all of our models nothing gets Markie’s seal of approval and goes on sale without extensive field testing by him and our team of surfers. Getting “through-the-feet” feedback from different surfers riding different boards in different waves, ranging from our local Cornish beach breaks to world-class reefs in Ireland and Indonesia, allowed the templates to be fine tuned.

“They're the best and most versatile twinny plus trailer fin set I’ve used, I reckon. They're really good in a pintail, Ark-style board so really good as an upright straight twin, but they work amazingly with the trailer in a more conventional 2+1 set up. The feature I like most about them is that the trailer fin is a little bit bigger than most of the Future Fin trailers that you can get - like most of the trailers are really small but this one is a bit bigger so it's a great hybrid between a really classic twin plus trailer, and a thruster. It's kind of like a cheat’s thruster!”

— Noah Lane

“I found that they really excelled in subpar conditions, which I didn't actually expect. They provide loads of speed and help you to maintain that speed and drive through flat sections. I've also put them in the Ark and the Otter which showed how capable they are of holding in bigger conditions and still maintaining that drive and stability, which I think really compliments the channels of both of those models super well. I think it also helps with them being slightly larger templates because they grip you to the face a bit more and stop you cavitating when you’re going over foam balls inside the barrel.”

— Isaac Dakin

The Cord 2+1 fins are now available to buy through our website for £115 and can be added on to your next board order. If you’re setting yourself up with any of our channel bottom twin fins or hybrid shortboards then these fins are designed specifically for those boards, and are interchangeable between them. Several surfboards; one set of fins; your best surfing.

Order Yours Here