And two begat three

It's not uncommon these days to see all manner of craft in the water at the same time. Even though the "goat boater" (wave ski) harks back to the analogue wooden era, the SUP clearly places this pic in the 21st century.

Dating the next picture is relatively easy using the board fins only as a guide. During the transition from twin fins to the three finned thruster the latter's centre fin was originally a big old single fin stuck in the middle of a typical twinnie set up. In 1981 big Simon Anderson won the Bells Contest (with 15 foot sets), the Coke Contest and the Pipe Masters on thruster boards that he shaped himself. It would be a while before two fins re-entered the design space.

The twinnie on the bottom left was a Mark Richards and the one on the right was my Byrne Brothers channel bottom which I liked so much that I made sure my first thruster was a channel bottom as well! Glassed in fins all round in those days. Those stretchy "octopus" straps tying the boards down were notorious for attacking you if you didn't hook them in correctly. South Ballina wall surf check, Oz summer 1981-2.