Watch Kyle Kennelly And A Fin Set Up That Breeds A Totally Unique Approach

Across the broad spectrum of our sport, the way in which waves are ridden is constantly being redefined.

On the high performance end there are new, bigger and more tweaked airs being landed all the time, in big wave surfing, the boundaries of tow, paddle and barrel riding are all constantly being pushed and occasionally it even looks like new flourishes are being added to solid power surfing. And then of course there’s the unlimited promise of wavepools to turbocharge high performance surfing’s progression in the near future

On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum, an entirely different set of boundaries are being pushed. Through a ride anything approach and constant tinkering with shapes and fin set ups, a small crew of Californians and Aussies are continually inventing and developing new ways of riding waves. Many of this crew, who frequently feature in front of the lens of Jack Coleman, are shapers themselves, allowing them to conceive build and test craft in one fell swoop.

Amongst this extensive crew there’s folk live Ari Browne, who draw heavily on the influence of Derek Hynd, continually pushing the progression of finless surfing, Derrick Disney and his unique approach to surfing a single fin, Ryan Burch, who is constantly redrawing surfings flow lines on his ever-evolving quiver of asymmetrical boards and Kyle Kennelly who’s recently been experimenting with what he calls the 2 + none.

The board features two side-bite fins but no central keel, placing it somewhere between finless and finned surfing. The driving force was curiosity, explains Kyle, and the objective to reduce drag. ‘The feeling is like nothing else’ he adds and the results certainly are visually intriguing.