The Momentum Generation changed a lot of things in surfing. In the nineties, they were the poster boys for an entirely new movement in performance. The group’s individual members are responsible for producing things like….the most world titles won by a single competitor (in three different decades, no less). One member of the group with crazy hair is arguably more responsible for the existence of freesurfing as a viable career path than anyone else in the sport’s history. Heck, the Momentum Generation even produced a second bald guy who introduced safety vests in the big wave game, pushing that realm into a previously unthinkable level of performance.
So, if ever there were a group of surfers who’d turn the whole “old guys have to surf retro shapes” thing on its head, this would be it.
Now, when we hear the term “twin fin” we all think of wide swallow tails, thick, tapered rails, and maybe even a set of keel fins. But Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Rob Machado, Taylor Knox, and Ross Williams had none of that retro talk for the twin fin portion of the Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy. They pretty much took high-performance shapes, slapped two fins on the bottom, and called it a day — not much of a departure from modern twins you’ll come across in every shop today. And in typical fashion for this crew, they make it look good and bring high-performance surfing into the equation.
