Kevin Schulz with Firewire’s new Velox fin set. Photo: Firewire Surfboards
Firewire just announced a new fin set, dubbed the VELOX. The set has a raked template, designed to emphasize drive and control, as well as a polymer and carbon construction to make the fins as light as possible.
“Versatility in a fin set is important to me,” explained longtime Firewire shaper Dan Mann in a press release. “I think of the new VELOX fin set as the performance baseline for every Firewire Surfboard I design. It’s good to have a constant variable in the design process, and for me, that’s VELOX.”
Kevin Schulz championed the new design on the latest episode of Firewire’s YouTube series Single Sessions, saying, “They’re extremely light so they’re not going to weigh the tail of your board down too much. That’s always something I like to feel for in fins, especially in relation to the weight of the board. You can always feel a pretty big difference when your fins are light, sitting in the back of your board.”
Soon after, Schulz tested out the set at two to three-foot Trestles. He started off with a medium set at Middles, then moved on to Barbwires for a run on the larges, all while riding a Firewire Dominator 2.0.
On returning to shore, he commented on how the fin had more flex than he had anticipated. He was also struck by the difference in rake from the Firewire Endorfins, his daily driver. “The mediums this morning had a lot of liveliness and they felt really maneuverable,” he explained. “It was pretty small, so I think if the waves were a little bigger, I would gravitate into the large set.”
