A skeg segue

FOR THE RECORD

In a July 6 article, “A skeg segue,” Natalie Kotsch was incorrectly identified as the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum’s owner. Kotsch is the founder of the museum, which is not privately owned.

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Intricately decorated wooden surf fins line the wall of the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum serving as a testament to the sport’s ever-changing personality.

Huntington Beach resident Jim Angeley has surfed the waters of Surf City and shaped surfboards for more than 40 years.

More recently, Angeley, who has a small collection of antique surfboards, began shaping and constructing exact replicas of surf fins, which have undergone scads of changes in the past 70 years.

Last Friday, the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum unveiled its newest exhibit ? “SurFin’, Direction of a Sport,” which shows how the fin helped carve surf history ? thought to be the first of its kind by museum volunteers.

“The nice thing about being the first is you get to do a lot of things first,” said museum owner Natalie Kotsch.

Angeley had shown museum volunteers some examples of the more than 250 fin replicas he hand made from scrap wood, and they were hooked.

“I couldn’t collect all the boards, so I thought I’d make my own fins,” he said. “I’d go to collectors who have their own collection and make a template.”

Angeley’s replicas represent about the past 50 years of the surf fin, but its history goes back before the surf craze of that era.

After examining an old rundown speedboat with an aluminum skeg on the beach in 1935, surfing pioneer Thomas Blake decided to see if the skeg would have the same effect on his surfboard and prevent the tail from sliding out when he made sharp turns on a wave.

Since Blake’s discovery, the evolution of the surf fin has been a point of debate between different makers and surfers.

“The fin is like an extension of your personality,” said museum chairman Gary Sahagen.

Different surfers prefer different fins, which range from long and skinny with a sharp cutout to square-shaped to a more rounded, stout shape. The position of the fin can also be a point of preference, Sahagen and Angeley said.

Since the beginning, shapers created fins they wanted to experiment with, and it was always a mystery what fin would show up after it had been ordered, Angeley said.

“The funny thing was, these fins sold cheap, like a wooden fin, but you might get a fancy fin,” Angeley said.

It was all about what the maker was dabbling in at the time.

“They were doing crazy things just to win contests,” he said.

The museum’s exhibit has a large display of Angeley’s handy work, as well as original fins from the 1930s to more recent days. The history of the fin is told in text and pictures, with a large research book on display.

Newport Beach resident Bonnie Flamm researched the exhibit and created the history portion of the display. Flamm, who is the exhibit director, is not a surfer, so learning about surf fins was an eye-opening experience for the interior designer.

“I don’t surf, so everything was a surprise for me,” she said. “It was fun.”

The exhibit will be featured for quite a while, Kotsch said, probably until they’ve come up with another innovative idea. The museum also has a small skateboarding exhibit and surf music memorabilia dotting its walls, among other displays.

“In the past 20 years, we’ve had so many magical moments,” Kotsch said, this being one of them.

For more information about the museum, visit www.surfingmuseum.org or call (714) 960-3483.hbi.06-fins-2-CPhotoInfo1A1SJT2E20060706j1umzjnc(LA)Early surfboard fins are on display as part of the “Sufin’ Direction of a Sport” surfboard fin exhibit.hbi.06-fins-1-CPhotoInfo1A1SJSUA20060706j1umz8ncPHOTOS BY MARK DUSTIN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Sam August points at one of the fins on display at the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum’s “SurFin’: Direction of a Sport” surfboard fin exhibit.