WHAT? IT’S BEEN 15 YEARS?!

For the past year or so, I really didn’t really give much thought to how long we’ve been selling the Takayama Halo Fins.

It’s been our #1 selling fin for a long time, but I always thought it was about 10 years or so. When I posted it on Instagram, someone mentioned that he purchased one from us almost 15 years ago.

Wow! Man, time flies! I had to verify this with Noah Shimabukuro, who’s from Maui, but has been in Oceanside with Donald since he was young, learning the ropes and now, he is the person heading up Takayama Surfboards. Well, he confirmed it really has been15 years! Again, wow! I remember when I first saw these fins when the team riders were testing them. The sizing they had was in increments of 1/8” from 6”- 8” and it was really overwhelming and hard to figure out. It was pretty much in a testing phase. But, for some reason I had a feeling these fins would do really well. Especially after having some really good surfers here in Hawaii test them.

Reid Inoue was a very big help at the time. He was just hanging up his coat from the many years of running the Hawaii Longboard Surfing Federation and getting into SUP’s and starting two SUP mags. After a lot of going back and forth with the guys at Takayama, mostly talking to Noah and a few discussions with Donald, I was able to get the fins in 1/2” increments. After about a year of getting a lot of positive reviews, the fins started coming directly from the overseas factory (one that Donald had a close relationship with).

At the time we had all different types of construction from Honey Comb, Bamboo, and even Carbon Fiber. Then the person running the factory retired and they moved the production to the U.S. I appreciated that because I totally believe in “Made in USA” whenever possible. It took a while to find someone that could produce these at a rate we were selling them and most of all the quality. Well, after about three years of searching and testing factories, Noah finally found someone that was able to hand foil these things up to par. This factory is a small operation, and they’ve been foiling fins for over 25 years and it shows. As you may know, they let us send Aloha Fabric from Hawaii. We just sold out of a batch of Aloha Fabric, but they are now working on some new ones. By the time you read this, we should have them in stock. We’ve been taking preorders online and we are already getting low on some designs. Check out the stock online! Here are some pictures of the fins with fabric coming in: 

We will get center fins and side fins. Get them early or miss out in matching a set to your board.