Select to expand quote
Piros said..
Would it really look any different if the fins where straight as the board is turning and not traveling in a straight line ? I hope I haven't misunderstood your reply.
it would still be the divergent. Water tries to "escape" the weigth of the board crushing it. They will follow the path of less resistance, the sides for the ones closer to it.
Note that I do NOT say that parallel fins do not work!!! I just warn to be cautious of the simplistic "explanations" that have no actual basis.
What I say is that in the assertion "A implies B" in "straights fins are aligned to the water flow (A) THUS they work better (B)"
I say A is false. This then does not mean anything on B.
B may as well be true, based on experience.
I could go on for many false claims such as "hull concaves accelerate water", "winglets on fins lift the tail", etc....
If I was to try an explanation, I would say that if you put a fin (green) in the picture:
You will see that putting it parallel to the water flow (red line) will not "work" as no lift would be provided, so the rider would not have any force to push against. For this, the fin acting like a wing should get some angle of attack relative to the water flow to provide lift. But note that by angling away from the water flow (red line) we are actually decreasing toe-in (angle with the board stringer)
Thus it may well result that for some boards/conditions a good angle with the water flow to provide lift could be by coincidence equal to the angle of the water flow with the stringer... making the fin parallel to the stringer.