True Ames Fins makes the sturdy fiberglass fins that keep surfboards under control from Goleta to Australia to France. Surfing is going through one of its periodic booms, with more than a thousand new boards being manufactured each day worldwide. Most have three fins now, and a great many of those fins come from Chuck Ames in Goleta.

Surfboard manufacturing has changed in recent decades, but not as much as many other industries. Boards are produced in far greater quantities than before, but most still get at least some hand shaping. Design and subtleties of shape and fin still make a difference, and certain shapers and builders develop huge cult followings.

In the mid- to late-1960s people started experimenting with fin shapes. "Reynolds Yater came out with his Spoon fin in those days," said Ames, "and we still make a version of it."

George Greenough is a longtime friend of Ames, and one of his major influences. His fin designs have helped True Ames develop a valuable reputation in the industry.

Chuck Ames grew up in Los Angeles and Carpinteria. As a kid, he and his friends would walk from Cate School to Rincon at 4 in the morning to get the first waves of the day. He bought the fin manufacturing business, then called Hoffman Products, back in 1979, when he was in his early 20s. His early customer list sounds like a roll call of legendary surfboard makers: Yater, Greenough, Al Merrick, John Bradbury, Jeff White.

The fiberglass fins that Ames makes are built to be tough. A fin starts as 40 or more individually laid layers of glass and resin compressed into a flat monolith about half an inch thick. From this, fins are cut into rough shapes with a carbide-grid band saw, and then a foil, or bevel, is added to the leading edge with a specially built grinding machine. From there, the shape is finished by hand.

For a while, the shop used a powerful water jet machine for cutting the glass blanks. The fine-focused water jet, with a bit of sand added for abrasion, cut through the hard glass blanks with a clean computer-generated line.

"Tuned flex" is a term the company uses to describe the carefully selected level of bend designed into each fin to give responsiveness during radical turning moves.

Until a couple of years ago, fin manufacturing took place in the True Ames shop off of Aero Camino. "We had about 22 employees, and we kept huge vats of resin and rolls of fiberglass on hand. It was quite an operation," said Ames. "It’s a high-skill, dirty kind of job," he says. Each machine station had powerful fans to collect and dispose of the heavy dust generated all day.

Now the design, marketing and distribution happen in Goleta, but the fins are made in China. "It was not pleasant letting people go," he said, "but there is a lot of competition in this business, and we couldn’t sell our fins if they cost twice as much as he other guy’s."

He has visited the plant in China, and came away impressed.

"They don’t use child labor or anything like that, and they pay their people pretty well by local standards. And the fin quality is as good as we made here."

True Ames fins are proudly stamped with the names of the board makers who are the company’s customers. The shelves in the office are full of fins waiting to be shipped. There is a Wayne Rich fin for thruster-type long boards , the Yater Classic and Spoon fins, a Nat Young longboard fin design and many more. The shop also makes fins for the wake-board and windsurfing industries.

In surfing, positioning is one of the most important skills one can have. Chuck Ames has positioned himself as a primary supplier of quality products for an industry that is booming and here to stay. Another Goleta success story.

Photo Caption: Chuck Ames has been making surfboard fins in Goleta since 1979.