McTavish Bluebird
The fin from Bob McTavish’s Bluebird — first used on that board in 1970, and still cut to the same outline.McTavish put this template on the Bluebird, his single fin of 1970, and True Ames still make it: 7.6" for a standard single-fin or longboard box, in solid fiberglass.
The Fin
The fin from Bob McTavish’s Bluebird — first used on that board in 1970, and still cut to the same outline.
McTavish put this template on the Bluebird, his single fin of 1970, and True Ames still make it: 7.6" for a standard single-fin or longboard box, in solid fiberglass. It is a raked, drive-oriented outline rather than an upright pivot fin — the curve carries area back behind the base, which is where hold through a long turn comes from, and the blend of curve and area is the whole reason the template outlasted the board it was drawn for.
How that reads
Rake and a full outline give drive and a long, drawn turn. A fin like this rewards being leaned on through a bottom turn rather than pivoted off the tail: it holds well enough at speed for the board to be surfed off the rail, which is what a performance single fin is for, then and now.
Who it suits
Performance single fins and mid-lengths from around 7' up — boards ridden with turns in mind rather than nose time. If you want a longer, more upright fin for progressive longboarding, that is the Involvement instead.
If this is not the one
Want a taller, more upright McTavish fin for a longboard? The McTavish Involvement. Want volan rather than solid glass? The McTavish Rincon Volan Fin or the McTavish Tracker Volan Fin.
Specifications
What people say
Rigid and powerful, built for high-speed point surfing and down-the-line flow — the smaller, neutral design encourages the board to roll onto either rail, allowing the board's straighter template to become the primary driving force.
Fanning can't quite wrench the Bluebird into turns the way he can with his DHD thrusters, but he beautifully navigates the board through some proper frontside tubes.
Fifty years of getting out of the way: a raked, driving single built to amplify what the board's template already does, not impose its own agenda. If your board was built for Lennox-style down-the-line surfing, this is the fin that completes it.
Bob McTavish drew the Bluebird fin in the early 1970s for his Bluebird single-fin board, developed through daily surfing at Lennox Point after he relocated to Byron Bay. It is a swept single-fin template with pronounced rake, manufactured today by True Ames in Santa Barbara to McTavish's original template in limited quantities. It comes in one size, 7.6", suiting single-fin mid-lengths and performance eggs in the 6'6"–7'6" range.
Mentioned in the review — McTavish Involvement — not something we carry.