Randy Rarick’s Black Tip fin has built-in flex to increase snap and speed out of turns. The Black Tip is a composite of both carbon fiber and fiberglass, with a carbon fiber tip and base and a thinned-out fiberglass center that flexes during turns. If you are looking to take you mid-length or longboard riding to the next level, the Black Tip is designed to do exactly that.
Since the fin comes in 7.5" and also 8.5", I designed it to work with a variety of boards. The 7.5" works really well as a 2+1 set up in small and mid-range boards. I ride a 7'10", and it holds in great with the FUTURES SB 1 (side bite fins). That setup handles anything up to six-foot Hawaiian, yet still gives you the signature snap out of turns that the Black Tip provides. On my longer boards, I use the 8.5" as a single fin (and also with side bites sometimes), and it makes your board extremely loose. I’ve loaned it to dozens of longboarders and they’ve had their minds blown at how much looser it has made their boards. Because of all the feedback from them, I am in the process of making a couple of bigger versions for big boards and tankers.
The key to this design is the tip flex inherent in the Black Tip. It has the carbon in the tip, then a gap, and then carbon again in the bottom two-thirds of the fin. What this does is give you extremely good tip flex, without the tip of the fin breaking down. The fins are also light and thin because of the use of the carbon, so they are as high tech as anything on the market.