Griffin Colapinto's Fin Setup: Why He Rides Kolohe Andino's Signature Fin, Not His Own

You're standing on the cobblestones at Lowers, watching Griffin Colapinto set a rail on a head-high right. He drops in, drives off the bottom, and the board arcs through a turn so long and so committed the fins look welded to the face. Spray goes vertical. He comes off the top already loaded for the next one.

That's the Griffin thing. Not the airs, though those are absurd too. It's the rail surfing, the way he leans into a turn and the board just holds and holds.

This is the guy who won the Corona Fiji Pro in 2024, made the WSL Finals at his home break, and closed out 2025 as the world runner-up. When someone surfs like that, the gear under his feet is worth a look. And here's the part that trips people up: the fins doing that work aren't his. They've got another surfer's initials on them.

Griffin Rides the KA. As in Kolohe Andino.

Colapinto's go-to setup is the FCS II KA template in a large, PC construction. KA stands for Kolohe Andino, his childhood friend and fellow San Clemente local. Two of the best surfers in California grew up trading waves at the same stretch of beach, and one of them rides the other's signature fin.

It sounds like a branding accident. It isn't. Griffin has been open about how it happened: Kolohe handed him a set, he rode them, they felt right. When the best rail surfer in the country tells you he switched to his buddy's fin because it just worked, that's worth more than any spec sheet.

"I've actually been running FCS II fins for a while now," Griffin said when FCS announced the deal, adding that once Brother gave him a set he was totally psyched on how they felt. No committee, no wind tunnel pitch. A surfer rode a fin and liked it.

What the FCS II KA Does in the Water

The KA is built off the same family as the FCS Performer, the most popular all-round template FCS makes. But Kolohe's version tweaks three things that matter.

The base is longer. In a large it runs about 4.67 inches, which is a real chunk of surface pinned to the tail. A longer base means more drive, more forward push out of every turn. That's the held-in feeling you see when Griffin stretches a bottom turn across a whole section.

The rake sits around 35 degrees. That's medium, leaning upright. It's not the swept-back rake of a barrel gun that wants long, drawn-out arcs. There's enough angle to hold through speed and enough upright to snap tight when he pivots off the top.

Then the foil. The KA side fins are flat on the inside, not concave. Flat foil makes fast direction changes easier, the board switching rail to rail without hesitation. It's a quicker, more reactive feel than a foiled fin, and it suits a surfer who never stops changing direction.

Put it together and the KA is a drive-first template that still releases. You get the hold for big rail turns and the looseness for tail-throwing airs. That's exactly the two-sided game Griffin plays.

Ride a large KA in punchy chest-high surf and the first thing you feel is how the board tracks off the bottom. You set your rail and there's no wobble, no searching. The fins bite, the board points where you aim it, and the drive comes on smooth and immediate. Then you flick it at the lip and the tail lets go clean, no fighting, and you're already looking at the next section.

The PC Construction Part

Griffin's set is PC, short for Performance Core. It's FCS's answer to the "I want glass feel without glass weight" problem. PC fins feel close to traditional fiberglass, with a stiff flex that runs progressively from base to tip.

Stiff matters here. A stiffer fin holds its shape through a hard turn, so all the energy Griffin loads into a bottom turn comes back as drive instead of getting lost in flex. For a heavy-footed power surfer, that's the whole point. You don't want the fin folding under you when you're leaning your full weight into a rail.

Wait, Wasn't He a Futures Guy?

He was. For years Griffin rode Futures, including through his 2022 breakout when he won his first CT event at the MEO Pro Portugal. His old Futures template borrowed from a classic Al Merrick shape, the same lineage a lot of California surfers grew up on.

Then he switched to FCS II and the KA. Changing fin systems mid-career isn't nothing. It means new boxes, new muscle memory, a new feel underfoot. He did it anyway, which tells you how much he trusts the KA.

It's also a good reminder that pro fin loyalty is fluid. Sponsorships change, feels change, and the fin a surfer rides this season isn't gospel forever. What matters is why they ride it, not the logo on the box.

The Boards Under the Fins

Griffin rides ...Lost surfboards shaped by Matt "Mayhem" Biolos. His workhorse is the Driver 2.0, a high-performance shortboard built for the exact rail-and-air surfing he's known for. Biolos and Griffin have gone back and forth on that model for years, tuning it through real contest testing.

The fin and the board are a package. A drivey KA in a responsive Driver 2.0 is a setup built to generate speed and hold it through big turns. Swap either piece and the whole feel shifts. If you want to understand how the two work together, our guide to matching fins to your setup breaks down the thinking.

What You Should Take From This

Don't run out and buy a large KA because Griffin rides it. He's a 160-plus pound pro generating speeds you and I don't. That large is sized for his weight and his turns, and on a smaller surfer it can feel like too much fin.

The real lesson is about template character, not the exact fin. If you're a front-foot, rail-driven surfer who likes long powerful turns, a medium-rake, longer-base, flat-foil template is worth trying in your size. If you surf loose and skatey off your back foot, you'd probably hate it. (More on that in our breakdown of how your stance picks your fins.)

And the bigger takeaway: the best surfer in the heat might ride the fin with someone else's name on it. Signature fins are marketing wrapped around real templates. Griffin proves it every time he paddles out on Kolohe's.

Key Takeaways

• Griffin Colapinto rides the FCS II KA (Kolohe Andino) template in a large, PC construction, not a signature fin with his own name on it.
• The KA is a longer-base, medium-rake, flat-foil template built for drive with clean tail release, ideal for power rail surfing plus airs.
• He switched from Futures to FCS II because a set of Kolohe's fins simply felt right, proof that feel beats a spec sheet.
• PC construction gives him a stiff, glass-like fin that holds its shape when he loads a hard bottom turn.
• Copy the template character that fits your surfing, not the exact fin a 160-pound pro rides.

If you want the template that does for your surfing what the KA does for Griffin's, our fin recommender matches your weight, board, and the waves you actually surf to a setup that fits. Takes about a minute, and it won't push you toward a large just because a pro rides one.