Gudauskas Brothers x True Ames - G3000

For more than two decades, Pat, Dane and Tanner Gudauskas have been three of surfing’s great ambassadors. From their competitive roots at Lowers to World Tour jerseys, far-flung surf trips, heavy-water sessions, films, board design and the Positive Vibe Warriors, the brothers have built careers that reach into nearly every corner of surf culture.

Through it all, they’ve carried an unmistakable enthusiasm for surfing and the people around it - a genuine aloha that has made the Gudangs beloved figures and, at this point, something close to icons of the sport.

Since 1979, Chuck Ames has been quietly refining the relationship between surfboard and fin, hand-foiling fiberglass and working alongside some of surfing’s most influential board builders and surfers. 

When the thruster revolution arrived in the early ’80s, Chuck was there foiling glass-on three-fin sets - learning the subtleties of template, foil and flex long before fins became something you could swap with the turn of a key. 

Nearly five decades later, that knowledge still sits at the heart of how True Ames approaches making a fin.

Somewhere between the brothers’ lifetime of surfing and Chuck’s lifetime of making fins was an idea worth exploring. The brothers knew how they wanted a board to respond underfoot; Chuck knew how to translate those sensations into foil, flex and template. 

Decades of waves, boards, favorite fins, forgotten templates, subtle preferences and hard-earned feel - all coming together in pursuit of a thruster set that could carry a little bit of that collective history forward.

Tanner might be the hardest of the three brothers to pin down—and the most well-rounded. A former World Tour surfer, his career has wandered through competition, progressive surfing, heavy water, far-flung travel and just about every kind of board along the way. He’s also become a student and storyteller of surfing.

His Finders Keepers series with filmmaker Alex Kilauano digs into the culture’s history, characters and forgotten corners, while more recently he’s brought that perspective to commentary for Natural Selection Surf and the WSL. Today, Tanner also leads Haydenshapes in the U.S.

Pat has always been the progressive one. A National Champion and former World Tour surfer, he’s spent his career pushing at the edges of performance—from landing the first rodeo flip in World Tour competition at Teahupoʻo to years of progressive free surfing and standout parts in the Vans Get-N Classic series. 

That same energy carries into Positive Vibe Warriors and Stoke-O-Rama, created alongside Dane and Tanner to pass the stoke along to the next generation. More recently, Pat has continued that spirit through Abysse Watermen and the inaugural Little Urchins event at T-Street.

Dane has always followed a slightly more mysto path. A National Champion himself, he’s drifted away from competition and deeper into powerful surfing, heavy water and an endless curiosity about what makes surfing, surfing. That curiosity has taken him from serious sessions at Cloudbreak, Mavericks and Sunset Beach down countless equipment rabbit holes. 

Through his work with Channel Islands—including the G Skate—and more recent experimentation with edge designs from Marc Andreini and Bob Duncan of Wilderness Surfboards, Dane continues to explore how different boards can open up entirely different ways of approaching a wave.

When Pat, Dane and Tanner Gudauskas set out to build a thruster with True Ames, the goal sounded deceptively simple: make one really good, well-rounded fin. Something that could move between the different boards they ride, handle the variety of conditions they encounter around California and, above all, not sacrifice speed, drive or control.

The starting point wasn’t a blank sheet of paper, but decades’ worth of fins they already knew and loved.

The brothers started by digging through their own archives - boxes of fins accumulated over decades of competitive surfing, travel and experimentation. John John Florence templates, Timmy Patterson fins, old Kelly Slater designs, Eric Arakawa templates and plenty of oddities collected along the way. Each had a certain characteristic they remembered: the drive of one, release of another, the way a particular tip would load up and spring through a turn. 

The archives weren’t a blueprint, but a way to unearth old feelings - to remember what they’d responded to in different fins, and why.

Finding the common thread between those characteristics was where things got more complicated: the brothers have varying approaches to a wave. Dane and Tanner bring a little more size and power, while Pat gravitates toward agility and release. The fin needed enough area to hold when pushed hard, without becoming so big or stiff that it restricted high flying maneuvers. 

Working with Chuck and the True Ames crew, this collected information turned into a series of prototypes. Templates shifted more upright, bases were reduced and tips stretched and dropped back - searching for the sweet spot between pivot and drive. Less surface area could mean less drag and more freedom, while a raked out tip could provide something to push against when it was time to drop the hammer.

Then came foil and flex.

Chuck built different versions of the same templates with alternative flex patterns, allowing the brothers to isolate another variable. A thinner foil could create speed; stiffness through the body could provide stability and drive; carefully placed flex and tip twist could add the “twang” and release they remembered from favorite fins in the archive.

Testing began where good equipment often reveals itself fastest: in less-than-perfect surf. Small, gutless California waves provided an opportunity to expose anything too stiff, too tracky, or too slow before moving into better conditions and different boards.

For the Gudangs, the process also became a reminder of just how much influence three relatively small pieces of fiberglass can have. For years, like a lot of surfers, they’d find a magic set and ride it in everything. This time they slowed down, experimented and kept the senses on high alert.

The result is rooted in that curiosity: decades of surfing, endless boards, and a lifetime of favorite fins distilled into one thruster set built to go fast, hold when you need it, and stay free when you don’t.

To say we're honored to be working with our good friends is an understatement. 

All of the film imagery and video stills were shot by Titus Huag and Jake Richard over a classic California day in San Clemente we spent with the Gudauskas Brothers.

Years in the making, we can't wait to finally get this fins in your hands and under your feet.