Surfing Waves

Posted: **Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:54 pm**

hey guys, i just came back from a surf trip to my local beach and my fins snaped off. First it was two, the middle one and the left one. I went to the shop, bought new ones and replaced all three with the same fin-G-5. now i go out and break another one in 10 minutes. it was the left again... so now i went back to the shop to get another one.
now from this come three questions:
1) my breach break was shallow this time... i ended up in knee-thigh water if i rode the whitewash... do you know why they broke?... did i hit the sand and would that break them???
2) could i use a right side fin on the left side and surf well? considering the curve side would be towards the middle... would that work?
3) they gave me a different fin... a G-R, which from all i could tell is just a bit pointer... so now i have a left G-R and a middle and right G-5... can these work together?

Posted: **Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:59 pm**

if you were riding in knee to waisthigh water its unlikely that your fins hit the bottom with enough force to break one! if the wave was sucking up maybe it was shalower than you thought!
It depends on the standard of your surfing as to wether the back to front fin would make any difference but if you are surfing to any decent level then yes you will notice the difference.
have you thought about buying a set of euro fins? they fit fcs plugs and you can pick them up from surfing material stores for about 10 or fifteen quid a set!! dont know where you are but seabase in newquay do them! have a look on their website
buying fcs fins is a mugs game they are a right rip off!!!
hope this was of some help

Posted: **Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:03 pm**

just noticed you are not in europe so the euro fin advice is probably pretty useless. perhaps you have a low cost version of your fins where you are!?!

Posted: **Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:22 pm**

15 bucks for a single fin, 30 for three... but they didnt have the g-5s in a single pack.

Posted: **Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:10 am**

Dude, could be other problems hiding here.
The engineering geek in me suspects perhaps you did one of two things.
1) tightened the screw way WAY too tight & torqued the whole fin so much it was under stress just sitting there in the plug. First decent load /force on it - it just snapped.
2) Is either of the fin plugs damaged. if you've buggered the plug & they're not lined up dead-straight or one of them is warped, when you tighten the screw you'll do the same as in (1) above.

If they're fine. Go back to the shop & yell.

What do you weigh? FG-5's are big fins for a young fella. Try G1000's or even GX's, you'll be all over the place on them. Nice & loose. Especially in small waves & if you don't get out in the water often - as you mentioned once previously.

Posted: **Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:52 pm**

Ya, im 140 pounds, maby 150 now...
im 5'6 and i remember the guy said one of my fins screws was stripped.... but he replaced it, and that fin snaped off... so, i guess i will buy a set of those...