Snapping Fins

[twizzly]

my friend and I recently bought some new Al Merick's which came outfitted with (presumably) some high end FCS style fins. Well, I'll be the first to admit that neither of us are terribly experienced with about 6 months of surfing under our belts, but we were very surprised to see that all the fins busted off leaving the teeth in the boards during our first outing. We believe it had to do with riding whitewash into the sand and the pressure as such, but it just seems a bit fishy.

Anyway, we replaced the old fins with these new Protech rubberized fins that work VERY VERY well but we were bummed to spend so much money on new boards and have the fins bust on the first day!

[Sweet!]

Ha ha...

Yea we did that too last week!

One of us had a $20 board, brown, getting delaminated, kinks and holes and whateverthehellelseyoucanthinkof... with glassed on fins, which snapped.

We decided $60 was a rediculous amount to spend. So we got our trusty solaresin, and stole some fibreglass cloth... and made the most spectacular job of fixing a fin you have never saw!!

haa haaa Dam I'll see if I can scab a photo off her because it honestly looked like some wrapped up hairy bandage on there. God that was fun. We decided it looked stunnigly sexy. And solid as rock!

moral of story: don't ride sand? Hm.

[kitesurfer]

twizzly if you did ride the fins into the sand then i'm not surprised to heasr the fins broke. They are supposed to break where they did. Better to lose the fins rather than have the plugs pull out which can also happen which would cost you alot more to get fixed and would have you out of the water until the board was fixed.
I think you've quite lucky actually that your board wasn't damaged.

KS

[essex sucks]

yeah they are going too snap if you are rideing into the sand. they are not made for that. fcs are great if u surf the face of the wave. ks are euro fin plugs the same as fcs ones

[kitesurfer]

Hey ES,

I've never used fcs plugs, it's always been euros for me. However they are basically the same. Euros are a bit cheaper than fcs but i've had to bin a few due to quality issues and recently the position of the screw hole has changed, meaning you have to screw the retaining screw for the fin right down into the bottom of the plug whereas it should only be just below the surface! This isn't really a problem just an observation but i think euro plugs quality might not be as good as fcs. Although as i say i've yet to use fcs. All the fins have the same lugs on though so they are interchangable. What i have also seen recently are plugs someone has obviously made themselves from see through green fibgreglass resin! Cast from an fcs mold. They look funky but i would image quite brittle.

KS

[drowningbitbybit]

Board hits sand = snapped fins.

Pretty simple really.

For your next lesson, its going to be Board hits rock = snapped board.

Once you've progressed past snapping boards, we'll move onto
Board hits reef = Snapped Surfer.

[FishKid Wales]

Dbb what about board runs over on tuflite=cut hole in tuflite

[drowningbitbybit]

That's the remedial class...

Idiot hits own board with other board = Repair bill


Fortunately I failed the second remedial class -

Idiot hits own girlfriend = broken girlfriend and surfer single again

[FishKid Wales]

How did they fix your surf tech? and was it pricey?

[drowningbitbybit]

£35 from second skin in braunton - not seen it yet though. Going down to collect it this weekend and hoping there'll be the odd cheeky foot here n' there to ride it

[kitesurfer]

I'd be keen to see aphoto of the repair once you get it back matt if poss!

KS

[drowningbitbybit]

I'd be keen to see aphoto of the repair once you get it back matt if poss!

Okay, will do. Got me new snazzy camera this morning, so hopefully there'll be some shots of board and surf next week

(albeit about a foot of surf)

[essex sucks]

cheers ks and guys good one