i was wondering about my old 7’2 Hansen custom i inherited from my uncle it is in great condition but i’m definitely not thinking of selling it…i just need a fin…well i say “just” the thing is its an old style fin system which i have never seen before and am not sure where to look for a fin for it…its a box and the fin slides into the box then, from the top of the board a screw goes through and screws into the single fin…could i just try finding one that fits and modifying it or do they make fins like that ne more…its a sweet board and i cant wait to ride it but i need to know about this…thanx
i had a board with the same box and the same problem; no fin…
i saw a few on ebay but they were going for around $100… so i made my own.
i taped off the throuh deck hole and then painted the box with a bunch of coats of pva mold release…
then i made up a wood fin as i would have if i was making a fin for for a regular box. when it was at the stage where i normally would have glossed it I added another two layers of glass to each side but i made sure not to saturate the cloth that was hanging below the the base.
next i lined the pva covered box with a few pieces of saturated glass and set fin in place saturating the glass that i had left dry…
after the whoe mess was hard i filled the rest of the void with chopped up glass, cabosil, qcell. when that dried i popped the thing out of the board and detailed the whole thing with a sander, being carefull not to hit the base, then gave it a nice gloss coat.
i then put a threaded brass insert in for the through deck screw…
i was actually a very fun project and it worked better then i imagined…
just so you know (in case you arent up for making your own fin and modifying the box) there is a dude in florida on the west coast who runs ONE WORLD fin company who makes customer specified old style fins for hard to fit boxes. look online for the info to reach him, he made my buddy bill a fin and it took a few months but was absolutely right on … prices run 50 - 200 bucks depending on what you need.
I’ll just add that that particular fin system is one of the few that has a fastening located right in the meat of the thing rather than out on a flange or tab of some sort, so you can make one and do a very good job of it. The method described is what I’d call a top of the line way to go about it, producing a nice, strong, lightweight replacement.
You can do what other guys I know have done. Which is to lay-up a glass fin with enough layers at the base to fill the box. Foil the fin and resin it in the box. Buy a screw at the hardware store(the original screws were slotted, not phillips),cut it off to the correct length and glue it in the hole with epoxy. You now have the “look” of the original. Most of those Hansen fins were either white or black opaque, molded lexan(I think). I suppose you could foil one out of some kind of plastic, maybe even plexiglass. The problem is getting material that would fit the base. Call Sam at Longboard Grotto he might have an original. I know a little bit about these fins, I have two Hansens out in my garage(with fins). McDing
That fin system was Hansens own,kinda came in with the hansen hustler and was used up to the Hansen early Lopez boards but the bahne box came and took over.Good tips by all.
What about simply swapping over to a more common fin system? I mean what happens if you break this fin you get? You’ll be in the same boat all over again. You could probably glass in a new fin box for about the same price then have the benefits of modern/readily available fin selection.
Hey Kirk---------So just for fun, what fin was Hansen famous for before he came up with this system? Hint; It was a glass-on. As an ex-surf shop flunky you should know this bit of trivia. It was nick-named after an airplane. On a serious note when you look at the advanced windsurf/sailboard fins and systems in use today, the thru-the-deck system of Hansens’ was pretty far ahead of its time. McDing
Here’s another view. I inherited a later Hansen 50-50 with the bolt through fin missing. I got a template for the correct fin(maybe from McDing?) and had rainbow fin in Watsonville make me a glass-on of it. We filled the box with a piece of foam glassed over it and glassed on the fin. That way we could remove the fin, carefully remove the glass and foam and use an original fin if we ever found one. Ended up being cheap, looking authentic and not disturbing the “collectors value” of the board.Good luck and ride that dog!
Steiny----------- Now that is fully creative! I’m lucky that the two Hansens I have had fins. they are both great riders. That is a great way to keep the board restorable at a later time, but be able to ride it until you find a fin or restore the board. McDing
I’m the guy with the 6"10" from the late sixties… at least that is what I was told by the guy I bought it off of. It too has the bolt system hole without the fin and bolt. It’s called a wonderbolt system and you can still get the bolt new. Finding an orignal fin is tough ( I want one if anyone knows where I can get one ). I called Hansen surfshop trying to get some info on my board and Josh Hansen told me about the guy in Florida who makes em but he couldn’t find his name or number, so I was glad to see the reply that had the info on him. I also read on the net that boards with them were only made after 1970 which concerns me because of the year that I was told the board was made. He also told me he was the second owner which would put it at around 1968.
The fellow in Florida is Juan Rodriquez, in Sarasota, and his company is One World Surf Designs. Phone number (941) 925 0007. Juan’s a great guy, and has built some terrific fins for me over the years.
The Hansen fin system was conceived by Buzzy Smole, and refined for production by Don Okey, a pioneer Windansea surfer, and engineer. The concept dates from late 1967, or early 1968. It all came about while I was shaping there, so I had a front row seat. The fins were made of Polypropylene.