"longboard" center fin boxes, but smaller?

General Discussion
1

Hi!

I am a long-time swaylocks lurker.

I recently happened upon a few old 70’s-80’s boards that have a weird finbox in them.  It looks just like a modern longboard center fin box (long, with a slot for the metal pin and a slot along the bottom for the screw and plate).  But, they’re just too thin for an actual longboard fin.

 

One of these old boards has a “modern” longboard center fin box for the center fin, but then has two side bites that are those smaller longboard-fin type boxes that just take thinner fins.  For reference, a modern longboard center fin box measures 8.6mm wide (i.e. it can fit a fin who’s base is 8.6mm wide), but these older boxes are only 7.5mm wide.  Longboard center fins are too wide to fit, but they are otherwise identical.

Another one uses these small fins as just the center fin, with two side fins glassed on.

 

I’ve tried getting ahold of some of these fins, but with no luck.  local shops come up empty, no leads on the internet.  So I have two questions:  first, anyone know of a resource for getting these fins?  And two, and maybe more importantly, anyone know what these are called?  Local surf shops and guys don’t have any idea, most people have never seen them before and think I’m crazy or really dumb until I show them.  I’d be really nice to know what they’re actually called so I can scour ebay or the internet or start calling surf shops that are a little further away without wasting 25 minutes each time trying to explain these boxes.

 

Any insight would be really, really appreciated.

 

Thanks so much!

2

Bahne style boxes have been made in all different sizes through the years.  Pretty sure that’s what your looking at.

 

3

A photo of the fin boxes would be helpful for identification.

4

If its a matter of 1.1mm (.043in) being an issue of clearance, Get a standard longboard fin and some sand paper and a wood block and knock it down. Just take half (.55mm) off one side and the other half off the other.

Sandpaper is a pretty crude method but it should be no proplem to do. 

In any wood or machine shop it should be a 10 minute job.

5

Just throwing it out there…over the years we’ve had a few people with the same issue and it turns out to be an old out of production style box. Star fin system is usually the one that pops up the most for the side fin boxes and gregloehr has it right about the bahne boxes. Better bust out the router and get those boxes out of there! :slight_smile:

6

Fins Unlimited, until fairly recently, made a short box for slightly thinner fins.  A quick check of their current models shows some variation in the overall width and lengths but consistent slot width throughout their different models.

http://store.finsunlimited.com/finboxes.html

It may be that some other manufacturer still makes boxes with the narrower slot.  I bought a couple not that long ago but I just make my own fins to fit.  I haven't been able to find any of the thinner tabbed fins.

Another argument for sticking with proven fin box designs... The different companies seem to come and go and it's a bit of a drag to have a good board with an obsolete box/plugs.

 

7

well, it seems that routing them out is the way to go.  Oh, well.  

 

But, here are photos anyways!  just for reference.

 

EDIT:  No idea if the photos are showing.  I attached them and inserted them, I don’t see them so I’m adding direct links.  If y’all are seeing them three times, so sorry.

 

here goes:

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8

DO NOT ROUTER OUT THE FIN BOXES !

I'm not a collector but I can see something here. Most comments were made before BigBunker posted photos....

Swaylock's has some very good eyes when it comes to old boards....Wait for more comments before moving foreward....

Please take photos of the complete surfboard, the Logo....and.....any Shapers marks or serial numbers...and more photos of the fin set up.............I'm learning about classic boards........

Thanks.....Stingray.

 

 

9

Those side boxes don’t look like FU boxes. Where’s the plates?

My half-assed guess is that those boxes are some ‘off brand’ type that came along at some point in time as a way to add side bites. It would help (maybe) if the age of the board and the label were known.

10

Hmm.  I’m inclined to think it’s nothing special, I kind of think the guy I got it from knew quite a bit about surfboards… or, at least, he had a ton of them!  But I’m happy to oblige.  I’ll take photos of it shortly, but here’s what I remember off the top of my head:

It’s a long, longboard.  I want to say 10’6

It was custom shaped for some guy (craig?) by electric duck surfboards.  From my research, I gather that electric duck is a company run by Mike Richardson, and while I don’t know if he’s still active, I think he was at least just a few years ago.  The website seems to bo copyrighted 2011, and there’s still contact info on there, so my guess is he’s still around.  The guy i got this from said that it was from the 80’s.  Beyond this little bit of info, I don’t know much but I will take and post photos.

 

The other board that uses this box is a pearson shortboard, and it uses it just as the center fin. This is what made me think it was from the 80’s, and why i assumed they were fairly common.  The board looks pretty darn original to me, and I figured bob pearson would’ve used whatever was popular at the time.

 

It’s so completely weird that these boxes aren’t immediately recognizable to y’all…  there’s so much knowledge here, I must live in a really weird bubble where these fins and boxes seem to be more common than they are.  My first experience with these fins was looking through a bunch of old, used, mismatched fins from some “crap box” at a surfshop (looking for a match for another strange fin that turned out to be funny looking because it was from an off-brand foamie board).  I found a few old “longboard” style fins (w/ hole for a screw and metal tab thing), but they were sidebite size.  Even at the time, they looked a little small but I compared them to each other (there were very few, like 4 or 5) and they all matched perfectly so I decided the size was an optical illusion.  I ended up buying some rad hot pink one with some pretty big holes in it (not broken, it was made with holes from the factory, on purpose. looks like a swiss cheese fin kinda).  Took it home, stuck it in my friend’s longboard as a joke–it was like 4 inches tall, and will all those holes, he would’ve just slid around forever.  it had some play, but I thought, wow, that’s weird, and put it in a box and forgot about it for years.

flash forward to today.  there’s a dude around here that has a ton of old boards, and sells them a lot.  I buy these boards from him, can’t find fins that fit, go back to his place with calipers, and start measuring…  that’s when I realize that these are just different finboxes, and not longboard boxes that have been squashed or warped in the heat or something.  So this guy has a ton of boards, and out of all his vintage boards, a number of them have these boxes.

 

All this makes me think that they were pretty common.  But, since the largest surfing knowledge base in the world didn’t immediately jump and go “Oh, these are…”, i wonder if it’s a geography thing?

 

I live on the california coast, so that surfshop with a few of these was on the coast.  Pearson is in santa cruz, electric duck is in southern california.  This surfboard collector/seller guy lives near me, so… i wonder if this was some weird california fad in the 80’s or something?  But you can see how, with my limited experience with them, they could seem like they were SO common!

 

I’ll get those photos ASAP, but I didn’t even have breakfast yet.  Thanks for all the input, insights, and information so far!

11

my last post got posted twice somehow…  this is an edit to remove a LONG double post.

Sorry  :)

12

The easy option if you must have sidebites imo would be to find some offishal side bites add some glass to one side to build them up to the required thickness then drill the holes and glue in a pin at the back. The tang on base extends forward of the leading edge. Works fine even on the plastic ones. I have a centre from a thruster set with this done to it. Would probably work with futures to.

13

Damm....stop over thinking........type less , surf more. I think you have an old board that was retrofited with side bites....

But the side bites are vintage.....70's - 80's stuff....OK......so the board may be very old.....maybe not.....

 

 

14

 

ok.  sorry.  i was just trying to get information and learn.

thanks for your help everyone.

15

Hi Big Bunker,,,,,guys like SamyA and BillT are really awesome with vintage surfboards.....they need photos of the complete surfboard. And photos of things like logos and shapers marks. Sorry to be an ass....I'm learning about old surfboards too. I have a shortboard that I bought new in 1980 or 81. The side fins are glassed on but the center fin box looks just like what you posted....surf was fun today!...and fun surf is what it's all about!

Stingray

16

Something about this surfboard caught my eye? Look at the stringer..wide with a very dark wood...

One side box has been blown out and repaired...but look at that stringer....

 

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17

What about the stringer has caught your attention? It looks to be a very typical 3/4" redwood stringer, to me. While that board is obviously newer, that type of stringer was standard in 60s longboards.

18

I think John Mellor hit it on the head. The standard Fins Unlimited box is for 3/8" thick fins. To save weight when multifin boards came out, they made side boxes to take 5/16" thick fins. Those numbers match up with what you measured. It might even be marked Fins Unlimited on the bottom of the box. So you can either make your own fins, sand down some 3/8" thick fins, or buy some new fins. I would call Fins Umlimited and see if they still produce any 5/16" fins. If they have a panel of 5/16" already laid up, they could cut you out any template you want. You would also need the narrower fin plate. They should have that as well.