Has anyone tried this system? Im wondering what kind of feedback this system has been getting and want to get an idea how they feel or if they work at all.
Yes, people have tried it. No, it is not a revolution. The real problem with fins that flex in the rear is that gains they make in angle of attack are partially negated by decrements in performance from changes in concavity ie: foiling. You really want a fin to be concave on its high pressure surface, and convex on its low pressure surface (like a mainsail on a sailboat tacking hard), a speeedfin or other flex fin is the opposite. So instead of magic, you just get a little more sliding into your turns.
Most of the information which i can find (and its not much) these speedfins get mixed reviews.
I have not ridden them yet, but I have put them on a few longboards as side bites. I hve gotten a great response on how they work. Mark Scott
could you elaborate and tell us what these people that rode them said exactly?
You want feedback, OK…I’ve been fixing 2 or 3 a week at my repair shop in socal. Boxes fly right out seems like. Too much resin.
did anyone mention how the speedfins felt before they broke off?
Don’t ask mick fanning, his were photoshopped onto his board.
is that a joke or are you saying that Fanning doesnt use speedfins? If so how do you know?
we put them on 3 peoples boards. have had no bad input on them. they seem to like them pretty good … no exact details on them tho
just wondering on the ones that are being repaired, are they being glassed at the same place? I’ve heard they’re not much different than fcs.
Friend of mine just told me that when the speedfins rep was showing them the speedfins he told him that they are redesigning the plug and how its installed. Perhaps this is due to the prblems some of you are talking about.
Fanning uses glass-ons, and every board that he had at the lowers contest had glassed-on fins. Running joke in this industry is the hideous photoshop job done on micks board in the last surfermag. Designing a fin system is easy, designing one that works, is a whole nother thing. Literally take years of R&D, and feedback from team riders. In this new world of photoshop,tomfoolery, and colorful full page ads, it seems that many are bypassing the “test-trial period” and going the “pull the wool over your eyes” route. Not just with fin systems, surftech is guilty of the same thing. Lame IMHO.
i had simular concerns with the apparent magic of mick and speeed fins as i see his surfing here at our home breaks all year round! i spoke to speeed fins and they were happy to say that mick is signed on as a influence and a developer too. they are making him a template as all of thier current temps didnt suit him. they are also addressing his concerns of weight and strength of the plugs. they have a newer improved version very close to ready. 6 boards with protos of the new ones were sent to him in europe last week. although im sceptical of the wisdom of testing new products mid contest im sure they dont want to waste their aussie dollars on photshop ads for the rest of his developing career! we have put in three sets here at our factory and found no major concerns and our customers have been quite happy! we havent seen any broken ones! http://www.feraldave.com
Dave, did you get any feedback as to how the speedfins actually ride?
After closely inspecting the broken ones that have come thru my shop, it is obvious that it is very difficult to contol shrinkage of the resin, as well as overheating of the resin due to the large acummulation of resin used to install the box. So far I’ve repaired 3 broken tails(broke right at front edge of rear box), and several that were beginning to buckle just up from the rear box. Also had one that a girl brought in with the box completely out and fin still in it. She said it came out while trying to remove the fin. As far as performance, i’ve heard some good things about how they ride, and some not so good things, probably 50/50 ratio. A couple of the shops that speedfins convinced to switch over (volume wise) to their system have switched back to other systems to avoid any further damage to their reputations. And the speeedfin guys are running around here all pissed off over it. Goin’ about it all wrong! R&D first…full page ads later.
feedback wise they coulnd not tell any marginal increases, as far as shrinkage of resin etc. im sure that if you used gp resin and set it of at 1% you will not have those problems. im sure and tom from redex will agree that 70% percent of removable fin problems are with the factorys fitting them… trying to speed up production and taking short cuts not following the reccomendations of the maker! http://feraldave.com
This is precisely the problem! Even at 1% mek, it starts to cook when you have that much resin in one spot. It is difficult to moniter shop installations, and i would agree that many failures could be attributed to poor or improper installs. Ever seen a board with FCS that has yellowness on the deck side? Resin gets hot when you have alot of it accumulated. Any veteran of surfboard construction would agree that poyester resin is not the best glue. It works way better in thin layers. Epoxy resins complicate the problem even more.
GP resin sets off 3x slower than surfboard polyester… try it and see… way less airbubbles too! we even found lately reparing fcs that when you rout out the old plug if there is still some old resin left around the foam, when you set the new ones they will have shrinkage gaps… as the old resin doesnt allow for the expansion/shrinkage of the new resin as it sets! we made a repair jig 1.5mm oversize now for routing out repairs! http://feraldave.com