survey on broken fins: please comment!

General Discussion
1

Futures and FCS fins claim that their fins are engineered to break before the fin box breaks…so that there’s no damage to the board.

 

I’ve had about 4 fin boxes break with Futures and 4 with FCS.  I’ve never once had a fin break.

 

If you could post your experience, it would be appreciated.  Feel free to post other fin companies too.  Some like this:

 

Failure Rate:

Futures box: 4
Futures fin: 0

FCS box: 4
FCS fin: 0

 

Let’s just post numbers and not feelings about some company.  Keep it somewhat objective.  I’ll add them up in the end.

2

Oh, some companies have a few different fin boxes, so please specify which one.

3

ben

i dont think it is very honest to just post how many plugs and or fins broke, because the circumstances were uncontrolled

but fcs plugs to break easily, not the fusions. i had one fusion box just jammed down to the deck, als a thai made board.

when i dried the thai board repair with my hot air blower, the bottom just wrinkled up! some shitty epoxy man, RR never wrinkles up like that

cheers

4

i have had futures fins break and box ok with composite fins . with fiberglass fins i have ripped out future boxes and cracked the area surrounding the grub screw , the fin would jiggle and not be tight after.

 

old black fcs plugs have been ripped out with composite and glass fins . two times i have snapped the base off with glass flex and i have cracked the tabs of all my pro core fins .

no issues with fusions and my G-10 or glass fins ( knock on wood ! )

5

How do you keep breaking fins?

6

Cracked one Probox cant insert - had a keel fin in it. Not clear how it happened.

I’ve had an FCS plug come loose when I hit a rock paddling out - had a fibre glass fin in the board.

7

Out of a dozen or so boards I made with Futures boxes I never had any problems at all. The majority of those were heavily glassed though, 6oz. bottom lam with 4oz patches over the boxes.

I really can’t see how you would come close to breaking a Futures fin without tearing the box out to some extent.

8

Yeah I was going to mention the same thing. I would think a box/plug would break or tear out to some extent after hitting rocks, reef or sand bars.

Are you talking about breaking during surfing, like hard bottom turns or crazy airs/re-entrys?

9

The fins I’ve lost have all been from impact with rocks.

One FCS with the round plugs:  Fin broke and glass cracked at box. This was a “professionally” made board, with a light glass job.

RedX:  @ fins - no box/board damage.  I’ve done all these myself.  Minimum 12oz glass with caps.

10

Well i must be doing somthing wrong.

Lock Box 5 broken boxes didn’t find the fins.

FCS I have a bucket with 9 right side singles no matching fin all broke on front side bottom turns- I have broken at least  4 other ones.The boxes break with impact- foot rocks ect 4boxes.

Probox 1 box impact break so far.No fins

O’Fish’L broken 2 fins on bottom turns. 1box

Futures 3 fins. 2 boxes

I should add that I have ridden FCS the most and now ProBox with homemade & FCS fins.

11

In almost 30 years surfing I've broken out perhaps 8 fins.  Every single time it was due to hard contact between body and board.  I don't think a particular fin system would have made any difference.  In fact one could make the point that glassed on fins do less actual damage to the board than a fin system when they break.  I've seen plenty of ripped out fin systems and the result is never pretty.  I've actually seen few instances where a fin system fin broke off and the board was undamaged.

12

    Howzit Ben, Never broke a fin in a fin system but plenty of glass ons were broken. Aloha,Kokua

13

i could see how a glass on would do less overall damage, being that it is not "IN" the foam. if you rip out a box, or bust off a glass on, either way its going to be a spendy fix.