I just got my wife a used 9.0 Donald Takayama Stephen Slater Surflite. We picked out a 9" fin for her and I screwed it in pretty tight. On her first wave, the fin came off!! And I don’t mean ripped out of the box, but the screw unscrewed, somehow the fin shifted so that it released … and the little square nut also came out?!! A friend said he had the same problems and its not the fin or fin screw but some issue with the fin boxes used for these epoxy longboards. When we were at a local surf shop looking for a new fin, I asked the guy there if he knew anything about these particular fin boxes and he also told me they had issues - that they were not precisely to spec. He also said he had seen people jam all sorts of things into these finboxes from wood chips to whatever to keep the fin in place. Anyone else confirm this? And more importantly, is there a less “ghetto hack” fix to this aside from replacing the entire fin box? Thanks!
Well to start with, they use an Asian pirated version of the Fins Unlimited box and obviously not a very good one.
The FU box is a 2 piece design allowing for a precise downward taper, the further you turn the screw, the tighter it gets. The Asian boxes have no taper, so any other fin bedsides what they provide will fit properly. The fin moved until the front dowel pin was inline with it’s entry slot, the rear tab broke after that.
I’ve lost fins out of the box before, pretty baffling
My mate has the 8'6'' version for the last 6 years or so. Never had a problem. I like PU boards but that model is a good one.
I made a fat foiled fin for a friend's Surftech and due to excess bondo build up over the box, the fin couldn't drop in far enough for the pivot pin to engage with the horizontal slot inside. The fin fit several other boards fine so I drew the conclusion that it was the Bondo that was the problem, not the fin.
Other than that, many fin boxes are loose to some extent. Sometimes it's hard to say if it's the fin or the box. Just shim the fin tab and be happy you have a box. You can't adjust or replace the fin if it's glassed on. Common shim materials are: McDonald's straws, business cards (plastic ones are best), electrician's tape, any thin plastic used as bubble packaging, etc.