Twisted and warped fin. Did I cause it somehow?

General Discussion
1

I just picked up my thick Linden single that was intended to be used with a starfin but out of curiosity started switching my fin out just to see what the board would look like with some of my other ones.

Long story short, I stuck in an 8.5" Skip Frye flex fin and it’s totally warped and crooked. My question is this…is there any way I caused this or could the fin have been faulty to begin with? And if I did cause it to warp or twist, is there any way to fix it? The fin is about 8 months old and has been used a number of times in another short board. When not in use, it’s just been sitting around…not in the sun or in any environment I can think of that could possibly tweak a fin.

Any ideas?

2

One more question, since the fin is made to flex anyway, would a warped fin cause much of a performance loss? Assuming the fin has been warped the whole time, I’ve never noticed anything bad about it’s performance.

3

Hey Jettylocal,

I’ve had plenty of flex fins go twisty on me through the tried-and-true combo of hot day and unshaded minivan.

Try submerging the fin into hot/boiling water for a minute or so, then placing it on a flat surface with some weight on it.

I’ve also heard that you can put it in the oven on a low setting (fighting fire with fire, so to speak), but that freaks me out a bit.

4

Thanks for the tip. I’ll try the hot water first.

5

Thanks again retrosexual. I cooked up the fin and the heat alone seemed to bring the fin almost back to its original state. Hopefully, putting some weight on it for a bit will fix the rest of it. Appreciate you taking the time to help.

Have a great weekend!