I have just purchased a custom new stick and I notice when the fins are inserted there is a gap at the front between the bottom of the board and the underside of the fin. (of about 2 - 3mm)

Ideally this should be fully flush with the board for improved performance and not to leave a spot where potentially sea weed could get caught.

But - is it worth worrying about ?

and if so , can you simply sand down the fin tabs to drop the fin to the right height or other ?

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Ioz said...


and if so , can you simply sand down the fin tabs to drop the fin to the right height or other ?

yep sure can

I have never heard of this??? Um silly question but any chance you can unscrew the grubscrew and push the fin in? Or is the fin plug a "one off a kind reject"???
Surely I cant be that gullable

Yeah, sounds a bit weird. If you have FCS, the plugs should be a fair bit deeper than the fin tabs.

If it isn't the grub screw getting in the way, is there anything in the plug? Like resin?

I have a set of M3's that go in and sit flush,

but now the new set *&^%$!@

Nothing in the bottom of the box and the allen screws where fully un done

looks like just a slight difference in the fin parameters that is not allowing it to sit down on the board flat.

I sanded a small bit of the tabs and did not seem to make a difference, now all i can do is sand some more tomorrow to try to bed id down.

The tab depth looks pretty close to the box depth.

Time to get prepped for Desert Point and Subawa next week.

I had this on a newish board recently. It was because of the board's tail rocker being different to the curve of the fin base. The fin manufacturer has to try to get a curve that represents a good average of all tail rockers out there but it won't fit all. You can sand away the fin base or the tab as required, no problems. I did this and ended up with a pretty good fit.

who shaped the board????
www.impactwroughtiron.com.au

Are they actually FCS branded or are they a generic fin from an FCS mould? I have seen a lot of these on ebay

No they are genuine fcs fins,

this leads to the next questions -

Should the board manufacture actually take the fins out of the packet and pre fit them to the board ensuring a snug fit ?

Recently I bought a board of the rack, Warner and when I put one of the side fins in the rear tab wasnt sitting down properly, on closer inspection I noticed white stuff (sanding sludge) at the bottom of the plug. It had gone hard so I used a fin key and scraped the crap out. No probs.
The other problem with FCS is that some fins dont fit flush along the bottom as people are saying. One board I have M5s they fit perfectly then used sunnys and at the front of the fin there would be 1mm gap, no matter how I try to screw them in they never fit flush with the board. It does depend on what fin and board combo used.