Anyone tried building their own fins?

I'm in need of a smaller wave fin, and thought I might experiment with a glass/carbon laminate over a timber ply core (not 'plywood' though). It shouldn't cost much to do seeing as I have all the gear already, and if it works out, should be significantly less expensive than buying a new one from the shop. The part I'm least confident in at the moment is making the fin heads.

Already got someone else lined up for a freestyle fin just by thinking out-loud.

So, if anyone has any advice born of experience, I'd be keen to hear...

I'm pretty sure you can buy the tops. Chinook used to make them, i remember seeing them in a mag a few years back

I know Decrepit makes his own fins.
Pretty sure there are made of cedar with some layers of glass over the top.

He's enjoy a soujourn overseas at the moment, but send him a PM sure he would fill you in on what he does.

I purchase a base, or head, from surfsailaustralia.com.au once, (they dont seem to have them on their website at the moment) to re-use an old fin. Worked well.

Beware. It is not as easy as first thought. It takes alot of pacience and time to make a working fin, by that I mean even shape on both sides of the fin, nice profile, etc. I tried to make a new freestyle fin once. Not one of those people with the patience and ended up with a working but slow to plane and easy to slide out fin. So what i am saying is "It's not easy"

So if you're looking for an asymmetrical (sp?) fin for those specialized wavesailing scenarios...homemade might be the way to go..? Cos getting one perfectly even on both sides is gonna be a bugger...

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555 said...


.... The part I'm least confident in at the moment is making the fin heads.

Can you use the Select 'conversion' bases? I saw them in a shop and wondered if you could use them. I think you would just need to make the base of your fin to suit, which I think is just a flat surface.

what fin box style are you making ? i've done a fiew tuttle,used a fin box out of an old board,waxed inside as release agent,filled with resin,routed out groove[re-heading fin] epoxied in,drilled small holes through both and pinned with stainless weld rod,drilled fin bolt holes and tapped thread into fin head,didnt even use cross dowells[the brass threaded bits]

The wave fin is a US box, but the freestyle fin will be powerbox. Making a mold off an existing fin had occurred to me, it's more the strength of joining the foil to the head, and getting it 'square' that I'm a little uncertain of at this point.

I have a plan to aid with the symmetry of the fins - by laminating multiple thin layers of timber under some serious vacuum I will get a very clear 'guide' from the glue lines. It should also stiffen the whole thing up (hopefully!). A profile gauge, and some molding putty will also help.

It's a relatively small and cheap project, so if it takes a few goes to learn enough tricks to make a good one, it's not really a problem. There are plenty of 'proper' foil coordinates available online, so shaping a foil that works shouldn't be too hard.

I'll pester Decrepit and see if he has any pearls of wisdom to share - thanks Grumps.

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Wet Willy said...

So if you're looking for an asymmetrical (sp?) fin for those specialized wavesailing scenarios...homemade might be the way to go..? Cos getting one perfectly even on both sides is gonna be a bugger...

And once you've gone down the asymmetric path (my spell checker says 2 ms) - 90 degrees becomes just a random angle. Err one way for more speed for jumping, the other for super locked in bottom turns.

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Ian K said...

Wet Willy said...

So if you're looking for an asymmetrical (sp?) fin for those specialized wavesailing scenarios...homemade might be the way to go..? Cos getting one perfectly even on both sides is gonna be a bugger...

And once you've gone down the asymmetric path (my spell checker says 2 ms) - 90 degrees becomes just a random angle. Err one way for more speed for jumping, the other for super locked in bottom turns.

Ooh, spooky...