FCS Curved fins

[MIK911]

What role (if any) do these carbon fiber curved fins have on a kneeboard?
What's the theory on how they work?
If used on a quad fin kneeboard, would they work best in front, with a smaller rear fin?

thanks

[stu]

Hi Mike
I have used them on a 6' Flashpoint tri and expecting them to do what it said on the side of the can ! which is to make the board looser and feel shorter they did nothing but lock the back of the board down and made it much stiffer I have know idea what it would do to a quad much the same I would think.
Stu.

[WillP]

Mike,

I have a set of them that you're welcome to borrow anytime. Have never used them on a quad but it makes my thrusters feel really short. Call me for a sesh. I'm going to my house in baja this weekend. PM me if you're into it.

Cheers.

WILL

[MIK911]

Thanks for the info. Anyone else have any experience good/bad?

WillP--thanks for the offer.
I've got a pair of curved FCS (came with my Becker ), but never used it. Just wondering how it would/should respond.
I'm camping with the family N of Santa Barbara this wkend.
Hey--I was longboarding at the Cove couple wks ago, and met a guy kneeboarding up there named Mike. Know him?

[WillP]

Hi Mike,

Was he a young guy? If he was riding a twin fin fish then yeah I know him. Surfs RAT and Hags most of the time.

[Beeline2.0]

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[MIK911]

Beeline----ahhhh. Makes sense. Perhaps i'll try it out on the rear, with a larger FCS G5 in front. With the lousy waist high slop/walls (yesterday El Porto), i don't think it'll make much of a difference.

WillP--this guy 'mike' is more like my age (40's). Anyway, will probably see him around.
Have a good trip to Baja!

[wanderer]

i purchased a set of large mrxg fins they are very stiff and the load of your turn tranfers to your fcs plugs which can lay your plugs over.

i also surf with the large mr glass fins which i love but the fcs plugs cant take the load of these as well & i have gone through 2 sets of plugs & are giving up & getting two of my boards set with the mr's glassed in now.

hopefully this will be the finish of an exercise of costly fin experimentation

so the things to be aware of with the graphite fins are
no flex so extra load transfered to plugs
if you bump them on rocks or people/boards the fins shatter

[red]

I don't understand why the FCS fins don't have a base on them to seat them on the deck better (like glassed in fins) This would help spread the load off the plugs and would probably help with water flow issues (with a little touch of silicon)

[W.G. Facenda]

I can't understand why anyone would use FCS instead of Futures or Lockbox?

[Shelfbreak]

It allows one to lose a wide variety of fins under many different scenarios.
My last three incidents involved a rock, my backside and a turtle. All three required replacement of at least one plug and lost the fins on two of these occasions.

[strudle]

I don't understand why the FCS fins don't have a base

Speeed fins have a good base. They make some big fins too that aren't on their web site which work well on Kneeboards with a smaller middle fin. The honey comb glass fins are excellent.
http://www.speeedfins.com/

[Beeline2.0]

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[hart]

FCS has the most comprehensive fin-type selection there is

Lockbox don't answer my emails and Futures have lousy fin-types to use with kneeboards..

AND

They don't allow me to 'split' fin-sets on a board-by-board basis

its hard to deal with them 'professionally' and count on the outcome (like heaps of different selections per month)

Glass-flex Al Merricks are a good start to railfins

Glass-flex GYU centre as standard equipment is a great start for a Thruster

The rest revolves around you

..and FCS gives it to U

hart

ps

speeed? I haven't spoken to one surfer (that I know personally) that has recommended this system. The jury is still out

[Headwax.]

wanderer

did the original fcs fitter fit the plugs according to specs?

the MR glass fins are much better than carbon fibre I suspect
(based on observations of the 'sunny' ..... no flex is dead flex)


red

last tests I read on glassed in fins as compared to fin box fins indicated that the rovings around the fins generated more lift . I'd imagine any square profile base is the same. (Shouldn't you be PHdeeing?)


Hart

speeed fins have a flexable base?

those ridiculous keel fins I made out of plastic breadboard were fixed at the front - 2/3rds of the base not attached to the board

I think it was an advantage for a keel fin - on a hunch keel fins only - and who needs keel fins? gave me my first (minimal) taste of quad boost....

on topick to MIK911

I think claw when i see these fins,

on the turn water hitting the base of the fin, and consequently travelling up the fin would be "captured", not leaving by the top of the fin, but sent (relatively) towards the back of the board ... I'll leave it up to you to decide what more water off the back would generate

I'd like to see them with a curve that unravelled the harder you pushed them. The harder the turn, the taller the fins.


the guys I know who ride them as outside tri fins tell me they plane/hydrofoil too much on larger waves

I'd imagine they went best at the front on a quad

but I'd like to imagine they'd "close the slot" when used as a back fin

on FCS in general:

we had fin boxes once, they are still out there,
whoever said kneeboarders had to be sheep?

you can mold your own fin (and a good fin at that) for a couple of bucks....

how much does it cost FCS?

yet we pay... what, a hundred plus bucks .... for the convenience of being sheep?

shame really, how we like to be shorn