NEW FCS II Screwless Fin System! You guys seen this?

Here is a short review.

Condition: Of the tail end of a NW swell. The Bowl, Hanalei Bay.
Wave Height:5-6 feet, occasional overhead set.

FCS rep told me they made this system with 2 goals in mind:

1) To reduce the amount of time it takes people to screw their fins in.
2) To simplify the fin "buying" process.

Essentially, FCS is now going to offer "4" varieties of these fins: carver, acceleration, stability, and something else. You buy the fin that fins in that range.

I tried the carver variety and it sucked. I like a particular fin, with a particular material, and with this system, that goes out of the way. I primarily surf on the R-2, MF-1, PG-7C, or G-AM. All are stiffer with a larger base. The rake vary.

This system throws fins for fins that fit in the four categories above. So its not like a can pick a stability fin made of carbon right now. Also, no compatibility between both systems.

anyway, YEA, its easy to pop the fins in. But how freaking long does it take to screw fins in anyway? its not like I am saving one hour.

The fin is pretty solid in the slot. But what happens if I hit reef? The fin will pop out, plain and simple.

Also, on anything bigger, the fin does move a bit. That made me nervous. I will stick to my screw fins for now, as most local people hated it.

 

I like the overall construction of the new Boxes better, so I would like to have the new screwless box, but I prefer my fins. Its already hard enough to decipher if buying a template will will overlap with a template I already have.For me here on the right coast my K2-1 five fin set, and a larger Thruster set of flat sided fins is all i need.

 

I can't wait for the magnetic fin system

 

hhmm... well I like it! we will see if its that much better than the old screwless ones

 

what if we are all talkin trash about these fins and they actually work really really good. lol Don't the pros surf with them before they actually come out?

 

There should be a McMaster Carr close to you. I use similar hex "slugs" whenever I have a leaky freeze or galley plug on my Landcruiser. They have any size you want and the best taps I have ever found... of course you could use a low budget Horrible Fright tap set on plastic with no worries. But I prefer to use the best when it comes to an engine block.

Actually, you can pretty much find anything you will ever need at McMaster Carr...

 

I saw this system yesterday and I am impressed.. it is fully compatible with all other fcs style tab fins (using grub screws like you would normally) plus the new fins have a longer tab system which will give better rigidity (imo) and yeah there's only 4 types of fin to start with but they are the most common shapes/sizes.. and they'd be silly not to add to the range.. there were a few questions I raised to do with the installation and I'm pretty satisfied the system is a good one...

 

Waaaah Waaaah only 4 types of fins. You nerds that think you can tell the difference between a fin made of carbon fiber bee's wax nut skin and recycled aluminum tire tread are fashion victims to the goddamn placebo effect. I.E. there's no difference, it's a ****ing fin.

Go put you Mick Fanning signatures on, I'm sure that's why he pulls the hits he does at snapper, yeah it's the fin. Meanwhile stick to flailing down the line, hoping to connect two turns before collapsing into cardiac arrest like the rest of us.

 

just b/c YOU can't tell the difference between fin templates, foils, & materials doesn't mean no one else can.

 

soooo dope sick right now

 

Hope that's not directed at me there chap...? I'm not here to start a flame war either..
Admittedly I'm new on here and but I'm not new to the intended. dea of different fin templates and designs.. But I see where you're coming from the idea that anyone could tell the difference between a glass flex M5 and a performance core M5 just by surfing "blind" does raise some questions for sure you'd have to be on the same board all day on perfect waves (imo) to notice the swap and only if you are a pro surfer.. Where the differences apply are where the specialist fins come in.. For instance the 3ds range, c-drive and the crv range and big differences in sizes, I personally am in the group that the couldn't tell between different fins of the same template but I can certainly tell the difference when things start to get a bit exciting I wouldn't spend a lot on something very similar to something I already have but I am all for trying something new, which they won't technically have in the fcsII range..

 

that's your opinion! not a fact!

 

good for you...loser

 

this is the biggest issue for me.. in general fcs fins have a bit more flex at the tabs than glass-ons and futures. i use flexy fins anyway so i prefer futures. also one less screw. but i tend to rotate two sets of fins; flexy for smaller surf and stiffer for larger stuff and yes i can feel the difference. ymmv

 

Seems to me like FCS is trying to claim back some of the market share they're losing to the third party fin makers. A while back, FCS sued SurfCo claiming that sale of third-party knock off was patent infringement. Unfortunately the appeals court disagreed. It almost made its way to the Supreme Court, but this is what they found instead:

"The court of appeals correctly concluded that Surfco's sale of replacement surfboard fins facilitates a permissible modification of the surfboard owner's property and does not infringe FCS's patents for a surf craft with a removable fin system. That fact-based decision is correct and is not in conflict with any decision of this Court, with any other Federal Circuit decision, or with any decision of any other court of appeals. Further review by this Court is not warranted." Judgement found here

FCS also sued OAM (and possibly others?) in similar infringement cases and lost. My guess is that they've devised this new screwless technology and patented it in attempt to boot profitability. Say what you want, but from a pure business perspective it sounds like a smart and necessary tactic.

 

I have a screwless fin system... put the F*cking fin into the board in the right place and leave it there.

 

That would make an epic surf movie, better than all this hipster guitar plinking dribble, and there'd be no nose riding since it would all be filmed in court.

 

By the way the most efficient way to install fins ( hydrodynamically and structurally) is to set them into the board (glass in) and have a 2 to 5mm diameter fillet at the base.. no big glass on fillet and no drag inducing hardware and boxes.

 

"...the presence of fillets can decrease the overall drag of the fin, even though the viscous drag is increased due to the added surface area, the smoothing of the sharp edges between the fin and the board causes pressure distributions to be spread over a larger area. However, this decrease in drag is restricted to double-foiled fins such as the middle fin, and there is very little noticeable difference when fillets are added to the side fins, possible due to the fact that the whole inside edge is flat, so the effect on drag of filleting the base is less pronounced than for a double foiled fin (middle fin).
However, even for the middle fin the total drag decrease is so marginal that it is unlikely to be noticed in practise, even by expert surfers, but the fillets do create a substantial increase in vertical lift, which may partially explain the more buoyant, lighter feel to glassed-on fins, and their preference in use by surfers on the professional circuit."

From "Optimization of Surfboard Fin Design for Minimum Drag by Computational Fluid Dynamics" by Lavery, Foster, Carswell and Brown, 2005.

 

I can't agree with you on that one, brother. Materials, construction, and design (template, foil, etc...) all play a significant role in fin performance. I'm no pro, that's for sure... but I can certainly tell the difference between glass flex and PC. In fact, at one point I was so convinced that one out performed the other that I spent a nice chunk of change switching over. For most shortboards, PCs are my choice of construction.