Tropical Blends Surf Stand Up Paddle Board Fin Talk Video – Part 1

[singlepic=2784,188,125] Jim of Tropical Blends Surf talks about the different type of fin box that they have on their surfboards and why they use such. He also explains to us the importance of fins and how they affect performance on any watercraft.He says that you don't have to necessarily change the board if you're not satisfied with its performance, and that the fin is a really cheap way to change the board.Tropical Blends Surf puts a huge emphasis on fins and has on a display a variety from different manufacturers.(click thumbnail to launch video)Man: You mentioned before about the fins, therersquo;s a specific fin forhellip;?Tropical Blends: Thatrsquo;s a really good question. We had options when we had these boards built and I actually listened to the manufacturer and there was quite a bit of back and forth about it. The first batch of boards I got, I tried a regular surfboard fin in it and I found that the regular surfboard fin is not quite deep enough for this box. So if we just taker any fin of the rack here and we go to put it in the box, yoursquo;re going to see that it actually goes down below where it is supposed to. It does not sit in this box properly. That kind of threw me off when I saw it because I was really concerned that most surfers are going to have to use there surfboard fins on this board. So I went right back to the manufacturer and I asked whatrsquo;s the scoop here. And take a pause for a second and Irsquo;ll show you the reason herehellip;Tropical Blends: hellip;now this is a standard surfboard box. This is the way they are made and if you look at it, itrsquo;s actually two pieces. The frame goes around the edge here and you actually got a bottom ndash; you can see how it is welded on to the plastic. Itrsquo;s a plastic weld. So this bottom piece is actually welded on to the sides here. Now when you put a fin in this, and you lock this down in to a surface, right? It wants to work this way, right? It you got this all down, the place where yoursquo;re going to have the most potential for a problem is right along this seam. What we found was that the seam splits and you actually get water in to this board and you donrsquo;t even realize that itrsquo;s happening and then we start to see the lamination around here and whatrsquo;s the cause. The cause is the box. So basically, what the manufacturer convinced me of is that we use a windsurfing box, which is about an 1/8 of inch deeper than this. Itrsquo;s actually manufactured as one piece. Itrsquo;s one piece. Based on having a much larger fin in this board and having more stress on side to side, we actually decided that the windsurfing box would allow us to have fewer problems in the long run. Now what we did for that is we had custom fins made and windsurfers have a huge variety of fins to choose from as well. But we do have custom fins for these boards. The trade off was, for us, you either get a warranty with this box or you donrsquo;t get a warranty with this box. I go with the warranty every time.Tropical Blends: At first I was a little put off by this, a little bit confused. But once I actually looked at it and the manufacturer came and explained it to me, it makes good logical sense. This is an area where you need really solid components.Man: I think they have had problems with boxes on some of the epoxy, regular surfboards too.Tropical Blends: I think therersquo;s no doubt in that. No doubt. Thatrsquo;s why I said yoursquo;ll start seeing effects of water leakage that doesnrsquo;t show up necessarily right next to the fin. It could be right here somewhere that yoursquo;re seeing a delamination from the water getting under, heating up, causing gas.Man: And the foam in these and other epoxy board are especially absorbant too.Tropical Blends: This particular material, I want to say itrsquo;s a closed-cell EPS. It should nothellip; the water will get in but...