Yet another fin question

[dUg]

Another question - seems the generic g-5 fins that come with a lot of new boards are seen as something to get off your board as quick as possible. They certainly have a lot of flex in them, surely they have to be good for something and I don't mean wedged under the screen door to keep it from banging... is a lot of flex desirable in real small stuff?

Bottom line... the newer glass flex fins are not as good as the older plastic equivalents and have been built down to a price. Flex and materials have changed, and in some cases so have the dies used to mold them.

IMHO, a good set of well-foiled fibreglass fins, chosen to complement the board as NC suggests, will go better in any conditions compared to the injection molded equivalent.

[steve shearer]

I disagree Dug, and so do most of the shapers I know.
They consider the newer glass flex fins(the opaque off-white ones) a massive improvement on the old black plastic ones.

Still not a patch on a well foiled fibreglass or composite fin(as you say) but far superior to the old black things, which were like driving on bald tyres.

[dUg]

Steve... I probably should have qualified that statement a bit. The older signature series fins ( with the coloured pigments like the blue K2.1 fins ) were better than the new "milky" ones - that's from a pretty large number of guys I have spoken to who surf them .

The old black ones ( G3, 5 & 7's, G-PR's, G-YU etc. ) also didn't have inside foils... and not everyone likes them despite FCS telling us all how much better off we are with them.

[bohdidontsurf]

what blows me away is how many pros use the glass flex fins. You would think with money, sponsorship etc that they would only use performance core or glass but you often see well known surfers screw in their glass flex fins and blow the shit out of waves with them. Everytime I try them I hate them. They feel soggy. Must say though, havent used regular fins very often over the last 3 months or so. I dig the C Drives.