do fins really need to be so sharp?

[twah]

i will if anyone wasn't so chicken shit to ride out the little extra to the slick and film me. don't have cash for a gopro.

not to say there aren't little sharp fins, but in general they are much more rounded off and you really don't need more than a 1.5" fin for grip. after that it's pointless, whether you ride in straps, or with bindings. they don't help you lock into an edge any better and just become harder harder to break out and turn, slide, or land funky on. so why bother with a 2.5" sharp fin set, when 1.5" is just as well.

for example, the LF fins are not sharp - at least the ones i have. from 0.8" to 1.5" even the 2" ones i've seen. not sharp. naish same thing. my buddy's nobile tho has razor fins and a razor edge, and i actually cut myself on fins and needed stiches, so know what the f*** is going on.

[Kamikuza]

twah at it again huh ... don't mind him, he's pissy cos he just realized he's mainstream & dull and I'm hardcore & edgy!

[flyrob]

Whilst the leading edge on surfboard fins are generally not that sharp, the trailing edge can be. Check out Joel Parkinson's foot

http://magicseaweed.com/Parko-Out-of-J- ... tent/2559/

OUCH!!!

[Don Monnot]

The fins on my AirRush Sector 60 (sort of a race board) are super sharp and super large. I bumped into them while wearing a wetsuit and still have two scars on my chest 2 months later. Sand 'em down!

Don

[longwhitecloud]

that is pure gnar! it will hurt soo much i have had teh base of my foot stitched up and could not beliive how well the nerves in it work unfortunately

[Nico]

We didn't invent the fin, nature did.
I think the answer might lie there.
Nico

[kitezilla]

ouch, hurt my finger on a fin, which is dangerously sharp. If you would crash on it, it will just slice into your muscles like nothing else. The sharpest fins I ever had on a board...
Riding on a buggy back from the lagoon, I meet another guy, who had a deeper cut in his hand from a fin.

Do they really need to be so sharp? I will sand it off, since I think they are way too dangerous!

Getting back to Toby's original question, which did not specify the exact type of kiteboard fin. I am guessing that the fin that cut Toby was like the one in the picture of the North board (a TFC fin) .

Presently, kiteboards use three different types of fins... (1) fins for twintips, (2) fins for surfboards, and (3) fins for race boards.

I have been convinced, from the beginning (for me 9 years), that twin tips don't really function much better with sharp fins........but, I am pretty sure that race boards need sharp fins to function competitively. At this point, I am skeptical about the value of sharp fins on a surfboard.

I remember a post on this forum, a few years ago, where the kiter stated that the sharp TFC fins really improved the performance of his twintip. Does anyone else feel that way about the thinner, more flexible or sharper twintip fins?

[Toby]

here you go...TFC fin...

muscle cut all the way to the bone...would have been less dramatic if not that sharp.

[kitecozumel]

too much flesh I will turn into a couch potatoe and wait for WII to have kiteboarding , you guys are going to scare a lot of newbies

[tomatkins]

you guys are going to scare a lot of newbies

Yeah, maybe SCARE THEM STRAIGHT..."Listen up you Mother F%^$@#n little newbies, you put one of them Mother F%&#@n fins on your board and you be gettin such a deep Mother F%*#@n cut on your Mother F*&#@*n neck there won't be enough left for me to grab your Mother F*%#@*n neck and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQFb_BQ33c