Longboard fin boxes weren’t really designed to hold a foil. Does all the pumping and loaded turns eventually blow them out?
It depends on the build quality. I have had a KT board for 2 years now. At least 500 sessions on it. No vissible cracks around the boxes. Board is starting to turn yellow from the sun but still rock solid. I’ve had another board of another brand where the boxes got ripped loose after much less time. 6 months of winging. The KT has been abused both winging and proning. i’ve had a F-one wing board which didn’t break but felt a bit soft. Thats all the data i have.
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Interesting question. I know some manufacturers are switching to the purpose-built Chinook tracks which are deeper. That said I’ve had no issues with my Futures on Amundson - been riding some boards 2 years with no issues.
p.s. Hello fellow Pynchon fan W.A.S.T.E.
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Anything that Mike Pedigo has a hand it will last a long time, they’re the only boards that I’ve never broken a box in. And I’ve ridden and broken almost everything out there. He’s a partner in PORTAL and did the whole build design. We’ve yet to have a failure. There’s some boards that have only lasted me about month, and that’s from big brands.
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Boards loose rigidity and start riding poorly long before cracks appear. I’ve seen too of the line production boards with 0 visible damage that were noticeably worse pumping after 4 sessions and trashed after 50 sessions with no visible damage. Sometimes visible damage never shows, the board just feels off.
Honestly I think this is why we have some of the shapes we have now, people grab the new hotness and think “Oho yeah this is amazing” when in reality it’s no different than their current board was when fresh. They just don’t know that the current board is garbage because the damage is invisible.
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My understanding is that many board manufacturers producing high-quality boards are reinforcing the box with an extra layer or two of carbon. This is on top of being carbon-based construction, which I’d assume is much stronger than your typical fiberglass / epoxy surfboard, but I’m not an engineer.
Anything that Mike Pedigo has a role in building lasts for years. His system is unreal and part of the reason we partnered on PORTAL. I got so tired of breaking boxes on boards. Mike was doing some repairs over the last few years and really got to see how many boxes were breaking. And some brands way more than others.
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