How does BUGFINS Freerace fin compare to the original Fanatic Shark Fin?

It is not totally fair to compare the original fanatic shark fin with this since one is freeride and other is freerace shape, so I'll just share my observations. 

On land

As I have mentioned the Freerace fin from Bugfins is a carbon fin. It is superlight, much narrower but still stiff enough. The Bugfins Freerace fin is 41 cm long and has rake of 10 degrees. Nice strait shape. Nice smooth finish with visible carbon fibers.

On the water - Shark with freerace character!

BUGFINS freerace fin enables me to get on plane faster than with the original fanatic shark fin. I could get on plane also in marginal wind conditions where I normally wouldn’t manage to get planing. It is incredibly fast. My Fanatic Shark 120 has become quite a freerace board with this fin. I could easily compete with other surfers on the water that were riding freerace and even slalom boards. 

In optimal conditions I had virtually no spin outs. I could feel the bubble forming before the actual spin out happened and had time to release the pressure, go a bit downwind and avoid the spin out. 

When over powered there were less spinout as well (I was riding only the Challenger sails Fluido T3 7,8 sail with three cambers). 

Upwind performance is also superior to the fanatic shark freeride fin. It is slightly less maneuverable compared to sharks freeride shape but still enables me to turn tight enough.

I recommend BUGFINS :)

All in all I am really satisfied with the freerace fin from BUGFINS and can recommend it with no restrictions. I think you can get them also online. If you are from Slovenia or somewhere close it is best to contact Rajko. I think he has some test fins that you can try before you buy them.

Changed the Aerotech Freesped for the Challenger Sails Fluido T3

I am really satisfied with the ChallengerSails Fluido T3 7,8 so I decided to buy another one in the 6,6 size. This way I would cover all my range of the Fanatic Shark 120 and the Fluido T3 6,6 I can use also on the Fanatic hawk 93. 

I did not get to rig the sail until we were on vacations (Peljesac, Perna, Croatia). Here are some of the photos:

When I assembled the sail I noticed that there were numerous small dents in three monofilm windows (not visible on the photos) so I disassembled it and packed it away. Fortunately this year was really a bad one wind-wise and I was sailing only the 7,8. 

Now I'm waiting to meet Tine Slabe so he can check the sail and exchange it for another one. I'm puzzled about how this could have happened because the sail was factory wrapped when I opened it.

Custom freerace fin for the Shark - Now it really bites :)

It was really a bad time to be without a fin since we intended to go on vacations soon. So I needed to find one fast. I was checking portals for a good used fin but could not find any, so I decided to buy a new one. All larger sails I have are freerace, so I decided to buy a freerace fin for the shark as was recommended in one of the test magazines (link to test).

I was looking at two fins - Select Free Slam 41cm and the MFC Freerace 40 cm. Both fins are available on powerbox. Both are also quite costly at around 119 EUR (retail price). 

            

The third option was a custom made carbon freerace fin. You would imagine that such a fin costs even more, but it is not so. We have a guy in Slovenia with extensive experience in fin design. BUG-FINS / www.bugfins.com. 


I contacted him and we exchanged a few e-mails about my knowledge and style of windsurfing and what kind of fin I would like to have. He offered to make me a carbon freerace fin for 90 EUR which was, as you can imagine, no brainer :) Fin was ready in a few days. Fin is incredibly light, narrow yet stiff enough. I couldn’t wait to test it out.

 Not original foto

My Fanatic Shark fin broke ...

Last time I told you that something happened to me while I was windsurfing in Seča but didn't just get to write about it. 

Well what happened is that my fin broke in the middle of the bay a good km away from shore. It broke just below the head of the fin. Luckily there were enough windsurfers on the water and I managed to get ones attention. He called for help a sailboat that was in the vicinity and they dragged me and my board to shore. 

I was thinking later on that this could as easily happen to me on a cold winter day or in stronger wind when there are not many windsurfers there. Wind direction there is away from shore! That is why I always wear a lifejacket and I'm thinking of talking also a mobile phone next time.

What could be the problem?

One possibility is that the fin was damaged before I bought it. It was a test board and we know that test boards are not handled with much care. I myself also had an accident when hitting a large branch that was floating on the water on one occasion. It could have caused invisible fracture to the fin. It could also be a construction error.

On the water all I really did was put the pressure on the fin after a small jump and it snapped...

Anyway I have contacted Fanatic and asked if they had any reported problems with this fin:

Here is their answer: http://2013.fanatic.com/forum_neu/read.php?1,22083

I bought a custom made carbon fin to replace the broken shark fin ... read my next post :)