How to Make a Custom Freestyle Fin for Your Windsurf Board.

Cutting down your fin is often considered a kind of “right of passage” along the road to the Nirvana of windsurfing freestyle. Today we’re going to look at how to do it as we convert an old (and fairly well worn out) wave fin into a short custom freestyle fin.


Why is a short fin useful? The super short fins used by freestylers allow them to slide thru the spinney rotational moves like Spock 540s without catching and tripping the board. The downside is that they give less lift and may make the board less easy to carve for the more “old school” tricks like carving 360s.



Since getting my Tabou freestyle board I’ve started trying to do Vulcans. At the moment I’m at the point that I can get the pop and start to get some rotation but then either land across the wind and  trip or go flying “out the back door” .Alternatively I sometimes land and the board somehow slews back to the original direction ( so it just looks like a dodgy downwind pop ! ). I hope that by using a smaller fin I should be able to carry on sliding, continue that rotation and be able to start working on the hand change. Perhaps I should continue with my existing 21cm fin because it’s not excessively large. But hey, I’ve got on old fin that hasn’t been used in years and I fancy experimenting.



How short ? Most production dedicated freestyle fins seem to be 18cm but I’ve seen people using fins cut off shorter. I could just cut off the boards existing fin to 18cm but I don’t want to risk messing up a perfectly good fin for this experiment and potentially have to fork out 80€ on a brand new fin if I don’t like the results. So I’m going to cut down an old 19cm wave fin. The idea is to remove the trailing back section and round it off to an elliptical tip. I’ve marked out my design in pencil on the fin and once I’ve removed the trailing section of fin (to improve tracking when sliding backwards)  I reckon I’ll probably end up with a 16cm fin ! This is slightly shorter than I would have liked but it’ll be an interesting experiment.  I’m really thinking that If I can still get up wind with such a small fin and carve and pop ok then even if I end up buying a production freestyle fin from someone like Tarifa Fin Company then at least I’ll be doing so in the confidence that the fin will be big enough (something that worries me a bit at this stage – even tho I am using my existing 21.5cm fin with sails up to 6.5m whereas most freeride boards come with a 35cm fin for use with this size of sail, the step down to 18 or less still seems pretty drastic)



Why an elliptical tip ? A lot of freestylers seem to just cut their fins off strait and leave it that way. In fact that’s what the previous owner did when he cut down the fin which came with the board from 23cm to 21.5cm. But all the professional designs I’ve seen have rounded or elliptical tips ( check out MFC , K4 or Tarifa Fin Company fins and you’ll see what I mean ) . I think that this is to reduce turbulence especially when the board is carving and drag. Apart from rounding the tip off I’m also going to thin the tip off for the same reasons and to hopefully reduce unwanted “spinout”. I think that one good thing about cutting down already short fin is that the chord thickness is fairly narrow whereas if you cut down a longer slalom fin you have the advantage of a more vertical foil (early planning) but the fin ends up very thick and stiff. I’ve also noticed that both K4 and Tarifa fin company freestyle fins are swept back anyway compared with the MFC freestyle pro (which is pretty much the industry standard). So hopefully this will work out ok.

                           A "Proper" Freestyle fin from the Tarifa Fin Company 


So enough of the theorising and procrastination. Let’s get down to work !



Step 1 – Mark out the fin and cut it down.



Two straight hacksaw cuts get rid of the bulk of the material. A couple more cuts and we have the basic shape.

 Step 2 – Round off the outline and thin down the tip of the fin

First we round off the outline with sandpaper backed with a plywood block, and then we mark the centreline of the foil with a pencil line to help keep everything symmetrical as we thin down the tip. We then use coarse then fine grade sandpaper to give the fin the desired profile. NB. I have actually done a fair bit more sanding since this photo was taken but unfortunately forgot to take another photograph of the finished fin.

Step 3 – Seal the fin

Since this is an old fibreglass fin I decided to seal the bare fibreglass with superglue. A G10 fin wouldn’t need this final stage. The bared material is painted with several coats of superglue. We then leave it to cure fully overnight before sanding the surface smooth with 240 grit sandpaper.

Step 4 - Go Windsurfing !

Hey presto a new custom freestyle fin! Looks like it’s going to be windy this weekend so I’ll be able to check it out and report back.

                  Another "Proper" Freestyle fin this ones from K4 Fins in the UK 

How to Re-Grout Bathroom Tiles

This month we’re back in the bathroom to re-grout the shower cubicle. When we moved into this flat it had already been modernised a few years previously and the bathroom is in pretty good order. The only thing which lets it down is that the grouting between the mosaic tiles in shower cubicle was in a pretty bad way. Large sections of the grouting were missing and what remained was pretty well yellowed. Fixing this up is a quick and easy job which will give the bathroom a new lease of life.




Step One – Surface Preperation

The first step is to remove the loose / ageing grout. To do this we first spray the grouting liberally with a lime scale removing cleaning product (In this case Cilit Bang) and leave it to sit for about 15 minutes  (about 3 times the time recommended for the normal use of this product)



Now we scrub the grouting vigorously with a large scrubbing brush and rinse down thoroughly with clean water. This removes any loose grout and cleans up what remains. At this point it becomes clear that the mosaic tiling of the bathroom ids actually large tiles with grooves moulded in them which are then filled with grout to give the appearance of a mosaic. This is obviously a lot easier to install than a real mosaic and looks really good once the grout is in place.



Next we let the wetted surfaces dry thoroughly overnight.

Step Two – Apply Grout

Now we are going to apply the new grout. This needs to be mixed thoroughly with water in a suitable recipient following the maker’s instructions. Typically 3 parts grout (or white cement) to one part water. You will probably need somewhere between 1 and 2 kg to re-grout a shower booth.



We apply the grout generously to the tiles making sure we more than fill all the grooves with grout. You should only apply grout to about 1 square metre at a time. Then we remove the excess with the rubber float. Note: The float should always be moved in a diagonal direction in order to leave the channels between the mosaic tiles filled by grout. Repeat this process until the entire shower booth has been grouted.



Next we take a dampened sponge or cloth and gently wipe along the lines of grout to give a nice u shape profile between the tiles. We now leave everything to fully dry for about 8 hours,



As the grout dries it will leave a slight haze on the tiles. This haze can be removed by buffing the tiles with a rough, clean rag once it is dry (minimum eight hours – according to manufacturer’s instructions). Don’t worry if there is areas where excess grout has remained stuck to the tiles, this is a pretty common occurrence – especially if it’s your first attempt at grouting and can be easily remedied.



Step 3 – Remove any excess grout and polish the tiles



How to remove any excess grout from porcelain tiles



The next day we can proceed to remove any excess grout which was inadvertently left stuck to the tiles (don’t worry there always seems to be some that you overlook and it’s easy to fix).



I’ve heard of people using mild acids or vinegar solutions to do this. Personally I’ve had great success using a scotchbrite green plastic scourers backed by an off cut of plywood to clean the grout off using the same lime scale cleaner that I used at the start of this process. Just apply a little of the cleaner to the tiles than scrub gently in a circular motion till the excess grout is removed and rinse thoroughly with water. Hey presto a total of about 4 hours work (spread over 3 days) and the shower room looks like new !