Stab Magazine | Mick Fanning's Discreet Carbon Skegs

Live Now: Chapter 11 Mini-Documentary With Dane Reynolds

2233 Views

Mick Fanning’s Discreet Carbon Skegs

Performance fins for $120AUD?!

hardware // Oct 18, 2018
Words by stab
Reading Time: 2 minutes

All black fins are a rarity in this modern surfing market. Every surfer, designer, and producer has their own play on the performance aspects of a fin, but even more so, there’s an exorbitant amount of colour schemes and art gracing every set of ‘high-performance’ fins on offer.  

Now we’re not saying there’s anything wrong with having a scintillating colour combo, but not everyone wants to draw attention to their board’s under garments. For most of us, our fins won’t be leaving the face of the wave anyway, so why not opt for something a touch more discreet? 

FCS’ new set of Mick Fanning fins meet these requests and then some.

And by ‘then some’, I mean tech.   

The kind people at FCS are calling them Neo Carbon.

‘Neo’ because they’re, you know, new, and ‘carbon’ because they’re umm, a carbon construct.   

For the last few years carbon has been the cornerstone of every shaper’s newest model, but this is one of the few times the material has been translated to fin construction. 

Carbon – as we’ve claimed many times before – has an ‘unparalleled weight to strength ratio’, or in normal language, is light and strong. These fins retain the typical stiffness and responsiveness of the MF Carvers and also have a ‘whipping effect in smaller waves whereby they propel from one turn into the next,’ as Mick Fanning puts it. 

And this isn’t just us talking out of our arse either. I have a set sitting on my desk as I type which are noticeably lighter to the touch than any other set we found laying around our Bondi box. Plus, they went well on our aquatic lunchbreak.

Blog Neo Carbon4

Mick’s tripping on why he didn’t think of this colourway earlier too.

Photography

FCS

As far the fin’s shape goes, it’s a standard MF carver template; Good for laying rail on the open face, drawing long lines, and generally doing what Mick does best on a wave.

Mick says that these are his go to “when the waves are softer and smaller. [As they give him] the security and control I need, and a burst of speed through turns which is great for fast, energetic surfing.” But it’s worthwhile questioning what measurement system Mick is running off, because the above clip isn’t exactly what we’d call the ‘soft’. The fins were designed with smaller waves in mind but translate surprisingly well into waves well into the six-foot range. 

The most surprising aspect however is the price. So much so that I emailed FCS to double check they weren’t tripping.

Fortunately, they weren’t. 

 

A mere $120 Australian. A good $40 or so cheaper than the next ‘performance’ based fin, and a far cry from the cheaper plastic alternatives that come stock with some boards. 

Oh, and they look fucking mental!

If you feel like treating yourself, then slide, browse, and buy over here. 

If not, then watch (and no doubt re-watch) the above two minutes of Mick tearing the bag. 

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

Watch: What Happens When A Brand Takes Its Youth Team To A CT Event?

A: Good things, typically.

Mar 29, 2024

Full Frame: Scandinavia Is Surfing’s Next Frontier

A 30-hour drive, bathymetric maps, and 10 years of searching yield surfing's newest discovery.

Mar 29, 2024

Watch: João Chianca Had A Remarkable Hawaii Season Before His Injury

Plus an update on his condition.

Mar 28, 2024

Pittar’d And Feathered

Do the WSL judges deserve the internet's wrath? We asked the man of the hour.

Mar 28, 2024

Robbo, Pickles, And Tyler Wright Become The Underdogs Breakfast At Uninspiring Winkipop

The foreboding blade sharpens and inconsistent judging prevails on Day Two in Torquay.

Mar 27, 2024

“I Don’t Always Win Heats, But When I Do, I Try To Beat John John”

Slater shines and the axe begins its descent on Day 01 at Bells.

Mar 26, 2024

Back Against The Wall: The Ramzi Boukhiam Redemption

Morocco's first CT surfer on speaking six languages, having no coach, and snatching Fil Toledo's…

Mar 25, 2024

Will Kirra, Babies or JJF Stop a GOAT Winning at Bells?

Bluesky BOAG advice from a Superman specialist and former Trials winner.

Mar 25, 2024

Bells Preview: The WSL’s Victorian Sword Dancing Equinox Ritual

Will a Brazilian crack the Top 10 at Bells?

Mar 25, 2024

69 Shin Bones Later + the Anticlimactic State of Big Wave Record-Breaking

Lucas Chumbo might have surfed the biggest wave ever this year. But how will we…

Mar 23, 2024

Watch: ‘Fresh and Fried’ Ft the Quik Kids

How taxing is it to tackle the Gold Coast’s Triple Crown in a single day,…

Mar 23, 2024

The Popular Vote: The People’s Stab In The Dark With Kolohe Andino Champion

Which board looked best — to you —under Kolohe's talons?

Mar 22, 2024

Six Key Learnings From Portugal

Three CT events in, what do we know? 

Mar 21, 2024

‘Zipper’ Is Going On Tour, Here’s Where You Can Watch It  

Dates, times + locations for the Venice, Encinitas, Sydney + Byron premieres.  

Mar 20, 2024

Dane Reynolds On His Future, His Past, And Chapter 11’s Raison D’être

Our 9-minute plunge into the collective psyche of Ventura's pillar(s).

Mar 20, 2024

From ‘Blue Ribbon Cross Country Runner’ to Vogue – How Steph Again Is Back With A Rip Curl Remix

Everything we know about the she-GOATs sponsorship boomerang.

Mar 18, 2024

Stab Interview: Darren Handley Explains Why You Can’t Buy The Winning Stab In The Dark Model

And his decades-long standoff with Slater.

Mar 17, 2024

Griff Embraces Portugal’s Eternal Time Loop To Vanquish Medina + Ewing, Defay Delays The Inevitable

A redeeming closing act at Supertubos.

Mar 16, 2024
Advertisement