I just found your testimonial page, so I'll write out my whole story and attach photos as a lesson to others.

 

I was surfing on October 16 on a small day, barely chest high, when I got tossed by a lip.  My board and I both nosedived, and we connected at the glass-on fin.  When the nose of the board hit the sand on the bottom, I was like a side of beef hanging from a meat-hook.  The fin pierced my calf muscle to a depth of about three inches, and required an hour of irrigation and eleven stitches to close.  More importantly, it required my entire new-board fund to pay for, not to mention a month and a half to two months out of the water to recover from. 

The pictures don't really do this injury justice, the doctor did a fantastic job of stitching me up.  I wish I had had it together enough to take a "Before" picture, so everyone could see the gory result of hard fin/soft flesh/powerful wave equation.  Just take my word on it, being skewered on a piece of fiberglass is no fun time.

When I save enough again to buy a new board, it WILL be equipped with Proteck fins.   Ours is not a terribly dangerous sport, but there are some risks involved, and it is irresponsible not to try to minimize them whenever possible.   Glass fins are DANGEROUS, to yourself and to those around you.  Soft edges are not a luxury.  Spread the word. 

Don't miss out on weeks of surfing a new board like I have. 

 

Jarrod Oldham,

Corpus Christi, TX