The adjustable fin on LaPoint’s ski is designed to "fine-tune" the ski to your unique style.
Adjustments of a few thousandths of an inch can mean the difference between a personal best pass and a lot of hard work.
There are three types of adjustments that can be made to the fin which will affect its performance:
Length of the fin as it protrudes from the bottom of the ski
The LOF adjustment determines the length of the radius for the turn. The longer the fin, the longer the radius of the turn will be. This will also put more ski in the water on the pre-turn, thus allowing a strong finish.
However, too much length can create excess drag in the pre-turn. This has the effect of making it hard to be wide on the course. Also, this may cause you to lose too much speed at the buoy, creating a line that is too tight to enable full rotation off the back side.
All measurements from LaPoint skis are made with tips of the calipers against the bottom of the ski.
Depth from the bottom of the ski to the deepest part of the fin.
Depth of the fin will determine how quickly the ski will come around and under the line. Making the fin shallower (moving the fin straight up at the deepest point) will create more slide in the tail of the ski at the finish of the turn.
However, a fin that is too shallow can skip out at the finish of the turn and also have a tendency to make the ski flatten out more as the load from the boat increases toward the wakes.
Distance of the fin from the tail of the ski
DFT can have the same result as a shallower/deeper fin, but can be achieved without as much of a trade off of power and leverage behind the boat.
Moving the fin forward will allow for the tail of the ski to be a little looser at the end of the turn. One of the adjustments that can be very effective with DFT is how far forward the fin is from the tail, which determines the extent to which the ski will be underneath the skier. Conversely, if the fin is further back the ski will be further in front of the skier. This is a very effective adjustment for changing settings based on water temperatures.
Each type of adjustment will substantially change the performance of the ski. It is recommended that only one adjustment be made at a time to verify the results. A maximum tolerance of 0.050" should be maintained for any one adjustment at a time.
To adjust the fin, an allen wrench is needed to loosen/tighten the set screws along the top side of the fin assembly. Always record your changes, no matter how minor.
