SIC F.A.S.T. System

I remember hearing about this new fin technology when I used to frequent StandupZone. It was something about a steerable fin? You had a tiller on the deck of the board which allows you to change the angle of the fin, steering the board without any other effort. Pretty cool, right?

I recently bought a used SIC FX Tour 14′ as my primary ride, which comes with the FAST (Foot Actuated Steering System) technology. It’s a level that’s parallel to the deck attached to rods inside the board which can turn the fin. I have to admit, the whole thing is pretty neat, although I’ve only have a chance to use it twice. Here are my observations.

First is that the steering system does work pretty well. You use your toes to move the tiller on the deck, which turns the fin underneath. You push the tiller in the direction you want to go and voila, the board doth turn.

It’s a bit weird feeling because it happens with such little effort. As an experienced paddler, I’m not used to this. I turn because of the wind, current, or shifting my weight, or something I did with my paddle. My board shouldn’t just turn because I did something with my toes!

One concern is how true does the fin center after it turns? I’m not so sure about that yet. It tends to stay turned until I tap the tiller with my toes. I’m going to have to spend some time with it to be sure, but making sure that fin stays straight is really important!

One thing I’m wondering about is the necessity of this system. I know this is popular with downwinding. I have read that the downwinders in Hawaii really like this because it allows easy direction changes without using the paddle. I can say it works great with the limited downwinding that I did, but I’m not sure about all my other paddling. I don’t know how necessary this is in flatwater touring. Do I need to be able to turn my board independently of my paddle? I’m not convinced I do. Downwinding is a hybrid of flatwater paddling and surfing, so you will be spending time standing on the board, paddle out of the water, letting the wind-driven swells move you. On flatwater your paddle is on the water constantly, giving you constant opportunities to steer. Do I need another way to turn?

Any type of mechanical system is due to failure at some point. Everything breaks, even simple mechanisms like this. From what I’ve read this system is pretty sturdy, but it will break someday. Maybe that’s years and years away, but it will. I hope I’ll be able to repair it and SIC can provide replacement parts.

The fin itself is also small. Downwinding doesn’t require huge fin, but my 14’x30″ board isn’t a strict downwinder. It’s a touring board with lots of volume (349 liters !) and thick rails (got to contain that steering mechanism). When the wind hits this board on the side, it’s going to get pushed. That smaller 8.3 inch adjustable fin might not be enough fin to keep it going sideways. I guess you could turn the fin to adjust for the crossbreeze, but I’m going to have to test this out to see. Is adjusting the small fin in cross-breezes better than just having a big fin? I don’t know yet, and since it’s winter in New York State, I’m not going to know for a little while.

One thing for sure, the system doesn’t work well with booties. You really need to grip the tiller between your first two toes to do it right. All the demonstration videos of this system are in Hawaii or some other warm place where people don’t need to protect their feet. When I tried using the tiller with my 5mm NRS booties, it wasn’t pretty. It could push it one direction or another, but there was no real feel for what was going on. So FAST is a summer-only system. I’ll have more info on it when things get warmer!