Cheaper to get surf fins made from gold?

Why are fins so expensive? Is it the research and development, is it the expensive composites that go into the make up of every handcrafted fin which comes off the automatic production line, or could just be that the shareholders like to enjoy extremely big fat expensive cigars?

There is a reason that we don’t know how much a set of Brand X fins cost to make. Because it is not very much. I recently found out an actual figure for cost coming out of the factory of a very well known fin company. I nearly shat the bed.

Bearing in mind that I have purchased many pairs of Brand X in my life as a surfer I felt a little bit like I needed to share the information. I want to let people know that they have a choice. Uhh, well I am not so sure any more, do they or have Brand X beaten most of their competitors to dust with lofty claims of superiority and big pro sponsorship deals?

Whinging is for toddlers just out of nappies so let's just leave it that I was very very shocked and, no, I am not naming a price or a brand, I am sure you know who I am on about. What I do want to do is weigh some other substances and work out if it is cheaper per weight to have them made out of gold or solid silver.

For this I will need: Scales, some Brand X fins, the retail price of Brand X fins and the price today of gold and solid silver.

My trusty old scales told me that each of these fins weighed 93 grams, there were two in a pack. A twin fin set up and the pack retails for 115 Euros. We want the price for one fin to make things easier which is 57.50 Euros.

Now, let's find out the price of the fin per gram. 57.5 divided by 93 is 62 cents per gram for the fin (composed of fiberglass and plastic)

Now let's find out the price of 24 carat gold and solid silver per gram (price on the 2nd Jan 2017):

24 carat Gold, which is currently at 35.36 Euros per gram, would make your new Brand X fins hugely more expensive. I have worked it out. A set of these fins in 25 carat gold would cost you a reasonable 6576.96 Euros. Might have to have a think about that.

Solid silver, however comes in at 0.48 cents a gram! Astonishingly that would make your Brand X fins a brand total of 95.04 euro. Boom. I will take a pair of those.

In conclusion to this utterly pointless article Surf Bunker can assure you that it would cost Brand X less to make you some fins out of solid silver than what they are currently made out of. Apart from the moulds and, um, the research and the design and the shipping, uuuhh, and the sponsorship and the profit margin.

There is also the consideration that your board may sink and might not surf as well as a result. What we are trying to say, I suppose is that in essence there is more that goes into the surf fins you use than you might think.

Maybe before shitting the bed as we did, think about the big picture and instead of complaining about the price maybe you should have a go at making a pair yourself and see how they compare.

Maybe don't use solid silver though.