just an "out of curiosity" question.

was following another thread on fins, US box, powerbox etc and was wondering what the effects of hitting a reef or similar are when using a board with a powerbox, or tuttle for that matter.

I've hit reef before with an old board with a US box and the fin just ripped out of the board and was lost, much to my dismay.
I would imagine that hitting the reef with a fin bolted through the board could cause serious damage.

Anyone got any horror stories???

Damage done is generally-

US box lose fin or front broken off- chinook only/black plastic older oem box's can crack or pull from board.

Powerbox lose fin- threads ferrule or breaks area around it, i've seen occasional powerbox pulled from board.

Tuttle dependant on the type of fin. Select style heads = lose fin (if you are unlucky cracked fin box top. Molded heads = possible loss of fin but general destruction of fin box cracked top if lucky, back and front of box if unlucky (box pulled from board if really unlucky). If head is cracked in newer boxes you can fill cracks and it is ok. Older boxes it goes through to foam so will leak forever (why dont all manufacturers set their boxes in decent hard foam ).

Deep tuttle dont know with deep base fins, worst i've heard with standard tuttles used is bolts being pulled through deck of board.

Leading edge and others used Nylon ferrule things. Problem was you would often lose fin after a small hit be it with bottom or floating object. Imagine you hit a shark- you want to keep the fin and keep sailing. Plus i imagine you dont take wings off all the time, constant removal of fin etc wears down the thread and with nylon you dont realise until it fail. There is probably more pressure on fins too than model airplane wings.