RealSurf Surfers' Forum

BDL77 wrote:Right I need some help choosing a new set of quad fins.

Me 6'0 x 84kgs

I have been using:

--> PC5 front with M3 center back;
--> M5 Front with M3 sides back;
--> I've tried H2 medium quad set - felt too small.

Am I under finning myself? :?

I'm thinking of one of these sets for surfing in 2 to 4ft beach breaks.

1: Stretch SF4 Large
2: R2 Quad Large
3: Q-PC7
4: K2.1 PC Quad

Anyone ridden these sets? Or with all the C Drive talk should I be using a quad set of those :?

Thanks

It depends on the type of board that you want, and how the fins might compliment the board or otherwise.

I ride three different quads as my main boards, and they all seem to surf better with different fin combos, never the same.

I guess a better question is, what fin combo are you using most of the time now, and how do you want it to behave differently to how it does now? That will give you a better idea if whether you need less fin area here or there, less or more rake, more or less fin depth, etc. Then that will marry up to some fin templates hopefully...

TC Aqualines in the front, GL's in the rear ( the placcy ones ). Only using it in local stuff, so 1 - 3' is about the size range, plus mine's a rail quad with a cluster layout I ripped off from bert berger and tweaked ever so slightly.

Goes great tight in the pocket, snaps nicely off the top, fast down the line. I don't have much to complain about really!

Yeah a bit scarce on the board information sorry.

It's a Josh Dowling quad: 6'1 x 19 1/2 x 2 5/8 diamond tail, small bump in the rail near the front fins to bring the tail in a little, flatish tail rocker. I think a more raked fin would suit my style of surfing and would also suit this board. It is the board I surf the most.

I would go for the shapers fins but I have a surfstich voucher so it's FCS. Looks like the R-2 Quad set is the go.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

To give you an idea of what fin combos I like in a board, I'm an inch shorter than you but the same weight. I have a board very similar in dimensions only with a blended planshape in the tail and a round-tail. In this board I found M5/M3 sized fins way too big and too stiff. They produced a ton of drive and security which was welcome when surfing big points on a 6'0", but they just didn't have much freedom in turning radius.

After a lot of experimenting I found KFin/G1000 to work the best. I was riding M3/G1000 most of the time, but found that I craved just a little bit more pivot through turns. Choosing a front fin very similar in size but with less rake (KFin or K2.1) did the trick, and its my preferred fin set-up.

A similar set-up would be Tom Carroll fins in front, and G1000 in the rears.

Those two options are what I would use, but thats me

Cpt.Caveman wrote:To give you an idea of what fin combos I like in a board, I'm an inch shorter than you but the same weight. I have a board very similar in dimensions only with a blended planshape in the tail and a round-tail. In this board I found M5/M3 sized fins way too big and too stiff. They produced a ton of drive and security which was welcome when surfing big points on a 6'0", but they just didn't have much freedom in turning radius.

After a lot of experimenting I found KFin/G1000 to work the best. I was riding M3/G1000 most of the time, but found that I craved just a little bit more pivot through turns. Choosing a front fin very similar in size but with less rake (KFin or K2.1) did the trick, and its my preferred fin set-up.

A similar set-up would be Tom Carroll fins in front, and G1000 in the rears.

Those two options are what I would use, but thats me

Thanks mate. I might do some test driving of fins. It's good to see the K2.1 quad set is available now. The M5/M3 combo has felt like it is stiff some times, but that could also just be me.

Thanks again.

Mate, I would recommend a smaller rear fin than the K2.1 quad set if you want it to turn better. As far as I know, that quad set has M3 rear fins which will still be a similar stiffness as your previous M5/M3 combo.

If you want it to turn better I would not only decrease the rake of the front fins, making the rear fins catch more of the turn (K2.1), but I would also decrease the size of the rear fins (G1000 or GX for example).

Go and play around, thats the best way to find out

Cpt.Caveman wrote:Mate, I would recommend a smaller rear fin than the K2.1 quad set if you want it to turn better. As far as I know, that quad set has M3 rear fins which will still be a similar stiffness as your previous M5/M3 combo.

If you want it to turn better I would not only decrease the rake of the front fins, making the rear fins catch more of the turn (K2.1), but I would also decrease the size of the rear fins (G1000 or GX for example).

Go and play around, thats the best way to find out

Yeah thanks. I'll go to the local surf shop and see what fins they can give me. I don't have anything smaller than an M3.

I was using Mckee's formula when choosing quad sets as he seems to be one of the guru's and has tested heaps of combos.

M5/M3 seems to be the best all round option but it only seems to perform well when the waves get some power and size behind them.

http://www.mckeesurf.com/brucemckee/multisystem.htm

i'm 5'10 and 83kgs.... SF4 fronts with GX rears were the best for me.
I recently got my hands on the C-drive quad set... haven't had many surfs on the shortly lately because of injury and lack of swell, but i have medium c-drive fronts and rears that are around the same size as GX's... feels a bit stiff... i'm going to put the FCS GX's back in and see how that goes.

So, I'm reviving this thread from the dead...

I have a wide-nosed, pin-tail type board that came with FCS 'glassflex' construction quad fins (M5's & GX's). I really like the balance with those fins, the trade between drive and turn works well for me and my style of surfing.

Almost everyone....and I mean EVERYONE that I know has been telling me to ditch the glassflex fins and get some real composite type fins.

Considering that I'm not noticing too many issues with the current ones, will I see any improvement if I keep the same fin profile and upgrade to a set of 'Perfomance Core' composite fins?? (which FCS offer in the same M5/GX combo).

Do I not know what I'm missing? Will there be much noticable difference to warrant the outlay?

damo666 wrote: Do I not know what I'm missing? Will there be much noticable difference to warrant the outlay?

Fibreglass fins are going to noticably produce a lot more drive because you don't lose as much pressure from the gooiness of the glassflex fins, but because they are stiffer than glassflex you will notice they will resist turning a little more. You might need to change to more upright front fins (e.g. K2.1) or reduce their size (PC3) if you go to fibreglass.

I wouldn't buy a pair straight out without trying a few first if you can.

A good compromise I like doing is using fibreglass fins in the front for your main drive producing fins, and then using glassflex in the rear fins to give a softer and more fogiving feel for turns. Finshop.com.au lets you order single fins (e.g. only the front fins).

alakaboo wrote: was talking to someone who uses the longboard sidebites in the rear slots and those old fcs curvy sides in the front. think the sidebites are smaller than the sf4 rears, but they are single foiled. they don't use anything else now.

I've been using G-Ls for over a year now and found that they work great for me (though I am a lighter surfer at around 63kgs). I've thought about getting trying some other rears but just about all the ones I've seen are bigger and I feel absolutely no need to go bigger. I get plenty of drive and hold with my current setup. As someone said above, with four fins in the water you want to go smaller with your fins. It's a shame FCS and FF don't make smaller versions of their existing rear fins.

Quads = good way to cut open your ankle if you havent been riding them for a while .
2 weeks festering wound since borrowing a quad .

Wow, someone quoted me on something to do with surfing.

I tried the GL sidebites in a rail-centric board and liked them (Stretch SF4) but in a more stringer-centric board I wasn't totally digging them.
I might try and grab a photo later of what I settled on.

GXQs great if you like a skatey feeling.

wingnut2443 wrote:

alakaboo wrote: ... I tried the GL sidebites in a rail-centric board and liked them (Stretch SF4) but in a more stringer-centric board I wasn't totally digging them.

How similar are the designs of the two boards? Other than stringer differences, how similar is the rocker, bottom contours, foil, fin placements, etc?

Similar size, shape, countours, rocker and foil.

This is the Stretch, I felt it was overfinned with the SF4 set and just wanted to go straight and fast, stay high on a wall. The GLs turned it into a turbo twinny skateboard


This is the other board to show placement, with some funky fins.


I use basically this set in it now (different board)

i found a pair of FCS TF 2 carbon lites on fleabay. Don't think they make these anymore.?!?

A little more rake and a little less base than the MR twins. These have transformed a good little board into a bloody brilliant one......

Don't be afraid to go the big fins in a small wide tailed board!

Think they are GTF-1 off the top of my head.
Dis-continued but pop up every so often.
Have a set and much prefer them over the MR tfx.
Believe they were prone to snapping at the tabs.
Another good set are the True ames CI twin which you can have sent over from the US for $20 postage.
Better release off the top than the MR's.
Both work great as front fins in wide taile quads if you're a big unit.

So, just a quick follow up on this one - I got my hand on a FCS 'V2' quad set for my board and stuck these in to replace the M5/GX combo the board came with. The guy in the shop seemed to think these are a refinement on the 2.1 Kelly's?

The first thing I noticed was a quite a large reduction in paddle-in speed, actually, a MASSIVE difference, more than I would have thought a simple fin swap would make!!

Over a few sessions I found I was missing lots of waves that would have been a breeze previously. Whilst they did offer noticably more drive and stability when I managed to get into some larger set waves, which was great, as I only use this board as a small wave board I found it pretty frustrating (its a Takayama Scorpion).

I'm going to try using the V2 front with the original GX rears, but am thinking there may be a cheap V2 set on Ebay soon....