Jumping from a quad to a thruster

[Natho]

I think you raise an interesting point Captn. I think the fact is that there are few shapers who have the experience and know how with designing good quads. I reckon you could probably count them on one hand. In Australia, anyway. So there is a heap of rubbish out there. The quads I have tried were shaped by the likes of Stretch, Hayden Cox, Byrne,Bourton, Simon Anderson. All have pretty good experience with quads. Still I would say 95% of them were not for me. That said I think your point is valid. Plenty of people would ride one or two and then simply write em off. To Nick's point, not everyone is in a position to keep going through board after board to find a quad that is right. Much better chance of getting a thruster that is right. More risk with a quad set up. As you pointed out, if you are having more fun on the quad then stick with it.

[Cpt.Caveman]

I'm glad we agree on something for a change Natho

(no malice intended by that statement whatsoever)

[Deesee]

I've just gone from exclusively riding quads (different types in different waves), for about 18 months, now back to riding thrusters. I like working a board on a wave, it just feels more fun, plus the thrusters just do what i want them to do more consistently. I might take a quad out every now and then for something different. I tried plenty of fin variations and found that i liked the PC K2.1 set the best.

[brownhornet]

After 2 years pretty much exclusively on a quad I recently purchased a thruster. I loved the bourton quad. Great board and i'm in two minds over selling or keeping. Murray really spoke me through the entire process and the board, I have no doubt, was responsible for some good advances in my surfing ability. Out of the many boards i've had this really livened my surfing. Good top to bottom board.

Now just got a Hayden shred sled fibreflex... Hmmm to conclude the thruster has opened some old doors. We had some good waves here over the last week. Fast and some size. Think the quad will gather some dust and i'm confident it is not just the new board feel that has won me over. Some big stuff due next week. Happily do another report then after more time on the thruster.

[Natho]

An interesting thing is to try the shred sled model in both quad and thruster set ups. Makes you realise that the quad set up may not be as fast as many people think. Speed has far more to do with the flat rocker in the board rather than the fin set up. I must admit the two boards I tried were different sizes from each other though, but still its an interesting exercise.

[pridmore]

rocker ( or lack of it ) is the most iportant factor for speed but driving off extra fin area gives more drive which equals speed...even if its a thruster with bigger fins, or a quad...
but the good excercise is to get 2 boards exactly the same and try one with a quad and 1 as a thruster, both with exactly the same overall fin area ... generally quads have more area than a thruster which means they'll give more drive, plus the placement of 2 fins in the waves wall also mean additional times for the 2 fins to drive ...but if the overall fin area was the same ( which they arent most of the time becasue of the positioning of most quads, they need a bigger fin for the hold and to reduce or eliminate the looseness in the arse end that becomes an issue when the fins , especially the rears, are too small ).... I rode a thruster today and didnt like it at the start but began to enjoy it after about an hour....but I ride any fin set up and can enjoy them all....I find the thruster easier to surf but I was adjusting still at the end of the surf, I like them both and I dont think surfers need to be in one camp or the other which seems to be the case...just ride am all

[brownhornet]

I will say the shred sled is faster than the quad. No doubt on back and frontside. A nice feelin g board with flat rocker through the middle that suits me well. Frontside top turns certainly more rotation and ease to get there from the bottom. Be interested, given it is still on it's third surf, to see how it comes off the bottom to vert on backside. Interested to put through some decent swell next week. If only the wind would bugger off.

[Natho]

I think you will find the shread sled fine on your backhand thanks to the round tail back end. I just found the ones I tried (FFlex construction) tended to hang up on the lip a bit too much. Possibly also coz they were a little too short. Found em fun, but then again Im not right into the much shorter, wider, sk8ty type boards myself much of the time. They still have their place.