Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by pinhead » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:59 pm

crustt wrote:I've been hearing normal people use the word stoke for a few years, it annoyed me at first, cause I suspect that the surf industry got them using it along with wearing boardshorts :)
Don't see many wearing boardshorts down here in Victoria either

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Beanpole » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:01 pm

I've been slicing my left foot up regularly on my nice sharp fins. I thought I had got over it but still managed a new gouge on the weekend. What I'm worried about is all these injuries come from the odd bump in passing. If it ever hit me with a bit of speed it would probably slice me in half :shock: :shock:
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by ric_vidal » Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:30 am

Beanpole wrote:If it ever hit me with a bit of speed it would probably slice me in half :shock: :shock:
Keep us posted then :wink:

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Beanpole » Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:19 pm

Now someone was saying the other day to reverse the position of the big fins when the surf got bigger i.e. stick them at the back which I can kind of see making sense.
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Beanpole » Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:34 pm

I've read that three times now and its very useful. So I guess that means switching the fins from front to back when the surf gets bigger is not really the go?
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Trev » Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:02 pm

wingnut2443 wrote:
Cpt.Caveman wrote:I've been playing around with fins a lot with my quads in the past and the more I swap boards with friends the more I realise how personal fin preferences are. More recently I've been surfing my semi-finless a lot which has changed my tastes towards slightly less fin and more rail/edge control in my HPS boards. For example I've surfed a friends 5'4" wide-tail MG Retro Fish, very similar in planshape and all to your dim-SIM kookster, but since surfing semi-finless a lot I actually like having very small fins and having tail release available when I want it.

For background I'm 5'11", around 86kg. For another example, in my 6'0" quadfather I tend to like KFin/G1000, however my friend who has a very similar 6'1" quadfather and is a little lighter and taller than me, he prefers carbon G5/tiny weeny nubster trailers. I surf it and think it feels to skatey but he loves it.

I used to use PC3/G1000 in my 5'11" Swinger but since surfing semi-finless a lot I now prefer PC3/MR-TX(rears).

I've surfed a friends quad fin fish that is very similar in planshape etc. to your dim-SIM kookster, and the wide tail can effect backhand pivot to some degree but fin size, vee, tail rocker and the rest can make up for it easily. To give you an example, this board had the Future Fins equivalent of M3/GX fins and it was more than capable of top-to-bottom surfing both back and forehand. M3/GX is not much fin area at all, so it require some sensitivity to surf off the rail/edge/concave some more, but I enjoy that. I know how MP designs his boards, hes always trying to keep them free in the tail so I would hesitate to guess its the fin size/spread thats the problem.

My general rule for tweaking the fins in a quad for what you like are as follows:

1) Start with a pretty standard template and size spread (e.g. M5/M3 or M3/G1000). Surf it for a little while and feel it out, spend a couple of sessions paying attention to finding the sweet spot. Thats super important in all quads I've surfed, the difference between on and off the sweet spot can make a big difference to how it surfs.

2) Think about how you want it to perform differently (lets say you started with M5/M3 for example):

- If the board feels too stiff off both the front and back foot (e.g. difficult to do pump turns, stiff to throw over into a turn), decrease the fin size both front and back (e.g. to M3/G1000). The same goes if you want more tail release through turns, drop the whole fin area down.

- If the board feels too stiff too turn off the front foot or to do trim-pumps, then use a more upright front fin (e.g. K2.1, TC Aqualine instead of M5 or M3).

- If the board feels too stiff to turn off the back foot, i.e. its turning radius is not sharp enough, decrease the size of the rear fins (e.g. M3 down to G1000, or G1000 down to GX). Always use double foiled rear fins, single foiled just feels terrible for responsive surfing.

- If you feel you have lost too much drive from dropping fin size down you have two choices. Changing from glassflex to a fibreglass construction will give you a big boost in drive and slightly stiffen the board too (e.g. changing from M3 to PC3 will boost drive big time, but keeping the rear fins glassflex will still keep some of the forgiving feel). I've also really enjoyed a twinny and stabiliser type set-up in quads with a pulled in tail (e.g. MR-TFX front/MR-TX glassflex rear). That one was a nice blend of super fast and tail release.


I would hesitate to guess you might like M3/G1000 in the dim-SIM kookster. I know it might seem like very little fin at first, but remember if you add up the fin area of all four fins your always going get a little more than similar fins x 3 (thruster), and you're always going to have another fin close to the rail helping out when you lay the board over. If you're only surfing the board in smaller waves I reckon you might also like a fibreglass M3 equivalent with GX or similar in the tail. That will be very easy to throw around. If you're in Sydney or are ever down here I'd be happy to lend you some fins.
Great post and lots of info there Caveman.

Wonder if this type of good info should go into a sticky or FAQ?

Trev? You got nothing to do while your foot heals ...
Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. :twisted:
Do you mean this post or the whole thread?
Easy enough to sticky the whole thread.
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Trev » Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:05 am

wingnut2443 wrote:^^^ not sure Trev, what ever is best, easiest ... whole thread?

Just really goo info, that I think people can use over and over.

So, how long are yo out for ... bad timing with the swell around!
Stitches out next Tuesday. Should be good to go then. So, my prediction is "no swell from next Wednesday".
Ironic actually, I surfed within a week of a hernia operation about 20 years ago, way before the stitches came out. And recently on here there was a discussion about the same thing and I thought, "just get out there".
But 20 years on, I worry a bit more. :oops:
Didn't help that the night I did it, the TV had a story on a guy who was wading around in the water at Donnybrook and picked up some flesh eating bug in a cut on his leg, which has had to be amputated.
And there's a coastal creek flows out occasionaly just where I surf.
SoI'll wait till next Wednesday.
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You aren’t the room Yuke You are just a wonky cafe table with a missing rubber pad on the end of one leg.

Skipper
I still don't buy the "official" narrative about 9/11. Oh sure, it happened, fcuk yeah. But who and why and how I'm, not convinced it was what we've been told.

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Donweather » Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:51 am

Trev wrote:Stitches out next Tuesday. Should be good to go then. So, my prediction is "no swell from next Wednesday".
Yep, guaranteed Trev as I'm down the coast from next Wed to Saturday!!!

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by mustkillmulloway » Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:14 pm

Collected a old fav dahlberg 6"6 .semi gun out the container in my,run down too nsw and proper waves

Stuck some m7 fins in it....love it off the bottom


But...its sticking off the top :?

Suggestions too loosen a thruster but not lose to much drive



:?:

P.s quads are fu.cked
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by crabmeat thompson » Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:33 pm

mustkillmulloway wrote:Collected a old fav dahlberg 6"6 .semi gun out the container in my,run down too nsw and proper waves

Stuck some m7 fins in it....love it off the bottom


But...its sticking off the top :?

Suggestions too loosen a thruster but not lose to much drive



:?:

P.s quads are fu.cked
:lol:

Try some AM2's ... Al merrick twos ... Best fins I've used on my current board with a flat bottom. Really snappy off the top, but powers through sections with straight line speed. The board probably has a lot to do with that ... but I've noticed it goes 10% better, maybe more with the AM2's ...
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Slowman » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:32 am

AM2 side fins but with an AM3 trailer. I use TC redline side fins and a 3" trailer, it retains drive but loosens it to the point of controlled sliding. R2s are good for drive and still loose too.

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Beanpole » Thu May 03, 2012 4:12 pm

Quads are funny and surprising to surf. Its like all the stable bits feel loose and all the usual loose bits feel really stable.
Hope this is of assistance :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Donweather » Mon May 21, 2012 12:58 pm

Has anyone tried the TC Aqualine's? My mate as a set of them in his quad and the rear fin setup is interesting so I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on their performance. They look fairly loose?

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by dUg » Tue May 22, 2012 2:13 pm

Donweather wrote:Has anyone tried the TC Aqualine's? My mate as a set of them in his quad and the rear fin setup is interesting so I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on their performance. They look fairly loose?
Yep. Rode a set of the quads in a 6'0" Sunnova I had on loan for about a month. I really liked 'em in that board,my loan coincided nicely with a bowly little right hand bank spontaneously appearing at my local. It meant I surfed them backside more than frontside, but they were easy to release off the top but plenty drivey off the bottom. That board was a rail set up ( trailers were sides with flat inside foils ), so I think they would not go anywhere near as well in my Dead Kipper which has a more paralell McKee fin set up ( trailers are center fins ).

I've also used them in a little 5'9" quad I shaped, and they were super loose and I could get more than half the board out the back of the wave on my forehand, but sometimes I found them a bit taily on late-ish takeoffs. It wasn't unpeasant though, sometimes I kinda like the tail sliding a bit before I set a high line and the sides bite. It's a quad thing. :D

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Slowman » Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:00 pm

crustt wrote:I've been hearing normal people use the word stoke for a few years, it annoyed me at first, cause I suspect that the surf industry got them using it along with wearing boardshorts :)
Good Lord, next they'll be borrowing filth and using it in everyday parlance. The battle for ownership of gnarly has already been lost too - I blame rappers and mountain bikers.

I have shaped a lot of stabilisers and have used them to get better pivoting ability out of quads particularly where there is a wide tail involved. I have a quad and with a little stabiliser (a cross between the VS knubster and Darcy's Darc Drive) and it added control and made the board feel even faster. It doesn't always work, sometimes it stiffens a board up too much.

Here's a picture of one in a round tail http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn16 ... 111516.jpg

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by 'llo-and Behold » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:35 pm

spork wrote: I think Kelly has his further back.
Can you believe I gave him the idea back in 2000ish, with a fin I'd crudely done in PVC. He claimed on a comp webfeed a few years back that he doesn't remember me nor the fin. Bastard!
Still love his surfing though.

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by tonka79 » Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:30 am

Nick Carroll wrote: A quad's drag points are set along two fairly separate bands, along the rail lines either side of the stringer. In any quad turn, you're gonna be engaging one or other of these two-fin sets. This limits the available angles in a turn, enhancing some of the outline/rocker (the more parallel angles available from close to the fin set to up past the wide point) and detracting from the rest (specially the last 6-8" of tail outline).
Nick, what are your thoughts about combining a quad fin setup with a round or rounded pintail tail? I ride round tail quads almost exclusively and feel that they overcome, to a degree, the shortcomings you highlight above. In other words, I suspect that with a round tail or a rounded pintail would you be pivoting more off the apex of the tail rather than the two-fin sets. Thoughts?

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Re: Quad / Thruster ride report - fin advice needed

Post by Natho » Sat Oct 05, 2013 7:19 pm

Tonka, I agree with you that a round tail at least to a degree can help limit some of the quads bad points. For me I prefer round tails not only for quads, but for flatter, wider boards in general too.

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