Jumping from a quad to a thruster

[dUg]

if you're not making money from surfing then branch out I say

I say sell out. Branching out sounds too much like hard work.

Liking them in hollow quality waves, and preferring a thruster in average waves where I wanna do tighter arcs, and have some snap release. I also believe you can set a board up to be both, but I usually have my fins a bit more forward on tri's anyway, so this helps.

That definitely would make it more adaptable. I guess I see a quad as a "whole of board" thing, where all the dimensions complement each other and the fin set up. Perhaps I have seen too many thruster shapes with 4 fins shoe-horned into 'em.

I agree though... steep, fast walls you have to race are great fun on a quad. All that lift and hold and the sense of riding it higher up is a buzz, quite different to the same wave on a thruster. Where it's a vertical up-whack-stall-drop-pivot-at-the-bottom-and-repeat style of wave I still prefer a thruster, especially backside.

[scod]

My al merrick pod can be set up as a quad or thruster.

I rode exclusively as a quad for the first 6 months coz i only ever rid a thruster, recently swapped it to a thruster and I aint never going back.

The quad was good but as a thruster its just so much better. Maybe its the board maybe its me.

I don't believe it's possible to set the same board up to work with 3 or 4 fins. I find it's usually the people who've spent a fair wad of cash on just such a board that disagree.

of course the opinions of those that actually own such boards are irrelevant.

Maybe it will work awesome with all of the fins in it and I'll be getting barrels where there aint no barrels.

Al Merrick, what a kook !!! How he makes any money I'll never know.

[Cpt.Caveman]

haha, I'd have to agree though

the amount of times I've seen guys cruising around the beach with a HPS with five plugs, 95% of the time with thruster config, I wonder why they paid for the extra fin plugs. Probably to look alternative...

the fin placement is different to make each work the best, just as one detail of how the shape needs to match the fins...

[dUg]

of course the opinions of those that actually own such boards are irrelevant.

Maybe it will work awesome with all of the fins in it and I'll be getting barrels where there aint no barrels.

Al Merrick, what a kook !!! How he makes any money I'll never know.

No, not at all. Even Lada owners have opinions. Well... "had"...

[ric_vidal]

the only quad....i've eva trully loved and still do ...is ric vandels ( speed fins...rip )

what happened to ’em, Fang? Did you do the glass-on thing?

Think I well and truly surpassed that board recently for this mate, took it with us to Sumatra after riding it just a couple of times prior to departure and got a 1000 waves in the first couple of days... 6'3" quad. He now finds it hard to jump back onto regular thrusters of which he has more than his fair share.

Guess it is all about phases you go through, personally like to mix it up when I can and the back allows. Jumped back on a board I had virtually discarded recently but this time, and for the first time, rode it as a 2+1 albeit only a 6'9". Had a heap of fun in small waves.

[scod]

My al merrick pod can be set up as a quad or thruster.

I rode exclusively as a quad for the first 6 months coz i only ever rid a thruster, recently swapped it to a thruster and I aint never going back.

The quad was good but as a thruster its just so much better. Maybe its the board maybe its me.

I don't believe it's possible to set the same board up to work with 3 or 4 fins. I find it's usually the people who've spent a fair wad of cash on just such a board that disagree.

You know, you're right, $30 was very hard to part with for the option.

I had no problem with the way the board performs as a quad, just that the thruster set up suits me more.

But then I value the opinion of ppl who have never owned such a board so much more than my own experience.

Just a question though, how many people have you spoken to and how many usually disagree ?

[Jorgo]

Ric - off topic - Sumatra (Banyaks or??) - and whichever you got waves??

[ric_vidal]

Ric - off topic - Sumatra (Banyaks or??) - and whichever you got waves??

Yep, have sent a PM

[dUg]

Just a question though, how many people have you spoken to and how many usually disagree ?

quite a few.

[Slowman]

What I don't get is how many of you are saying forget about hitting lips or surfing tight in the pocket with quads and that they don't pivot. I have 2 quads and 2 thrusters and now that I have "good" quads they do everything the thrusters do but with more speed and hold. They also seem to go just as well backside. They just don't have the same release where I can slide the tail in a controlled manner (sometimes!). I have broken the fins out on a quad and just totally lost it. I did have a couple of crappy quads that wouldn't pivot or go vertical out of the lip and they're gone - they were just crap boards and I doubt if a thruster set up would have helped them any.

I've found my 6'2" quad was handling the swell quite well Saturday week ago (6'-8' barrels remember those?). It turns so easily I am actually worried it will be too loose as a thruster...yes it has a 4/3 fin set up. I had to get fins with more rake even as a quad to get a bit more control than the ones I normally use in a quad (R2s) as it was just too skatey. I have GAM fronts with Q1000 rears. I plan to get a GAM centre fin and try the thruster set up soon...I just thought I'd work out how it goes as a quad first and get used to it before moving onto the thruster configuration.

Stepping back onto either of my other thrusters they just feel like they always did.They need some juice though, that is not so say they can't go well in small waves it is more about the power and shape. Small shapely waves with some juice and they are OK although the rounded pin needs at least 4' to get going. This where the difference of a quad shines through, they seem to go better in fat, slow waves as well as powerful ones.

[Hano]

I really like the spontaneousness of rail to rail transition a thruster offers. I find Its easier to “ fluke” into a favourable position during a critical moment on a thruster.
But the whole drive-hold-speed-carving factor of a quad feels and looks much more appealing to me.

[lorcar]

I do notice some getting used to needed, mainly because the smallest bit of back foot pressure starts you off on a turn. Compared to quads which need to be tipped over just slightly until they respond (a fraction of a second). I found myself doing turns and cutbacks before even thinking about it..haha

could you plz elaborate a bit more? I had previously read about "fish poison" because while riding a fish you dont push your turn as hard, and when you get back on a thruster you waste it.
thanks

[Cpt.Caveman]

I do notice some getting used to needed, mainly because the smallest bit of back foot pressure starts you off on a turn. Compared to quads which need to be tipped over just slightly until they respond (a fraction of a second). I found myself doing turns and cutbacks before even thinking about it..haha

could you plz elaborate a bit more? I had previously read about "fish poison" because while riding a fish you dont push your turn as hard, and when you get back on a thruster you waste it.
thanks

A lot of people are critical about surfing fish because they do a lot of the work for you. They help you build speed, maintain speed through turns, and the rails are usually quite soft and forgiving so that you can push them quite a bit before bogging. If this is what you're used to surfing all the time, then switching to a lower volume and thinner foiled high-performance shortboard can take a lot of getting used to. You need to work a lot harder to generate speed, be sensitive through turns to maintain that speed, and the sensitive rails can be easier to bog through turns. The argument is, that you're better off surfing a high performance shortboard because you learn more about technique and can achieve all of this over time.

The other argument being that when you go back to a fish after surfing a high performance board, its easy to get into bad habits because the fish starts doing a lot of the work for you again and you don't need to be as active or sensitive to the board anymore.

In my opinion, high performance surfing and having a bias towards low volume and thinly foiled boards is just one type of surfing that is not for everyone. If you really want to put the water time in to get really good at it then why not, its a lot of fun. Its still only one realm of surfing though. You can still pick a board for its speed and user friendliness, and go out surfing just to catch as many waves as you can, enjoy the speed, and have stacks of fun. It depends what you want out of your surfing.

I personally pick my every-day boards for whether they can combine that fish speed and glide, with similar responsiveness to a high performance board. Trying to get the best out of both worlds (if possible). I used to surf low volume high performance thrusters all the time, and found it made surfing stale after a while and I needed variety in my boards to enjoy surfing again. Now I prefer the low volume and thinly foiled boards when the waves have some juice and you need to have control.

What I meant in my post above, was that in a thruster surfboard the pivot or anchor point when you are turning off the tail near the middle fin and doesn't take much pressure at all on the rail to start a turn. This is compared to a quad which needs to be tipped over on a rail every so slightly before it starts to turn. I have adjusted my surfing to suit this with quads and it doesn't bother me at all.

[lorcar]

was that in a thruster surfboard the pivot or anchor point when you are turning off the tail near the middle fin and doesn't take much pressure at all on the rail to start a turn. This is compared to a quad which needs to be tipped over on a rail every so slightly before it starts to turn. I have adjusted my surfing to suit this with quads and it doesn't bother me at all.

thanks really a lot.

but I still have some doubts about your sentence quoted above.
I am not sure I got it correctly, but do you mean you do not need to put a thruster on a rail in order to turn it? if I see any video, it seems to me they all put their trifin on the rail before turning. I hope I understood what you meant

thanks!

[Cpt.Caveman]

of course you have to engage a rail to start a turn, but quads feel like you need to "tip" them over slightly first with a slight lag before they start the turn, initiating the turn a fraction later than thrusters. In a thruster the first instance you tip it over it starts to turn.

Its just a matter of timing in my opinion. I can adjust my surfing to suit either.

[dUg]

I'd just add that fishy-style quads with a lot of width carried to the tail are more prone to this. If the tail is fairly narrow ( or there's flyers to step out the width ) I don't reckon there's a lot of difference. I notice it much more on deep single concave thrusters - even turning off the tail seems to have a "pause" for want of a better description.

[crabmeat thompson]

I've only ridden one quad ... And I couldn't get into it.

It was a little fattish left (my backhand) down the coast, and my normal instinct on this wave is to straighten out on the drop, bottom turn up into the lip and then turn into the breaking lip come back down and race a little section.

I couldn't get the top turn right at all. I'd either bury a rail and fall. Not be able to the board around back down the wave and fall or the board would slide out from under my feet when I really applied pressure ... and I'd fall.

I've never gotten back on a quad since.

I'm shopping for a new board (off the rack, need it now) after creasing my all rounder in the last swell we had, and I've looked at quad/ tri set ups ... Thinking I'd ride it as a thruster and then a quad when there's swell and its hollow. I'm looking at a few DHD's and a Merrick ... Any other suggestions. I want a 1-5 foot kind of board to use as an everyday'er.

But! I can't get past how the weight in the back end feels all funky to me with the extra plugs on the quad/tri set ups. Does that affect performance? Does anyone else feel these boards are funky with the extra weight in the backend? I might be a spaz, I dunno.

[Cpt.Caveman]

I don't notice any of those problems. It terms of hold in quads, I find its a general balance between tail area vs. fin area. You can tweak the fin sizes to allow some release, or you can use so much fin area that the board will virtually never slide out even on the latest most desperate take-offs.

My 6'0" Quadfather has so much hold that I know in any take-off in waves up to 8ft, no matter how late or heavy, if I just put my weight forward and point the nose down into the wave it will always catch.

What sort of board was it that you rode? Fish, semi-fish HPS? What type of fins did it have? What fin placement did it have?

With enough tail curve in both planshape and rocker, plus a round-tail and stringer-centric fin placement, you can get a board that is very responsive. My 5'11" Swinger has all of that and its comparable to a HPS thruster in response.