RealSurf Surfers' Forum

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My 2 cents, they take a bit of getting used to.. in my limited ability, it seems foot placement is more important, for avoiding a bit of looseness/skatiness on the bottom turn to getting the right angle into a top turn. Mine can take a way higher trim line on the face, very fast in a straight line and can beat sections easily. My JD with 5 plugs only gets ridden as a thruster now, prefer it that way. Also picked up a More FatBat which is a dedicated quad which seems a bit better as a dedicated quad rather than as a quad/thruster combo.

i rode quads almost exclusively for a three year stretch. the stringer centric hi-perf types, and the rail centric flatter rockered types. in comparison to a thruster, quads "feel" faster down the line, but "feel" less accurate in turns. my love affair with them is over for now. though if i ended up surfing waves that really required going balls out down the line, just to beat sections, then i'd probably look into getting another.

not suitable for beachbreaks. thrusters go way better.

dial it in a bit then try it again up north or in some lined up surf. you need to draw different lines to get the best out of them. and those lines aren't really available on a beachie.

steve shearer wrote:not suitable for beachbreaks. thrusters go way better.

dial it in a bit then try it again up north or in some lined up surf. you need to draw different lines to get the best out of them. and those lines aren't really available on a beachie.

totally 100% agree.

I don't 100% agree for the waves I surf, but I just about do for the waves legion does.

Legion, my guess is that you need to go down in size on the fins. Probably all of them but almost certainly the rears, and likely by a lot more than you expect.

And double foiled rear fins take away a lot of the feeling of being on a scalectrix track.

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"fast steep walls ideally where pivoty surfing isn't necessary." --- Good conditions for a quad.

And like Alakaboo says, drop the size of your back fins (considerably) and make sure they're fairly upright (not raked out) and that should help the board pivot/go-vert easier. --- but it'll likely never pivot on the spot as easily as a thruster. They're different boards. Quads feel more like they're "projecting" thru turns, than pivoting super tight like a thruster.

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^ have a read of this. http://www.mckeesurf.com/?page_id=267. particularly this part, as it gives a good overview of what to expect with different fin sizes/combos.

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Depends upon the tail width but on most of my quads I run twin/small trailer combos.
So larger than the fins on the McKee chart above.
Think CI AMT's, Akila Aipa twins, Scarfini twins with various rears, FCS gxq (longboard sidebites), Dick Van Straalen sharktooth rears from both Shapers and Huie, Indo controller rears.
If I'm running rears that are closer to the rail them flat sided and if more stringer centric then double or 30/70 ish.
I like the drive of the big twin up front with the right amount of hold applied to the tail in turns.
Once the waves get larger I go to more conventional sized quad combos for control since I don't need the drive as much.
Worth trying as you may really like it. Luckily I have a really eclectic fin collection that has taught me a lot through experimenting out of the box.

legion - i think shearer's advise about quads in general not being the best for beach-breaks is the single biggest revelation i had after riding quads for some time. found that overall, I'd be outrunning the wave, often ending up too far out in front of the pocket, washing off speed and cutting back. overall, surfing flatter but faster lines, though with the trade-off of surfing less top-to-bottom and tight in the pocket.

is yours a step-up, a rounded pin or pintail type quad? if so, it'd probably go bananas at somewhere like gnarloo etc.

I got onto quads as with less experience I enjoyed the speed they naturally generated allowing me to concentrate on other stuff..

Now a few years on, as Hatchy says I am finding "I'd be outrunning the wave, often ending up too far out in front of the pocket, washing off speed and cutting back. overall, surfing flatter but faster lines, though with the trade-off of surfing less top-to-bottom and tight in the pocket."

I like my CV2 where its a long sucky wave where you need the speed but I think it's time for me to start looking at a Thruster.

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You'll prob end up having a lot of fun on it. But there's pros and cons. Keep it for sprinty down the line surfing and you'll be sweet.

Drailed wrote:I got onto quads as with less experience I enjoyed the speed they naturally generated allowing me to concentrate on other stuff..

Now a few years on, as Hatchy says I am finding "I'd be outrunning the wave, often ending up too far out in front of the pocket, washing off speed and cutting back. overall, surfing flatter but faster lines, though with the trade-off of surfing less top-to-bottom and tight in the pocket."

I like my CV2 where its a long sucky wave where you need the speed but I think it's time for me to start looking at a Thruster.

If your cv2 has quad plugs only just get thruster plugs and bingo...don't need to buy another board. One of my cv2 has the five fin option while the other is a quad.

Legion wrote:Iggs I like small boards. It's a step-sideways. 6'0" x 18.5" with my usual dearth of volume (although he slipped a bit more in). Refined as usual + a skinny tail template.

Skinny tail. Need less fin.

Unless it's a gun, I think quads are best suited to bigger (wider) tails.