Hey all,

I got a set of Quobba's from Santa and thought I'd provide feedback. I purchased them a Jimmy Lewis 9'5" Striker. The board is great but I found the following:
- as a 2+1 with stock fins it was slow and when a wave would start to wall up I couldn't generate enough speed.
- as a single fin the speed was better, but then I'd miss the drive. The board would pivot when doing a top turn and not drive out of it.

So I was after fins that provided speed (I'm addicted) and drive, hence the interest in the Quobba's. Taryn was fantastic to deal with, her customer service could not have been better. Also thanks to Colas for advice.

I purchased a set of large Futures Quobba's and Taryn swapped out the centre fin for an FCS so I could get and adapter for the US box. As others have mentioned I had to file the tabs, but this was cool as it meant to was nice and tight. I found the FCS adapter was loose in the fin box as the base was shallow, so I put a foam under the base and that dit the trick.

The first session out was only knee to waist high, so nothing great. My main impression was they certainly didn't add drag when paddling and tracked has as good as having the large centre fin. So happy so far.

Second session was today in shoulder high, fairly fat, point breaks that had a nice wall at the end section. Bottom turned similar to normal, with nice drive and speed maintained. Top turns were much more fun, with heaps of drive when doing a sharper turn. Now for the speed - dropping down the face was sweet, it would go faster and then allow a huge bottom turn. Down the line speed was also very good. At the end of the wave when it walled up I never missed getting through and did a couple of really nice foam climbs.

So overall really happy with the investment. The next test will be putting then in the BP Funstick, which is already fast with the current quad set-up, so looking forward to see if it's even faster!

Cheers Mark

Quobba has come on board as a sponsor for the Longboard Sup Revolution Cosmic Bali Experience. Will have demo fins available.

I answer here a post on a thread on other fins that got a little too heated for constructive discussions, so let's speak of Quobba here instead:

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beefarmer said..
the quobbas did light up on one particularly fun slightly bowly one, in a rather unusual floatly feeling, fast-off-the -bottom-turn kinda way. It was a good feeling and i want more.

Actually, this was similar to my experience as I relate it at the start of this thread. First session was in crap waves, interesting feeling but not worth the trouble going back to screws (vs FCSII fins). But on the second one, a powerful wave changed everything.

"I had the luck of snatching one good wave (long, hollow, powerful, shoulder high left) before the wind kicked in again.Well... I am now a believer... The speed gain is really really noticeable, so much that I began to try new lines on the wave, ones I dared not try before by fear of getting stuck. With the added speed, it worked!"

Basically, once I saw the potential of the Quobba, something I never experienced with fins in 40+ years, I changed my surfing to make the most of them buy always seeking power and speed gains, even in crap conditions. Quobba at slow speeds, if you just cruise along slow waves will not bring you significant advantages. With them, you have to go fast to go faster. But I personally don't see the point in going a bit faster casually in mushy waves, for this getting on a specialized board is more important (basically more volume, and much shorter or much longer), or fins that you can pump harder like the C-Drives. But having this elusive surfing graal of faster top speeds now reachable is so addictive...

A big thank you to anyone on this thread that took the time out to review Quobba fins. Reading the reviews I purchased a set. I dropped a set of mediums in for my stock 2+1 setup on my 9' perf longboard. I am genuinely gobsmacked how good they are. I have made sections I wouldn't have made before, the added speed is very significant, the board is more playful, loose and I feel like a better surfer. I was sceptical before but I couldn't be happier and I feel its given my surfing a bit of a turbo bbutton.

BTW, the customer service was brilliant. I won't bore you with the story but Quobba sorted out a posting issue quick as with no quibbles.
Genuine people me thinks!!!

After reading the info re quobba fins I am a little confused on whether or not it would be worth my while purchasing a set. I currently use the c drives on my 8'10 speeed and 9'2" speeed, they made good boards better. I weigh about 95kg and use the boards in all sort of conditions, beachies, point breaks, fat and fast waves, whatever is going.
can anyone advise? thanks

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lam said..
After reading the info re quobba fins I am a little confused on whether or not it would be worth my while purchasing a set. I currently use the c drives on my 8'10 speeed and 9'2" speeed

In my opinion, yes. Quobba will give you more speed, which is the magical key to better surfing.

C-drives give you more hold at low speed (paddling, pumping hard the initial turn), while not feeling oversized at high speed. So they can still be useful for specific conditions (leaning paddling sub-7' SUP boards, big wave surfing, towed surfing). However, I was using C-drive nearly exclusively since 2011 - one year I was even their best customer -, but mostly in sub 7'6" boards as I didn't find them very useful on longer boards, but stopped using them altogether when my boards began to have FCSII boxes, as I felt their advantages were not worth the the trouble using screws.
But I installed screws on all my boards for the Quobba.

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colas said..

lam said..
After reading the info re quobba fins I am a little confused on whether or not it would be worth my while purchasing a set. I currently use the c drives on my 8'10 speeed and 9'2" speeed

In my opinion, yes. Quobba will give you more speed, which is the magical key to better surfing.

C-drives give you more hold at low speed (paddling, pumping hard the initial turn), while not feeling oversized at high speed. So they can still be useful for specific conditions (leaning paddling sub-7' SUP boards, big wave surfing, towed surfing). However, I was using C-drive nearly exclusively since 2011 - one year I was even their best customer -, but mostly in sub 7'6" boards as I didn't find them very useful on longer boards, but stopped using them altogether when my boards began to have FCSII boxes, as I felt their advantages were not worth the the trouble using screws.
But I installed screws on all my boards for the Quobba.

Thanks Colas, my concern was that the boards may have have been too large to benefit from the quobbas

A new interview from the Quobba fin designer on MSW:
magicseaweed.com/news/introducing-quobba-fins-born-from-west-oz-ingenuity/11905/

In my SMIK 8'8" Short Mac - now a collectable - as it has been discontinued - this set of Quobba fins work really well.
. .

I have purchased them as well after reading this thread and I love all the comments and stories and I can admit that Taryn is a good help! I purchased the large and the medium
Will place my findings in here as well, as I normally don't recognize a lot of difference in fins so I'm really curious now.

At the moment I surf on my quatro Carve 8'0 stock the MFC fins and tried the Thruster and changed to quad with two MFC medium stock fins in the front and 2 future HS1 in the back.

On my Naish Hokua 7'10 I have a quad setup of K4 fins which work for me as well very good but this is FCS1. I had to choose if I took the Quobba fins for future of fcs1 but I decided that my quatro will soon be my go-to board so I decided the futures.

Keep you posted.

I have purchased them as well after reading this thread and I love all the comments and stories and I can admit that Taryn is a good help! I purchased the large and the medium
Will place my findings in here as well, as I normally don't recognize a lot of difference in fins so I'm really curious now.

At the moment I surf on my quatro Carve 8'0 stock the MFC fins and tried the thruster and changed to quad with two MFC medium stock fins in the front and 2 future HS gen series in the back.

On my Naish Hokua 7'10 I have a quad setup of K4 fins which work for me as well very good but this is FCS1. I had to choose if I took the Quobba fins for future of fcs1 but I decided that my quatro will soon be my go-to board so I decided the futures.

Keep you posted.

Update, there are fast!

Update: got both boards with those Quobba

For those needing a light at the end of this present no travel funk...
Quobba demo's - twin tab n Futures, both L n M , are now at Priority Sup Bali for demo's at Airport Rights.

So for an average 120 ltr 8/5 surf sup what size fins is everyone using M or L and Thruster or quad ????

A bit of everything :-)
If you are 80kg+ I'd advise a L thruster set.
If you hare less than 85kg, a M thruster set.

But once you get hooked on Quobba, you will buy a whole quiver and experiment. With the Quobba, everything works, because the extra speed makes it possible to adapt your surfing to take advantage of the pro of each setup while minimizing the cons.

Nice quiver Colas! and I agree with you, ones you are hooked on the Quobba's everything works.
For reference, I'm 80 kg and I use the L in the front and M in the back.

On my Quatro, I'm still switching a lot from Thruster (size L) to Quads (2 L's in the front and 2 M's in the back or all M-size) depending on the waves.

Wondering how do folks rate them as a quad set up, any suggestions for boards, sort of surf or whatever experiences would be great pls?
should the rears always be quobba's?
Even comparisons to their performance as a thruster set up.

Personally, I like quad setups on SUPs to have smaller rears than what is used on prone surfboards, as I guess SUP are more cumbersome than shortboards to turn, and the smaller rears helps.

So, using Quobba as quad currently will give me too big rears for my taste. It means that on the boards I use Quobba in quads, I know I will have added drive but also added stiffness. This is not a problem on my micro-wave 6'10" board with a huge tail where my rear foot must be on the kickpad anyways, and I am pushing hard on the legs to generate speed in shin-high waves (I put side Ms as rears for max grip), or the 8'4" Karmen I use when I want to carve wide turns, where I use central Ms as rears for more smoothness in rail-to-rail, but still have added grip in the tail when fully on the rail in high speed carves.

But this is because I have a Quiver and I can specialize my boards. If I had only one or two boards, I would just go with a thruster sets. The speed of a Quobba thruster set gives you the speed of a traditional quad setup anyways. A full L set normally, or L sides + M central on playful waves for added looseness.

I have been lucky to receive an early sample of the new construction of the Quobba fins: a mix of carbon and glass fibers instead of only glass, with the same shape. Here are my impressions:

At first I was a bit skeptical, as I do not like too stiff fins. I am a kind of fin hoarder that can never find the will to sell used fins, the only exception were the FCII carbon fins (performers) that I found too stiff and re-sold: they made the board slower and "dead" underfoot for me.
I guess the slowness of too stiff fins is due to the fin resisting too much water pressure and creating turbulence, a bit like in the Oak and the Reed fable.
So I was a bit wary of carbon in fins. I guess I am not pro-level aggressive enough in my surfing to need very stiff fins. To be frank, I Quobba had better work first on quad sets than carbon versions.

On reception, by flexing them by hand, I was pleasantly surprised: the carbons flex less than the regular glass Quobba, but still have some noticeable flex. I'd say roughly half. Perhaps this is due to the FCS1 system, the small tabs providing always some flex? It may explain why I loved carbon FCS1 H3 nexus fins, but hated the FCSII ones...

My first test was on slow thigh high waves. I could not really feel a difference, but at least they did not perform worse than the glass ones. No slowness or stiffness experienced.

By today was classic Hossegor: powerful fast overhead lines, with offshore winds. And in these conditions, the carbon Quobba shone! The main advantage is the precise driving: I got positive, instant feedback on my legs pushes, providing a noticeably better control. I think I got more speed out of turns, and on fast sections, but it is only subjective, I don't know for sure. Anyways, the board felt like a rocket on these fast racetracks...

There was some chop on some waves, due to the strong offshore winds, but the carbon fins seemed to handle it as well as the glass ones, the ride was not rougher.

The fins were L fronts with a M rear, whereas I use an all-L set on this board. But I experienced no drift of the rear fin nor spinouts, the carbons seem to hold splendidly.

So, nice work, these are definitely an improvement on the standard fins in powerful conditions. I immediately ordered two more carbon sets to that I could equip all the boards I use in powerful conditions. But I do not feel worth it to replace the regular Quobbas on my boards for slow waves, where I like the extra flex and do not mind a less precise feel.


In a nutshell: Carbon Quobba are great for aggressive riders and/or good conditions, and offer no disadvantages otherwise.

Promo: this week (until May 8th), you get 25% off with the code "quobba25".

Question: I thought that Quobbas weren't recommended for board with deep channels, but I see photos of a lot of you guys using them on Sunova Speeeds and Creeks, which have some of the deepest channels I have ever seen, plus some others like the SMIKs that use channels too. What gives with Quobbas on boards with channels? When do they work, when is it a bad idea?

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colas said..
Promo: this week (until May 8th), you get 25% off with the code "quobba25".

cheers colas you just saved me $41 :)

Those quobba crew must love you, they get very good promotional support from you :)

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exiled said..
Question: I thought that Quobbas weren't recommended for board with deep channels

Mmm, where do you read that? By googling I only found this mentioned in www.pastyadventures.co.uk/news-blog/quobba-fins-review which is really specific to kiting and he only emits it as a supposition.

In my experience, Quobbas raise the speed limit of fins, and provide more hold and less drag for a given speed. They are not a magic wand that instantly make you board perform better with your technique "as is". BUT, if you are ready to change a bit your surfing to tap into their potential (e.g: choosing your lines on the wave to gain more power that would have been kind of wasted with normal fins), you will get benefits that I found in no other fins.

As an example, my Quobba hold less at low speed than my C-Drives. I thus need to use a bit more rail in bottom turns in slow waves with the Quobbas to compensate, and be a bit more cautious in my leg pushes at low speed. But I can then reach speeds I could not get with the C-Drives, and this added speed potential transforms radically what I can do in the top turns and steep sections. I can see how a reviewer not ready to adapt to gear but expecting gear to match exactly his technique could just say "They do not work at low speed" and do not realize their advantages. Or just because they do not like the feel: a friend who tried them did not like them because he did not like the way they reacted in tight turns compared to what he was used to (I think the FCSII Julian Wilson).

This said, Quobbas may not work on slow boards (e.g: world cup "potato chips" shortboards with huge rocker and no glide if the rider does not have the technique to make them fast), as you will not reach their "sweet zone".

I wonder if anyone's tried them in a Bonza?
It might be like hitting 88mph in a tricked out DeLorian. Go back in time to a world of empty lineups.
Hmmm...
I'll order a set and report back. Don't wait for me I could be a while.

Smik twinny anyone running quobba fins on one. Trawled thread but don't find a review on outcome. I've got the 7'10 and need new fins. Just looking really for advice on sizing.
Cheers

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peguin said..
Smik twinny anyone running quobba fins on one. Trawled thread but don't find a review on outcome. I've got the 7'10 and need new fins. Just looking really for advice on sizing.
Cheers

recommend the large glass Quobbas for twin set up. If you want a smaller (medium) centre, just let Taryn (from Quobba) know. She is happy to send out custom sets as clients require.

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colas said..
But once you get hooked on Quobba, you will buy a whole quiver and experiment. With the Quobba, everything works, because the extra speed makes it possible to adapt your surfing to take advantage of the pro of each setup while minimizing the cons.

I see I forgot to detail the Quobba used on my Gong quiver. From left to right:

- Quad L sides + M centers. The board is the Karmen (8'4" x 120l), that I use for horizontal surfing at speed: carves, cutbacks, and messy waves. The symmetrical rears give me more smoothness in rail to rail

Then my 3 boards for vertical surfing:

- Thruster L for my two Alleys, in comfy (8'1" x 120l) and challenging (7'8" x 105l) sizes. Tight turns in the power.

- Truster L sides + center M for my Fatal (7'3" x 105l) for small waves with some power. Smaller center fin for more looseness.

Then my board for micro waves: One 6'10" x 125l
- Quad L sides + M sides, for maximum efficiency in pushing on the fins for generating speed.

Since the pic was taken, I have switched all my vertical surfing boards (Alleys + Fatal) to Quobba carbon thruster L sides + M center sets, for more precision.

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MarkW81 said..
Hey all,

I got a set of Quobba's from Santa and thought I'd provide feedback. I purchased them a Jimmy Lewis 9'5" Striker. The board is great but I found the following:
- as a 2+1 with stock fins it was slow and when a wave would start to wall up I couldn't generate enough speed.
- as a single fin the speed was better, but then I'd miss the drive. The board would pivot when doing a top turn and not drive out of it.

So I was after fins that provided speed (I'm addicted) and drive, hence the interest in the Quobba's. Taryn was fantastic to deal with, her customer service could not have been better. Also thanks to Colas for advice.

I purchased a set of large Futures Quobba's and Taryn swapped out the centre fin for an FCS so I could get and adapter for the US box. As others have mentioned I had to file the tabs, but this was cool as it meant to was nice and tight. I found the FCS adapter was loose in the fin box as the base was shallow, so I put a foam under the base and that dit the trick.

The first session out was only knee to waist high, so nothing great. My main impression was they certainly didn't add drag when paddling and tracked has as good as having the large centre fin. So happy so far.

Second session was today in shoulder high, fairly fat, point breaks that had a nice wall at the end section. Bottom turned similar to normal, with nice drive and speed maintained. Top turns were much more fun, with heaps of drive when doing a sharper turn. Now for the speed - dropping down the face was sweet, it would go faster and then allow a huge bottom turn. Down the line speed was also very good. At the end of the wave when it walled up I never missed getting through and did a couple of really nice foam climbs.

So overall really happy with the investment. The next test will be putting then in the BP Funstick, which is already fast with the current quad set-up, so looking forward to see if it's even faster!

Cheers Mark

Get a set of C-Drives and experience a real difference. Gave my Quobba's away for free

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Smash1 said..
Get a set of C-Drives and experience a real difference. Gave my Quobba's away for free

I beg to differ.

- C-Drives give you more hold at low speed, and do not stiffen at high speed.
- Quobba are more efficient at all speeds (less drag per lift), and have a higher end speed (the drag increases much less than other fins)

So it depends on what you are looking for. For instance I would recommend C-Drives when trying to master the row effect of short SUPs, or if you want to push hard on turns in slow waves, or if you just want hold in hollow waves but do not need the extra speed.

I love Quobba on the other hand because their extra speed open up new trajectories on the wave, and it is invaluable for me. In slow waves, I just dig a bit more the rail than with C-Drives, and push more progressively on the legs. But there is no way I can get the top speed of the Quobba with C-Drives.

I have been using C-Drives nearly exclusively for seven years (from 2011 to 2018). I was one year their best customer (or so Troy told me). But never since I switched to Quobba. I even stopped using C-Drives when my boards got FCSII boxes, I felt the benefits of the C-Drives was not worth the hassle to use screws.