Hey guys

I've recently been trying this JC deep 8'8 x 32 x 135l board as a quad but it is like nothing i've tried before!
I've been riding shortboards and surfing for years (5'9 is my custom) and also as a quad, but I have tried anything as fast as this JC board as a quad. It just takes off down the line and half the time I come off the back of it or can't really get the rails to engage when I step back and try turn off the tail.

It just seems way too twitchy with the current quad set up.
I'm only 69kg so I wondered if I might actually be too light for it, or too light to properly get the rails to engage? It's only around 7kg so very very light.

Would love to run a bigger single fin but limited with the standard futures box.
What do you guys suggest?
Run thruster?
Run a nubb fin with the quads?
Run bigger quads?

I had the same problem with a custom board, tried every fin combo in the freaking world for about a year before finally admitting to myself that the thickness was off for me. Got rid of the board, problem solved. Probably not what you want to hear, but I couldn't fix my rail engagement problem with fins. Good luck though! 135L is a lot of board for you, by the way. I'm 70kg and ride 90L on my highest performance board, 105 on my mid range board.

Firstly id say yes, 135l for 69kg is pretty boat like. that being said doable but need to engage rail which will mean strong legs n stomp n engage. larger front quads should help i say, i used to use shapers s9 carbon fronts with s6 rears (quite small) and that gave it good bite n speed yet loose like a quad is.
alternately yeh go thruster and large, like L-XL fronts and L rear. something like the shapers S8 or S9 front or a set of AM2, either future or shapers do these.

Interesting, this is my current board which is almost identical volume (130l). 9'0 x 29 x 4 1/4.
I've only ridden my current board as a 8" single + 2 small side bites and while it isn't very stable while standing, it is incredibly stable and predictable when on the wave. I've had some steep head high waves and never pearled the nose or come off the board once on the wave.
My new board is the opposite- more stable while standing but stupidly fast and unstable while on the wave. Even tracking straight down the wave face the board wants to rock left to right instead of staying planted.

I haven't tried it as a thruster yet but get the feeling it would work best with a bigger single fin and side bites.

Stick another fin in the center and run it as a five fin. If it gets to stiff, down size the fin.

You bought this from someone else who had it custom made, right? If so, what is the weight difference between you and the guy you got it from?

Do you mean a nubb fin in the centre? Like quad plus a micro centre?

The guy I brought it off wasn't the original owner either although he was about 95kgs. He liked it for waves but struggled with the stability side of things so he was going longer or more volume. Don't know about the original owner but interesting that it's been through 3 owners in a year from new.

Naw, try a full sized fin in the center and see what happens. If its too stiff, you can a trailer off a twin set, then go down to a nub.

benjl PM'd me on this asking for fin advice (hope you don't mind).
Mate, you didn't tell me it was 32" wide and 135L and you're only 69kg!
I have the exact same board, but 30 1/2" wide and 130L. For my average weight of 100kg it's pretty well spot on, but it does behave itself better as a thruster. Only tried it twice like this in bigger juice.
I always surf it as a quad because that's what I bought it for. Speed. And bottom turns from hell.
IMHO mate, I don't think fins will help much. Maybe very marginally.
If it has fairly chunky rails like mine, you might want to increase your pie and beer intake.

Every board works better with the right fins. That looks like a deep hybrid.i suggest use shaper JC fronts with medium sized quad rears and a small 5 knubster fin. I would almost bet that's the ideal set up for that board.

I just took out he jc deep 3.2 quad fins that came with the board to measure them up and they are massive!!
huge base and height.

the Fluro orange nat young fin is from my surfboard and they're a big template in themselves. They're the 'arc' series and similar to an am2 template with huge sides and smaller centre fin. Even still, they're miles smaller than the quad fins that came with the board.
The deep back quads are also way bigger than my shapers sx fins and Futures EA fibreglass medium quad set.

Thoughts? Are they possibly too big for me?

Defiantly worth a try putting them on benji .
only a surf well tell .

these fins might solve your problem .

Looks all kinds of wrong! Haha

Whoa! Looks like a dolphin pod.
Keen to hear how you go with that mate.

maybe bad design......the Sunova Speed handles big drops and fast sections in a graceful fashion.
Was riding the 9'5 Speeed
now riding the 9'2 Speeeed.

Maybe Sunova does Speeeeeed best

I'd be putting the other fins on .
with out the middle one ..
the other fins are probably to big for your weight .

that's probably why you can't turn it ,and feel too fast ...
to much fin gives you lift ...and the board doesn't sit down in the water .
so your rail won't bite into the wave ..for turning ..

replace with the smaller ones and give that a go....first ...

or run it as a thruster

The deep quad set look fine. Get rid of the 5th centre fin and try it with a knubster.

You could try tracking down some Shapers S'9s in futures...but better still I'd suggest learning to handle the speed, I love drivey boards.

Call me a sceptic, but I reckon you can try multiple fin combinations, but the fundamental problem will remain. The board has too much volume and width for you body weight.

Off load and try something in the 8.5 - 8.8' long x 30" wide and around 105 - 110 lts volume. This should still be reasonably easy to paddle for a bloke of your weight, but should be able to get the rail in and throw it around a bit. Good luck!

So I also brought this one.. hah! It was going too cheap and no one else bid on it.
its a 8'6 x 31 x 4 1'2 120l custom board. It's had extra classing so it's about 2kg heavier than the 8'8.
i only tried it today in super choppy wind swell wth a 7" single and side bites but it was surprisingly stable, more so than the 8'8 deep board with a quad set up in similar Chop. It's got less rocker and also more volume in the nose and tail despite being 15l less and being more heavy.

The previous owner was a 70yr old about 75kg who said that he's had it up to about double overhead and been fine on it. Looks like a double flyer tail with a heap of vee for 2/3 of the board length.

Try these if you can. I am your weight and sometimes still ride a higher volume board in the winter. The swallow looks great on your board..

As a smaller dude, you have to get to the stomper! I am all of 70 kegs, and can sink the tail, and the rail on this King's with the C-Drives. The suggestion to try five small fins, and then a trailer from a twin set, and then a nubster have all worked for me in the past as well.

Fool around and see what works. Way less junk in the trunk with your swallow..

It's funny, a few weeks back I was talking about uncontrollable speed and a need to increase stability etc.
I ended up selling the deep and getting that 8'6 x 31 x 4 1/2 120L blue agenda board because it had a 4+1 set up and a bit less volume.
After running the big single and liking the stability, I tried it as a quad yesterday expecting a burst of speed. Strangely enough I didn't get it- and this is in low tide head height west coast nz waves (biggest ive tried on this sup).
The quad didn't feel anything special- instead I found myself trying to get more speed and manouverability. Easy enough going down the line but I just couldn't turn the thing.

I'm now wanting to do the opposite of my original objective and go smaller on the quads for turning?
the ones I tried yesterday were large scarfini fronts with 4" futures rear fins (which I think are also large?)
I've got some Futures EA quads in a medium that I might give a try today.

Any other suggestions? I've got a few fins to play around with. I could also try different (medium, or large fronts) with smaller rears? Or some fronts from a thruster set that I've got which are made for more vertical surfing?

loosely related to this thread, anyone found any bigger fin options that will fit into std fcs or future fin boxes to run a bigger centre? ie i don't have a longboard centre fin box but would like to run with a bigger centre fin, any ideas. i actually had a winged keel fin that was only about 6" with std fcs fittings that had the desired effect, but lost it. would love to even get say a 7" or dolphin type fin into std boxes to play with. recognise that it might put stress on the fin box and they aren't made for it... i'm guessingosmeone will tell me to cut down the base of a longboard fin to fitinto a future box perhaps (??) but i'm too hopeless to even take that on...

Select to expand quote

dools111 said..
loosely related to this thread, anyone found any bigger fin options that will fit into std fcs or future fin boxes

- an XL center C-drive fin
- a keel fin, you may have to remove a tab if it is one on the 3-tabbed variety
- have a shaper make a custom fin. Beware that standard FCS boxes may not resist.
- just have an US box fitted in place...