Anyone riding quads? what are the advantages or disadvantages over the thruster?

A quad is a variation of a twin-fin... these tend to be looser and faster. I recently went from a thruster to a quad and thought that it would be 'tighter' to turn given the extra surface area of the fins - nope! Much more fluid in the turns. Also seemed to be noticabley faster when you get the sweet-spot or pump on the wave... of course this could also be due to the board shape being significantly different...

Others forum regulars will know more and will talk about rail-to-rail transition and drive off the bottom etc... all I know is that I like it, and my next board will also be a quad.

"A quad is a variation of a twin-fin... these tend to be looser and faster"

I have had many discussions with the guy that pushed the Quad thing for the last 20 or so years and is also the guy that most shapers use the formula for quad placement.

His pet hate is people saying that the quad is a variation of the twin. He always says it is better to think of the modern quad as a thruster with the back fin cut in half and moved up and out a little towards the rail.

Modern quads have the same front fin placement as a thruster and do not suffer the same limitations of the twin fin. In fact they take the advantages of the 'thruster' and add to it in their own way. Namely added speed, they do suffer some limitations in not failing at some times when a thruster would slide or release. The motivation for quads oppositely to most peoples belief was from extremely heavy and hollow waves to have added hold in the pocket and barrell from the 2 rail fins rather than 1.

I would suggest if you are truly interested in Quads and their advantages you buy a 6 pack and sit down and read the site as below. It is more than you will ever need to know about quads. It will also take a while to digest it all.

http://www.mckeesurf.com/brucemckee/quattro.htm

I have a Burton round tail quad, its the best board ive ridden for a long time!!

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doggie said...

I have a Burton round tail quad, its the best board ive ridden for a long time!!

Ol' Muzza, who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He's a great friend of mine and I wish I had more of his boards.

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CMC said...

doggie said...

I have a Burton round tail quad, its the best board ive ridden for a long time!!

Ol' Muzza, who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He's a great friend of mine and I wish I had more of his boards.

He is a legend, not afraid of doing different things with design. Great to see

Viva La Quad, I've been riding quads for the last 6 years.
Al Merrick '82 retro
Bourton skinny bullet
Firewire Dominator
All very different but all unreal fun.If any one out there is worried about going to a Quad I recomend any one of the above and all of them have the option of being changed to a thruster or a twinny.

Well a quad it's going to be then. thanks for the reply's

Just a question...if quads are better then why don't the pros use them in comps?

some do...there is a guy....can,t think of his name....Kelly someone....he's been dabling a bit with them.

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jay said...

Just a question...if quads are better then why don't the pros use them in comps?

Not better, different. Ride one find out for your self you wont regret it.
BTW if all rode what the pros did we would never catch a wave!

^^ speak for urself poodle

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KEARNSY said...

^^ speak for urself poodle

Thats Evil Poodle to you [}:)]

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GPA said...

A quad is a variation of a twin-fin...

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CMC said...
His pet hate is people saying that the quad is a variation of the twin. He always says it is better to think of the modern quad as a thruster with the back fin cut in half and moved up and out a little towards the rail.

My pet hate is people thinking that all boards with 4 fins are created equal.

Quads that have 2 fins either side working in a canard relationship are most certainly a variation on a twinny. Check out what Rich Pavel has to say on the matter. He took a twin fin skeg profile and broke it into 2 fins. This fin setup is usually used on fish type boards that are often direct copies of the early twin fins (Steve Lis, etc). Essentially they are a twin fin that has less drag for the same amount of drive.



Then you get the boards which are shaped almost identically to a modern thruster, but have the back fin split into two. I'm not too familar with these, but I believe they surf like a thruster.



and here's my quad :) Don't try and tell me it is a variation on a thruster, coz it isn't...

Yea they do but feel skatier, but still have a lot of hold without spinning out..

Doggie - it worries me,but I am gunna have to agree with you again - quads are not better - they are different.

I am not the best shortboard surfer on the planet but when I first seriously started on the shorties a few years ago I used to surf with a guy who liked big beachies so I had to learn in those conditions. I had a very basic thruster I think around 6'4 and I used to get these terrifying wobbles taking off late on bigger waves and really struggled to make a lot of bottom turns - yeah I know it was primarily a learning curve coming off a mal BUT one day I borrowed a simon anderson quad in similar dimensions and bugger me the board didn't have the wobbles and I made most bottom turns and felt really safe in bigger waves. What I put it down to was the fact that on a quad I reckon you have the advantage of having two fins constantly in the water instead of only 1 or 1 and a bit on a thruster and as such have more hold on the wave. In my limited experience I have also found that quads develop speed easier on the wave face and instead of having to drive off the bottom to develop speed you seem to be able to just accelerate anywhere on the wave - especially in smaller surf. I kinda reckon that a good quad is like a good twinny but with 100% control.
Having said all the good stuff above I do have to say though that I have tried quad mals and sups and reckon they are absolute crap !
I would make sure though that if you are going to try a quad speak to and buy from people who know quads and rate them and aren't just adding another fin to a thruster to please you. I am not totally up to date with who's doing good quads now but the people to talk to who really know them are guys like Murray Bourton/Simon Anderson/Dick Van Straalen just to name three.

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billboard said...

Doggie - it worries me,but I am gunna have to agree with you again - quads are not better - they are different.

I am not the best shortboard surfer on the planet but when I first seriously started on the shorties a few years ago I used to surf with a guy who liked big beachies so I had to learn in those conditions. I had a very basic thruster I think around 6'4 and I used to get these terrifying wobbles taking off late on bigger waves and really struggled to make a lot of bottom turns - yeah I know it was primarily a learning curve coming off a mal BUT one day I borrowed a simon anderson quad in similar dimensions and bugger me the board didn't have the wobbles and I made most bottom turns and felt really safe in bigger waves. What I put it down to was the fact that on a quad I reckon you have the advantage of having two fins constantly in the water instead of only 1 or 1 and a bit on a thruster and as such have more hold on the wave. In my limited experience I have also found that quads develop speed easier on the wave face and instead of having to drive off the bottom to develop speed you seem to be able to just accelerate anywhere on the wave - especially in smaller surf. I kinda reckon that a good quad is like a good twinny but with 100% control.
Having said all the good stuff above I do have to say though that I have tried quad mals and sups and reckon they are absolute crap !
I would make sure though that if you are going to try a quad speak to and buy from people who know quads and rate them and aren't just adding another fin to a thruster to please you. I am not totally up to date with who's doing good quads now but the people to talk to who really know them are guys like Murray Bourton/Simon Anderson/Dick Van Straalen just to name three.

BB anymore posts over here and we have to steal you away from mac

Murray Bourton is the man in my mind, he really has it wired. I think thrusters feel stiff compared to quads, they just feel looser or is just me?
My Bourton is the second quad that Ive had, had a DHD before and that got me onto quads.
Like you said and Murray has also said on his site that quads have those two fins on the rails so you can go later with more stability on take off.
With my DHD I tried using front fins in the back as well, I had PC5s in the front with PC3s in the rear, for going fast down the line it was great so much speed and the faster you speed pumped it the faster it went, didnt go in a straight line very well tho too much drag. It was a good experiment tho

So far the best fin setup I have tried for shortboard quads is AM-2s in the front and GX-Qs in the rear. They are almost exactly the same profile as well. I have had this setup in boards from 5.11 to 6.10 but mainly fishy type boards, Gotta say though that I am not overly adventurous with fins in any of my boards. It pisses my mates off but I tend to put fins in and use the T.L.A.R method to set them up and thats where they stay forever. (That Looks About Right)
The reason I went for the above fin setup is because I have always used AM-2s (had a set in the shed) and just love them and I had GX-Qs on my longboard (yep, a set in the shed) and just by chance they were the same profile (shape). I suppose if you read deeply into this post I just come out of it looking like a simple tightarse hey. Works for me though.