Surfing Waves

Hey, I just had a general question I wanted to ask. I have never surfed a quad fin board. For those of you who have, what is the difference between quad, tri, and single fins? How do they ride differently?

Thanks, Charlie

It'll depend on the board dimensions too, but in my experience...

Quads have a huge amount of drive, thruster (3 fin) setups are quicker to turn, and single fins are good for smooth drawn out turns.

They're all good at what they do - it all comes down to personal preference and style as well as what kinds of waves you surf.

well quads are quicker from the get go. Great for rail to rail surfing particular if you have a swallow tail/bat tail design. Its a bit trickier to take off verticly and they tend get stuck at the top of the wave during hard turns. But like DBBB said its really down to the style of board you are riding. I ride quads for fishy shapes and for preformance set-ups geared up for mushier waves. But if its clean overhead and peaky i want my tri fin shortboard.

Ok, thanks guys.

How each of the fin configurations performs and feels is going to be determind mostly by placement of the fins and the design of the rails and rocker. Yes, quads have butt loads of drive for down the line and rail to rail surfing but if you change up the configuration you can also have the hold of a thruster for larger waves. Thrusters are more stable and more user friendly, but can be made looser/stiffer, etc. by swapping out the fins our changing the placement. Single fins are smooth and all about style, you will learn to use your rails effectively surfing a single.

Just my two cents

So far I totally dig the quad fish, it glides just as much as the twin fin fish but holds up way better in steep surf.

I had a custom quad shortboard made, it had great glide and I could catch waves easily but in any steep or barreling wave it did not hold up. I ended up buying bigger back fins and then it just felt like a regular thruster board since having two bigger back fins slowed it down. So, for me, quad shortboards are not to my thing, but if you want to catch more waves more easily then give them a try.

However, my shaper who was a team rider for Plus 1 Surfboards rides nothing but the quads because of the glide, plus he likes the burst of speed on the turns since he surf top to bottom more than I do.

What about two fins? what are some of the benefits for those, because if I get a new board I might want to get one with removable fins so I can switch in between 2 and 3 fins.

Twins are mainly for ease of glide, great for mushy waves

Manhattan Beach Grom wrote:What about two fins? what are some of the benefits for those, because if I get a new board I might want to get one with removable fins so I can switch in between 2 and 3 fins.

Thats not really a viable option. Okay, well, it is, kinda, sort of.

The position of the fins in a twinnie is different from the (outside) fins of a thruster set-up, so to get a board that can be a twinnie or thruster would be a compromise between both positions.

You can get boards that can ride two or three fins (and, indeed, I have one) but its not an ideal set-up usually.

Depending on how you have the fins setup on a twin fin board is, of course, going to dictate how it rides. Some twin fins have a remarkable amount of hold and drive, although not as much as the thruster or quad setups. If you have the fins with no toe in and 0 cant you will get more drive down the line but you will be compramising your turning capabilities as it will have a tendency to track. Having an 1/8" to 1/4" toe in and 0 cant will drastically reduce the tracking issue on turns and it will turn in a tighter arc but it will reduce your down the line speed due to the toe in. The twin fin setup can be used in larger waves but typically you will be using them on a board designed for mushy conditions.

However, I've surfed a twin fin in baja point breaks where the waves are huge but not steep, until you are inside. The twin was the go-to board, you take off on a big mountain of rolling swell and it glides you into the pocket, but I would not use it on a big day at blacks, for instance.

Ok thanks guys. I'll probably just stick with a tri fin.

I know its an old thread but I think its relevant;

change from quad to thruster set up instead of twin to thruster.

http://www.oddsurfboards.net/odd_qodd.html

what are your thoughts? how will the missing fins affect the perfomance of the board? could you ride this as a 5 fin? - would you want to?

Cool thanks

I'm still fairly new to shortboarding but thought I should mention this.

My shortboard is a quadfin, 6,6, fish tailed and with a poke your eye out front. When I was learning to use it I was having a job finding the sweet spots of where my feet should be after the pop up. I wanted to get over this quickly as possible so instead of fighting past the break, I actually managed to catch and ride broken junk waves not far from the shoreline, and even stand up riding them straight until my fins were scratching sand! I didn't think you could do that with shortboards, but this thing did.

I guess that's a benefit of a quad fin.

Well, i'm sorta past that level now but thanks for the input I appreciate it.