Surfing Waves

I'm considering swapping my thrusters for a quad setup on my 7'6" Submoon Firewire. (First a disclaimer: No I'm probably not a good enough surfer to really tell the difference.) If my fins were in backwards I could probably tell though! All the same I'm curious about what the rest of you think of Quads? I know it'll be faster. I rode a Haydenshapes Plunder with quads once and It basically kept squirting out from underneath my feet. I guess it was too fast than I was prepared to ride it? But when I'm riding sloppy beach break I'm thinking a quad setup might help me to get around close out sections and just have a fraction of a longer ride.

I don't notice much difference between quads and a thruster other than there is less drive from turns with a thruster. I think if you learn to surf on a thruster then you develop skills that are related to surfing a thruster and when you switch to a quad then you notice the difference. I never got used to a thruster so I don't see the reason to use them. It is likely the Plunder squirted out from your feet because it has a wide tail. Wide tail boards go very fast down the face of a wave and while I haven't experienced that problem I have noticed the quickness. It's very likely that if you surfed the same board with a thruster you would have the same problem.

Ratfinksurfer wrote:I'm curious about what the rest of you think of Quads? I know it'll be faster. But when I'm riding sloppy beach break I'm thinking a quad setup might help me to get around close out sections and just have a fraction of a longer ride.

1) Quads are NOT faster. If not at the right place on the wave and not utilizing the board’s rail and rocker. Like OMS eluded to, just putting on quads on a board designed as a thruster won’t reap the benefits. ( that said, I think the Sub-Moon would work well with quads )
2) Listen to what the pros say about their chosen equipment at the venue. Usually quad for barrels and down the line. Thruster for majority of beach break and performances waves. So mushy beach break conditions would be better served on thruster ( or I recommend Twin-Stabi , you should try it )
3) If you want longer rides and mushy beach breaks, you need to work with the wave. Learn how to do Foam climbs and floaters. Be Pro-Active not Reactive. You got to be a step ( or two ) ahead in your mind. Getting a quad won’t matter if you don’t have that.

I've had this debate with myself for years and I think Waikik is spot on- thought it is personal preference at the end of the day.
Quad fin placement also makes a HUGE difference to just assuming a quad is a quad. I've tried them out and when the quad fin plugs are close to the stringer, they act almost like a thruster but much more lose and a touch faster. When the quad fin pugs are by the rail the board is faster again but hard to pivot on turns with, holds a higher line in a wave and makes more drawn out turns.

I love a thruster- I just like the acute direction change it can provide over quads.

Although increasingly more, I love a 2+1 style set up with big drivey side fins and a smaller centre fin. Heaps of drive in the bottom turn and so much release in the top turns. It really changes a board.
As Waikik said about the twin-stabi, give it a try for sure!

If you learn to turn a quad you will wonder why others use a thruster

I suppose though once you get to a higher level it will make a difference. I suspect much of the difference has to do with fin placement and the surface area of fin that is in the water rather than if there are three or four fins. This is likely why I feel there is less drive from a thruster because when you turn hard there is only one fin well into the water. If that fin is big enough it won't feel too different from a quad however I can't find thruster fins that are bigger than the quad fins I use. But most likely if I use smaller quad fins then the drive will feel more similar to a thruster with big fins.

hey OMS- try shapers S9 XL thruster. They're huge! I would doubt you would find a quad that is bigger! haha..
https://www.wetfins.com.au/surfboard-fi ... k-x-large/

They came with one of my sups and am thinking of buying a longboard to fsc fin adapter so I can keep the two side fins and swap out the centre with a small fcs trailing fin. Despite being way to big for my weight and miles bigger than my normal sets, they still seemed to work alright with a bit of release, lots of hold and drive. I think a smaller centre with them or even two small quad fins would be wicked to losen it up!
They're around a 120mm base, 132mm depth and 32 degree angle.

I think my front quad fins are about that size. At this point in my surfing I am not looking to loosen up. I want to get down the power turns. After I am comfortable laying down some power turns then I will work at looser turns although every once in a while I will slide some fins anyway. But I do plan on going a little smaller then.

Ratfinksurfer wrote:I'm considering swapping my thrusters for a quad setup on my 7'6" Submoon Firewire.

I tried quads for some time in my Submoon 8'2, at first I liked it because the board felt different, more loose. But later I went back to the more predictable feel of my thruster.