Small wave preformance

Sharpeeye Disco. Your welcome. Best all around small wave board I have probably ever owned. Works in knee to OH and it's easily taken off the lip.

 

idk, quads do seem faster than thrusters. Without speed in really small or weak waves, you're not going to do any turns..or they'll be sluggish (the pros can do it, but we need all the help we can get).

 

I could be wrong here, but the board is only going to be faster as a quad if the quad set has less surface area than the thruster your comparing it to, right? I say this because I have tried several boards as both tri and quad...the quad always feels slower. The only quad set I have that seems comparable to the speed of a thruster, are the rastas. Could just be in my head though

 

5'8" x 19.25" x 2.35" - Off the top of my head. Board is at home. but I am 99% sure that is the deal....

Mine is a few years old, but the newer models mostly have the 5 fin plug setups so you can go quad or thruster. Now, THAT is the call.

 

IMO, for what he said he is trying to do, I.E. whip the tail around and do little airs, I think thruster is the call for sure. As I mentioned to him above though, the new Disco's all have 5 fin plugs so you can try either way, that is the call. While I agree that a quad setup on this board will give you a slight edge on down the line speed, but will completely kill you if you are trying to do what he is saying. Airs etc. I feel the quad setups lock in a little harder, the fins don't release out of the top as easily and it is way more difficult to pull the quad fins out of their line at the last moment to get the rotation for a fins forward air release. A quad setup may be okay if he is doing hands free, old school frontside airs that line back up at the beach while in flight, but I don't know many cats out there aiming for that. This day in age, the air reverse is the new top turn and thruster setups just make for a better approach and release... In my opinion. I am sure there are thurster gurus out there that get full rotations on all the time, but for a a guy just playing around with different little airs on a small wave board, I am all about the thurster setup....

 

I feel like if there is a medium size wave, chest high or so, and you are out on the face, then yes, you can feel the thruster accelerate more with simple ankle tweets and pumps, but in small, guttless crap, it make no difference. It's 6 of one and half a dozen of the next. I have been preached to as well about the speed of the quads and stuff and when I take out my board with a quad setup, I feel like it stalls out quite a bit once you change directions or stall... Like, you can be flying, push down on the tail to try and stall into a barrel or what have you, and on my quad, when I do that, it just dies. Completely dead stop and it takes a solid second for it to get it's mojo working again....

So, who knows. I just haven't felt this blazing speed that everyone claims from the quads.

 

exactly what I mean. thought it was just me

 

never said I felt "blazing speed". I just felt the tri slow down in small waves...the quad felt normal speed.

Depends on the board, I'm sure. Most smaller wave designs have wider tails...quads are good for that. I've seen plenty of people doing airs on quads.

 

I have a Haydenshapes Hypto Krypto that flys in small surf. Its only sold as a thruster cause its already fast. Get it a little big if your just using it for small surf.

 

Yeah, I wasn't referring to you there. Some avid quad guys on this site have kicked some serious knowledge about the topic and have mentioned this "phantom speed". I am just telling the OP what works for me. None of my quads are really "air" boards, but I would assume that the pivot fin is what makes landing most of the little modern reverses so smooth on a thruster. I am just assuming here, but I would assume that trying to stick a landing with quad fins out, would be a little more difficult and require some more technique. The pivot thruster fin just naturally wants to stay centered and turn back around...

To each their own though, just telling him why I like that board and why I like it as a thurster. You can also turn the thing on a dime. It cuts like a razor blade.

 

Agreed. The last thing to leave the water when doing airs is the center fin which helps stabilize the take off. Also quads like to be surfed more rail to rail, and although "looser/faster" feeling they are actually less maneuverable than a thruster. That being said I dont/cant do airs. HA!

 

Great discussion, guys.

I use a fw baked potato for under waist, and a js rock and roll for everything else. Both boards are fantastic.

For what you wanna do try looking into a fw potatonator, if that tickles your fancy. I always go to shred show to see if they made a review of the board that I like.

Also, panda doinker or bear essentials, rusty happy shovel or dwart (or even t dwart. Yeah t dwart) should be good. Try to demo some too.

 

With the obvious caveat that every shape will differ in how it performs as a quad vs. a thruster, the general principle on a quad being faster is that without a fin in the middle of your tail, you are channeling the water straight out the back - a center fin is going to cause a lot more drag per unit surface area than side fins as the water is pushed out the back and hits the thruster fun sitting right in the middle of the board.

I really only take note of it going straight down the line or cruising across a flatter section, and it's not a massive difference, but I do think on the right shape it's noticeable.

 

Here is a dorky thread I started almost 5 years ago, and never finished, but I tested out my friends CI quad for almost 2 weeks straight. This was back when I was surfing everyday and super commited. Ohh, and there were waves, cause I wasn't here.... I think I only made it about a week into it, then I remember never touching the board again. I was over it eventually. Mostly because of the board, not the fins.

I just re-read it, but it was nerdy, but interesting remembering all that I gathered from testing a quad a bunch...

http://www.swellinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?9783-14-days-Testing-a-new-Al-Merrick/page3

 

Tru that. I suppose the concave has alot to do with it as well. Different concaves might move water faster at different points of the board, increasing the drag effect?

 

Try a thruster with glassed in fins or futures, with channels. It will go real fast. Shapers hate making channel bottoms. It is a lot more work. But if you have $, get a good shaper to make you a custom channel bottom with three fin future set up, and a proper entry rocker for good/steep sections, and lots of flat rocker in the middle for speed, and the tail is up to your preference/wave type desired, but I like a swallow tail for the speed burst when laying on rail but it still has control, tight turning radius, and I learned to surf good waves on a twin fin as a kid so I like to go vertical and rail to rail, with a little bit of controlled tail slide. On bigger waves, bigger stiffer fins eliminate any slide, and give you positive down the line projection. Channels help give you more speed racing sections going down the line, and are good unless you are going DOH. So no need for a quad, unless you are Kelly?

 

I find it interesting how everyone's take on quad vs. thruster seems to be different. I suspect it has a lot to do with different surfing styles. I tend to have a "skatey" style, and think I surf neutral to slightly front footed. Quad works well for me. I have friends that surf at the same level as I do but totally different style; Guys that surf hard off the tail and I couldn't imagine them on anything but a tri.

I got my first quad about 4-5 years ago. For me, the speed is real. It's far faster than a tri, but has some limitations. I didn't exactly dive in either, had my first shaped as a 5 fin, because I wasn't sure I was sold on the quad setup. The board is a fish derivative, but more on the high performance side. Pretty wide round tail, nose more full than standard short board, but rails and tail foiled out like any other short board. Anyway, what I find is it's incredibly fast as a quad in small surf with big twin fins up front and very small trailers in back. It's solid in good chest high surf with a regular quad set. In head high or just over, it runs best as a Tri.
I find in good size waves, I just have a hard time controlling the speed as a quad. I literally feel a little out of control, whereas when I set it as a tri in those waves, it's slower, but predictable, and well controlled. I also feel in any circumstances, cranking a hard bottom turn just feels better on a tri, but the sheer down the line speed of a quad is just too good for me to care enough to ride a tri in anything under head high. I surf some fast beach breaks, and that speed is such an asset.

I was sold enough that the next board I had shaped which was intended for just small waves, I didn't even bother with the 5th fin setup. I resigned to riding it quad only. I'm a big guy, and my favorite fin setup for small waves right now is MR TFX up front, and GX in the rear. I think I noticed Todd proctor was using that setup on some of his small wave boards that are similar to mine so I copied and it works.

Ironically, In the recent Cristobal swell, the waves had good size, but looked almost playful, so my friends and I all took out our small wave boards. I hadn't planned on riding mine, and I forgot it didn't have rear fins in it. I surfed for an hour as a twin with the MR fins up front. It was actually really fun, loose as hell, not as much speed from pumping, but it didn't matter in those waves. Was having a blast until I pushed hard on a mid face turn on a set wave, lost the tail and proceeded to back flop on as slightly overhead face. As amusing as that seemed to my friends, and the onlookers on the beach, I didn't want to repeat it so I ran back to the car for my rear fins after that

The experience did tell me it's probably worth experimenting with even smaller rear fins though, because the one thing I don't like about quads as much is the somewhat stiff bottom turn compared to a tri, and as a twin, the bottom turn felt great; That is, if I didn't lose the tail all together. I'm thinking some little GL long board side-bites might be fun.

Anyway, I don't know if any of this random run on post helped the initial poster, but maybe if he has a custom made, it would be worth it to have the boxes for tri and/or quad set in there to give it a whirl, if nothing else.

My small wave choices are:

Coil Disc (if you tend to like a fish style board)
Coil Mega-mind, or m80 (if you prefer standard short-board style boards)

And yes, I obviously drink the Coil Kool-Aid. I'm a big fan of them.

My Coil Disc. 5'11", shaped for me at measly 220lbs