“Front fins that are too big, or too far forward, can make the board too responsive… or “squirrely,” and lack adequate control. It will feel too twitchy, and throw off your timing.”
yep, that’s how it feels.
“My tip for the nervous feeling is to totally commit to the turn, and put it as hard on the rail as you can. Bend your knees and drag your hand to pivot around. The best turn is the one where you have that “NO STOPPING ME NOW!!!” feeling.”
I have no problem committing to the turn in my regular stance, it was when I was forcing myself to stand further back over the tail that this happened. I stayed committed, it wasn’t really a problem, but I could carve harder and rounder when my front foot was that slight bit further forward in the sweet spot.
"Can anything be worse than stiff AND slidy? "
No LeeD (good to hear from you again) there is nothing worse, and that is exactly the combo. I am still getting the board to work for me. But it’s not optimal. The shape is fine (does have low rocker and a wide tail though, it’s not fishy though just a fatter shorter shortboard). It’s definitely not a shape for juice and I have another board for that so that’s not a problem. I want this to work as good as possible in the crap. (it’s a contest board, glassed 4ozall over)
I’ll try moving back a set of stiffer materialed fins with more sweep but less depth and base and see what happens. I promise to report back.
I don’t think I can move the new set more than 1/4" inch anyways, but it might make a big difference. I am retardedly sensitive to my equipment.
Spent a couple of years (circa '82-‘84) trying to transition to thrusters from my previous years riding twins in small-to-medium surf and singles for size, and realized that as much as I liked thrusters, I was missing the skatey feeling I got from twins. I could ride farther forward on the twins and still be loose while controlling more of the rail. But I really liked the positive feeling and power of the thrusters when things got serious–so what to do? A couple of more years were spent riding boards with large (5 1/2") fins set well forward and a small trailing fin (2 1/2"-3") near tail. That felt more natural to me, I guess because I’m not a particularly back-foot dominant surfer. But something was still missing. Then I started working with quads, and bingo! Now I could pump speed down the line from a more-forward stance without feeling too stiff, since there was no fin right on the tail, yet when I laid into a bottom turn or a cutback, there was all the control of a thruster, thanks to there being two fins fully engaged all through the turn. It’s been 23 years since, and virtually of my guns and shortboards have been quads. Anyway maybe this is TMI, but the point is that for SOME surfers’ styles, this option can be a game-changer. If you haven’t yet, give it a try…
thanks, I have a quad, it goes fine but it’s not a board i can trust enough in contests and it favors certain lines more than others
i do understand what you mean though.
as for the thrusters, i have gotten a few answers and it’s pretty interesting to hear them
the pencil marks match up perfectly with my 4.375" based fins, but like i said, it’s both a little stiff and a little slidy.
I usually agree with Mr. Doolings general tip about bigger flatter tails - bigger fins and vice versa. but in some small waves, short quick pumps are necessary and i find sometimes that bigger fins require more input to get any projection out of them. problem is in soft smaller waves, you push TOO hard and you sink, right now I am where if I push too hard it sinks, but if I don’t push hard enough the board is stiff.
oh, well, I’ll try it with a set of smaller stiffer more raked and further set back fins and then post here again.
Sounds like you’re onto a few good directions to proceed with your experimentation. I do believe, though, that saying you have “a” quad is about like saying you had “a” thruster when as we all know, there are an infinite # of permutations of the design, as well as just plain old “good” ones and “bad” ones. If the one you have has the limitations you described, I would suggest you try a few others, preferably made by someone who’s been into them for a long time, not one who just “discovered” the concept when the current trend started. Anyway, I hope your search for the right boards for YOU is successful, as I hope that more surfers reject hype or convention when they realize that surfing is a highly individualized pursuit and there is no one answer to what works or what doesn’t.
