Interesting that on page 102 of “Essential Surfing” by George Orbelian (3rd edition) there is a Brewer double bump quad shaped by Gary Linden. It is remarkably similar to the board being ridden by Kelly Slater and is at least 20+ years old.
Is it suddenly interesting simply because Kelly Slater (or Fatbaslardass) has decided to ride one?
Oh, wait… my bad. The board in the book is a squash tail. On page 110 is a Hot Stuff Wayne Bartholomew Model swallow tail quad by Tom Eberly that is more like the board Kelly Slater is riding.
back in the day I recall all the quads having equal size/shape fins with equal toe-in, and they were all double foiled. Near 1980, more or less.
these days the rear fins are more inboard, double foiled, and often different in shape, the front rins are toed-in more, standard rail fin size/shape, single foiled
its a step towards the thruster…the newer quads of this style have more thrust than the old ones (which had no thrust at all), but carry speed better than a thruster…
they also have maybe 1/8" toe-in on the front fin, more speed for smaller waves
in 1980 I do not recall quads having any thrust at all, the quads of today feel like heavily handicapped thrusters which glide a lot better
great in mush
the big wave quads are used for hold - much better than a thruster - more hold with two fins on the rail than one - same whether you have them both toed-in the same or not - but the quad lovers still move the rear fin inboard, double foil it, and do not toe it in
hey blakestah - I’m not from the same neck of the woods as you, so maybe it was regional - but in the early 80s none of my quads had double foiled fins, they were all single foiled (and glass ons). Some of my quads had all 4 fins the same size, but some had the front bigger than the rear, and others had the rear fins bigger. Fin placements and bottom contours were all over the map, too. No quads on big wave boards back then, at least not that I recall in my area… nobody seemed to want to try to squeeze them into a pintail planshape. I do remember seeing a big wave 4 fin, but twinzer setup rather than quad, although that was a few years later.
Here’s one I found in my girlfriend’s rafters. Thick with down rails. Fins are smaller in back and all have asymmetrical (flat inside) foil. Front fins are toed-in slightly more than rear fins. Paint job maybe looks '80-ish? I believe it’s from L.A. area shaper. I’m sure Kelly Slater would rip on this beauty!
Here in Santa Cruz the Stretch 4-fins are all the rage. Something like a 6 month waiting list for one of those babies. Usually they are bat-tailed and not swallows like the one Slater is surfing in that pic. My roommate even showed me a n article he came across in one of the mags last month on the Stretch boards. They look pretty sweet to me…
Here’s one I found in my girlfriend’s rafters. Thick with down rails. Fins are smaller in back and all have asymmetrical (flat inside) foil. Front fins are toed-in slightly more than rear fins. Paint job maybe looks '80-ish? I believe it’s from L.A. area shaper. I’m sure Kelly Slater would rip on this beauty!
I had a quad in the 80’s in between twins and thrusters.
Mine was a Vosper. (terry Vosper) it was ok but I rode a mates thruster and sold it and got a thruster. I can’t remember much but it went good, the thruster was a vosper as well.