ow to ride a thruster

General Discussion
1

I’ve made a couple for my son, but I could never get it together on a thruster. I always prefered the wide point forward feel of a single.

And then my son busted the fins off not one but two of my boards so I was forced to ride his thruster.

I’ve finally got my head around the no footwork, drive from the back foot mentality.

So much so that I am building a new 6’6" thruster for myself.

What I have noticed is that these boards are not for the once a fortnight surfer.

At their optimum performance shape they can be tough to pick up waves on due to the lack of volume up front.

I think these boards are for the guy who can get in the water every couple of days and therefore hold his own in the paddling stakes.

2

Hey Al

Not so sure…maybe you just need a bigger board.

Think of a tri as a single fin with 16" cut off the tail!

Thickness forwards does NOT help catching waves, because you can’t push the nose downwards as you are paddling for a wave, you have to paddle much faster.

The thin nose allows you to position yourself farther BACK while paddling for the wave, but with a simple drop of your 14lbs. head, you drive the thin nose downwards, enabling the wider tail to pick up the wave sooner, and less paddling speed is needed.

If you truly surf once a month like I do, maybe a bigger than 6’6" tri fin is needed.

I mainly ride a 7’9" twin squash, but it slightly paddles too well. I’m too lazy to take the footstraps off my 7’1" tri, so it’ll stay a lightwind kiteboard.

3

Thrusters are not made to help catch waves. The three fin config is roughly equivalent to 6 inches of board length wrt paddling speed and ease of planing. That is irrespective of any changes in template or rocker. Of course wider boards, or wider tails, or longer, or flatter, boards catch waves easier. Singles are generally longer in rear hull (with wide point forward) and flatter in rear rocker.

the other thing to be conscious of is fin placement. I just measured a Roger Hinds funboard that I’ve never been able to ride in substantial waves. It is 7’9", with the rail fins at 12" up. Getting the rail fins and the tail fin right is critical - there are no fin systems that could correct for the 1.5+ inches that my rail fins were placed too far rearwards. The fins were set for a 6 foot thruster - no wonder it wouldn’t gig on a near 8 foot board.

Also, fore-aft weight changes can be used to advantage on a thruster. It ain’t like a single, but there is a place for it.

4

I agree with Blakestah, although I still don’t understand why everyone refers to a single in the old fashioned sense. I’ve ridden modern, up-to-date shapes since I started surfing on a 6’6" in the late seventies. I shaped my second board and then never stopped trying stuff. Singles, twins, thrusters, variations, but all modern shapes. Put a single fin on a modern shape and it will go better than a traditional old single shape, and for me better than most other fin configurations, with the exception of in-line.

I have surfed a twin fin fish, but not the old fashioned Lis style. I know they were part of board evolution, and for novelty must be fast and fun in small waves, but looking at the Jbay vid people are raving about, a lot of what I see is rail catching on lots of turns, and a lot of corrections, right down to the last few seconds. Good pros can ride anything.

As Blakestah said, ‘[=1]wider boards, or wider tails, or longer, or flatter, boards catch waves easier’. [ 2]I agree, and it doesn’t matter which configuration.[/][/]

As for riding a thruster front foot, and single back foot, for me it’s the reverse. Maybe it’s the board design, maybe my weight, maybe my style. I’ve ridden wide tail zaps to wide nose pintails, they each must be surfed differently. I’ve shaped myself wide point back but volume forward that caught waves easily, and standard, blanced shapes that struggled.

My open wish for everyone is to try lots of boards and fins, and once you find something you like, refine it to be better for you. Try trends, learn from them, don’t go backwards, just go surfing and have fun.

Surfing is enlightening and self-endulgent, endulge yourself and be enlightened.

5

Hmmm, volume up front - it seems to me that this helps with general paddling and maybe a little with wave catching but the really significant factors are tail thickness, tail width and rocker.

In a recent exp of mine i made two similar shortboards (as a gorilla i need them to be 6 10 x 20), except i really foiled out the front of one of them and brought the outline in 1/4" at the front. I left the tail width and thickness the same and the rocker is pretty much identical.

Result - the fatter, wider board up front paddles a little easier, but i’ve found no appreciable difference in wave catching. It seems to me that if you’re a larger gent, you’ll benefit massively from a little extra tail volume.

Just a general feeling I get - I also think concaves help here - but this could be bollocks anyone here know for sure ?

6

‘Result - the fatter, wider board up front paddles a little easier, but i’ve found no appreciable difference in wave catching.’

LeeDD,

Regarding your above comment. I’m 5’8" and 145lbs and surf a 6’2" micro chip or a 6’8" hybrid. I’ve found that lying a bit further towards the nose (sometimes an inch) will enable me to catch the wave earlier. For this reason a wider nose would enable you to lie a bit further towards the nose and thus paddle & catch waves easier. Doesn’t this hold true for bigger guys as well?

7

lee - yes what holds for lighter guys should hold true fo us heavyweights, all i can say is that in my experience - a thinner, narrower nose doesn’t detract from wave catching - it seems to be that you can lie a little further back to catch the waves as said in a previous post. The only way to find out which of these variables are most important is to to change one factor at a time as I did. Unfortunately wrt wave catching ability - there’s no measuring device - just my subjective feeling.

Anyone got any idea about the concaves - do these help early planing?

8

IMHO a 1/4" change in nose width is not going to make a whole lot of difference in wavecatching ability. I agree that tail area is more important as well as some float in the tail, but it depends alot on how you catch the wave. I see alot of surfers on small shortboard that lay deep in the water and sort of kick and pop out of the wall of the wave when they catch a wave. Some just turn around and push down the nose and off they go. I find that I can catch a wave on very different equipment, but I catch the wave at different points. I need to be on a steeper part of the wave with my shortboard compare to my fish(makes sense, huh?).

IMHO you need to balance the rocker, template and foil and match it with the surfer and the wave. You want to find a foil and template that let’s the surfer paddle the board with minimum drag, ie. one that doesn’t sink the tail too much nor the nose. At the same time this foil/template/rocker combo must fit the wave which is way different from what may be the best in flat water. I have no clue how to come up with an equation for this tho’.

Another thing to keep in mind is that what works best for catching the wave is not necceserily what you’re after once you’re surfing.

regards,

Håvard

9

Haavard

Was thinking more like dropping 4" of width and 1/4th the thickness, adding that material to the tail.

Now do you think it would help catch waves.

My 1970 Wise shaped, Ralph Ehni inspired Cal Western board was 7’6" x 19 x 10.5" nose, wide point 4" behind center, tail width 13.5, rounded squash tail.

It caught waves unreal early, turned super sharp, and could handle Sunset Cliffs to it’s max.