Please verify my quad fin placement

General Discussion
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I am in the home stretch of finishing my second board. My other boards are 10’ and 11’ and this one is my “short board” at 7’ 8”.  I’m about 225lbs plus the weight of a 6/5/4 wet suit surfing it up in Lake Michigan.  My goal with this board is to take my surfing from surfing down the line to working in some cut backs. The max wave size this board will see is about 8’.  The cutbacks aren’t going to happen unless I catch the soft lake waves so you can see this board has some volume designed into it.  I’m installing quads to try and ride the steep and very short lived shore break.  I’m also interested in learning more about how boards ride with different fin set-ups.

I have read many of the Sway locks quad fin placement posts and my plan is illustrated in the two pictures. Most of this is from the McKee website.    I would greatly appreciate any feedback if I am on the right track with the quad fin placement. I’m using Proboxes. Thanks!

 

 

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No offense, but if your goal is to learn to do cutbacks, whether you’ve got a single/tri/quad setup or whatever doesn’t really matter. You’re just going to need to practice doing cutbacks. People can do cutbacks on every kind of surf craft imaginable – thrusters, quads, single fin longboards,tri-fin longboards, twin keel fish, SUPs, body boards. Whether you can do a cutback or not is a function of the rider a lot more than it is of the board.

With that said, you’re gonna build the board anyway, so you might as well put the fins in the right place. But the dimensions on that board are sort of ridiculous, it’s more like a stubbie SUP than a regular surfboard. If you want to ride short, steep waves, why don’t you take out an inch of thickness and three inches of width. (Looks like maybe it’s too late since it seems already shaped and glassed, and with a single fin box in it).

You could just stick a single fin in it like it is now and it’d work jsut as well as a quad setup for just trying to do cutbacks.

I realize I haven’t really helped you at all cause you just want to know where to stick the fins. I don’t know, I’ve never relaly liked quads so I don’t know too much about building them. All I’m saying is that you can wortk towards your goal of doing cutbacks with or without them.

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Hi micksurfer -

Since you've calculated your weight and added additional volume for the wetsuit you're likely on track for what will work for you.

Those fin placement measurements look OK and you'll always have the option of using the forward boxes with a center fin as a 2+1.  The lines threw me off for a second but the toe-in sounds about right.  Probox has a good assortment of fins plus FCS fins will fit too so you have lots of options.

I've had pretty good results using a 5"-6" center fin on my longboards with a 2+1 set up.

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Dont waste a good set of quad proboxes on that board!No offense,its just not a very high performance looking shape.You need to find your minimum surfable volume in a board,download aku shaper and plug in some numbers of boards you ride succesfully at your local spot,maybe try a few friends shapes that are much smaller than what you have laying around…Once you find out what floats you and what dont you can design a board around the right volume for you.You can hide foam under your chest and feet and still keep the rest of the board more performance oriented.A quarter inch of thickness added to a board can make a huge difference in float.Leave that thing a single fin and design yourself a cutback machine!

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hey micksurfer, if i were you and that was my board, i would listen to john.

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He weighs 225, wears a 6/5/4 wetsuit and is already stepping down from 10 and 11 foot boards.  I'd still say he's on track. 

EDIT:  Thanks Scott didn't see you. 

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Hey John,I wasnt trying to contradict your advice,we both happened to post at the same time.That board he has shaped is a good stepdown for his quiver I agree.I did some math on my higher volume shortboards and came up with .23 liters per pound.These numbers are based off of boards that I easily ride in thigh high to head high surf and often bigger.I think a good performance board for him would be in the 55-60 liter range.

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Thanks for taking the time with your comments.  This volume of this board is about the same as my 9'-6" that I sold. I'll catch waves with the 7'-6" and get a serious paddling work out at the same time.

 

Jesus - I was in St. Augustine in November. Didn’t score too well with waves but enjoyed the blackened Mahi Mahi tacos at Mango Mango’s.  The key lime pie was perfect.