So having a favorite shaper make me a racy 9’0 x 16.5 x 21 7/8 x 13 3/4 RP longboard. Having it set-up as a quad with longboard box so I can ride it both 2+1 and as a quad if really walled up. Front fins at 16.5", back fins more like the Rusty set-up I prefer, splitting the distance between the rail and stringer.
So…any quadaholic longboarders out there who can offer some feedback on some quad longboard set-ups to try out? Looked at the McKee page, he reccomends M2 front and back, fairly small matched fins. Typically on my mid-length quads, I ride MF1 fronts and 4" double foiled or 80/20 rears depending on condtions. Board will be used in outer bar OH to DOH cold water beachbreak.
I built myself something similar a couple years back.Lots of rocker. Performance. Quads were everywhere. I put the largest quad set I could find. Worked OK if I surfed off the tail. Took them out, surfed better as a single fin. Just seemed under-finned as a quad.
I have surfed mine set up as a quad worked really well with bigger fronts 5x5 in overhead surf with some push loads of hold and drive. pretty soso with g5 fronts. board is 9x22x3 with soft nose con to flat then deep concaves and v off the tail have heavy concaves out the back though.
You should check out Robin Mair page. He has been building quad longboard for over 10 years. He made me 9’4" with a center fin box. I have to say I like it better as a quad. Robin use to post here. He is good about sharing his knowlage. You should check out his gear box fin system . It supports any FCS two tab fins, I have not been able to use it for most of the year due to some health issues. Can’t wait to get back in the line up.
Artz - I am sorry to hear about your health issues, hope you are able to get back out soon. Following my hip surgery I only made it out 4 times in a one year period, now I’m getting out a few times a month.
I did check out Robin Mair’s website, but didn’t find any specifics on fin placement. Nevertheless, I am a big fan of his work, and have used gearbox fin plugs before, and was very happy with them.
I find it’s kinda hard to get specific measurement suggestions here on swaylocks, but did get some on Instagram, and revisiting the McKee website, along with a helpful pm, I have revised my fin placement, moving the cluster forward, and the rears in a little bit.
I plan to use FCS II on this board, cuz that’s what they had at FGH Ventura.
I haven’t decided for sure yet, but may take the leap of faith tomorrow, as I am anxious to get this back in the water, and move on to other projects.
My ace in the hole is that I retained the single fin box, it’s under glass but I can cut it open if I decide to use it, and the board did work well as a single. I just want to mix things up a bit.
Icc, that’s a great looking board! I had kinda been thinking quad for my longboard, cuz I like changing things up, and had intended to add that option when I shaped it, but never did.
Then I saw a Huerta longboard quad on Craigslist that caught my eye - I don’t need another board, but I had kinda been in a funk my last few sessions, and wanted something a little different to spice things up for me.
I made arrangements to check out the longboard, and it was a major pain in the rear, as most Craigslists transactions seem to be. Finally after numerous emails and text messages with the unaccomodating seller, I make arrangements to see it, and turns out its in the used rack of a surfshop I drive by on a regular basis. Seller didn’t want to tell me that, maybe cuz he was afraid I would buy it from them and then they’d take a commission, I’m just guessing.
Anyway, I had made up my mind if I didn’t buy that board, I would definitely convert my board to quad. I was at Fiberglass Hawaii that morning, but didn’t buy any fins or plugs. After I saw the board, and found the glass was buckled in 3 places (“just cosmetic, that’s why I didn’t mention it in the description”), I headed back to FGH and bought some fins and plugs.
I gave it a lot of thought and study, and finally picked a location for the fins similar to some numbers g tate sent me. After one go out, I’m pretty sure I like the fin placement, but may do some tweaking with the actual fins I end up using.
tail curves on your board look great…and always wise to install a long box so you have the single or 2+1 option…think, however, you’re going to really enjoy the pure drive of the quads…supports setting that long rail earlier going over the ledge on those steep ‘haulin okole’ ones = off to the races without lhaving to take the drop all the way to the bottom…
after some experimentation, founds fronts at 16" up work best for me, and 4.5 front fins with 4.25 or 4.0 rears,
I said I would give my specifics on this, so here it is: I placed my fronts at 16" up to the back of the fin. They are 1&1/8" in from the apex of the rail, with 1/4" toe-in, and 5 degrees cant. The back fins are 8&1/8" up to the back edge. 1&3/4" in from the apex of the rail, with 1/8" toe-in, and 3 degrees cant. The fins shown are 4&1/2" base fronts, single foil (flat inside), with 4" base rears, double foiled.
I only had the board out twice so far, but the few waves I’ve gotten have given me a positive feeling about the fin setup - the board feels fast, responsive, handles late drops, projects well out of turns, and hangs onto a vertical or pitching face. All of that is subjective, but my thoughts after riding it for several years as a single fin. I kept the single fin box, filled with foam and glassed over, but it would be a simple task to cut the glass and start using it again if I want to.
2nd session as a quad: loving it! I tried a new set of fins, flat inside on all 4, the rears are smaller, and they’re stiffer. My initial reaction, completely subjective, is the smaller rears loosened it up a little.
Rick Ferguson (local to Santa Cruz) used to make a lot of quad LBs – there are posts about them around the web from years back. I think he’s stopped making boards, as a friend that used to ride them asked me to remake one for a friend of his last year. I have the layout noted and will try to find it. I might have the fins that were in the board noted, too, but probably not.
A different (no connection to Ferguson) friend that taught me to shape rides 9 ft+ boards only, and his fave is a quad around 9-6. I rode it and it rides like a big version of my favorite quad egg, 6-3 x 22.75 x 3.25 (I’m 215 lbs intermed-adv), which makes sense because his LB has a similar bottom and planshape: rolled nose to single to double to vee, though he has a flat spot behind the nose rocker apex. This is a version of the egg of mine that, when I get it right feels very similar to his: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzTTYYGApjk/ To me, his fins look proportionately smaller than mine (though he is 20 lbs heavier than me at 235 or so) relative to the board, and more rakes and forward relative to board proportions (i.e. not just physically further away from the tail but proportionately further forward, and at the same time closer to the rail – my quad set for most boards under 7’ is 1 1/4 off the rail and about 1 5/8 off the rail).
9-6 friend is also intermed-adv, and he has been told by many, including one or two very well known local shapers that quad LBs don’t work. Quad LB is all he surfs. He walks the board but isn’t trying to get toes over, and in good waves is on the tail of the board pretty close to 100% of the time.
Ferguson, I think, was pretty well known for his quads some years back, like around 2012 and earlier. [Hmmm…not sure what’s going on with forum formatting at the moment…I’m typing in paragraph breaks, but they’re not appearing in post]
Just at a glance, your placement on the rounded pin looks a lot like the bud I mentioned: further forward than some, especially the rears. His rears might be a bit more out to the rail, but at a glance that looks very similar (to my eye, and I usually do quads for myself, but mainly HPSB and hybrid shortboard). His quads also (I think I mentioned this above) also always look proportionately small to me. He’s 230 lbs, easy, and the boards are big and the fins look more like a medium or large quad set, to my eye, than XL.
what worked best going through my ‘box of quad fins’ were single foils up front to leverage the turn, double foils in back to follow through with minimal drag…all double foils just wanted to run, all inside flat foils just wanted to turn…
Flat fronts (fairly raked, anywhere from Performer/Carver to Merrick in FCS) and 50/50 rears are my default for quad sets in general, too. Halcyon made me a set of 70/30s that are real cool because, in FCS, you can reverse the foil (70 outside, or 30 outside) to change the set for different waves. I’ve never had much luck in shortboards with my (or for that matter other, in bought boards’) layout with flat sided rears. Flat rears are always tracky, not good, for me.
That said, I think the friend that rides only 9’+ boards, and almost exclusively quads in his own shapes, and has made maybe 80-100 boards does ride a flat sided set in his quad layout. When I rode one of his favorite boards, it felt just like a big version of one of my own 6-3 quad eggs.
Right now the combo I have is 4 flats, and so far it seems to be performing very well. Maybe I don’t push my turns as hard as the rest of you guys, but I like the feel of it, so far I haven’t any desire to open that single fin box up. The old set with double foiled rears that were bigger seemed more tracky to me.
My comment about 50/50s is really about shortboards – the 9’ plus made by the friend who only makes quads for himself felt good with flat sided.
For me, flat sided in quad layouts I’ve put in myself (sometimes using numbers lifted from CI and Lost boards) have usually had a weird, tracky result where you feel like the board wants to tilt at one of 3 or 4 angles when planing, and to not want to be in between them, as well as to resist transitioning between them. My shortboards have basically the same bottom type as the friend’s 9’+ boards (rolled nose to single concave to double to vee, vee reducing to nearly flat exiting the tail), but his have a flat spot behind the nose rocker apex.
I don’t have an explanation for the difference in results with flat vs 50/50 rears between the board sizes, but his bottom contours tend to be more extreme than mine (deeper concaves, deeper double barrels, more vee at the peak of the vee).
There is a lot to learn with fins in general, and quads in particular- especially on a longboard. I hope to play around with different combos and different foils, fin shapes, etc. This is why designing and building your own surfboards never gets boring!
