These days it appears most boards produced commercially are thrusters and have the wide point aft of middle. Is this how boards with thrusters have to be designed to work properly? I much prefer surfing boards with the mid point foward of centre, (Pump up and down the face for speed). I used to think this was a twin fin thing but I’ve noticed the same style with singles I’ve made with the wide point foward of centre. My question is: Will a thruster set up work on a board with the wide point foward of centre? With Thanks Alex
Since its inception, thrusters have always had their wide points at least at the center point of a boards length. Moving the wide point forward of center would possibly make the board want to be ridden more forward too. The thing with surfboard design is that sometimes you’ll never know till you try. If you like the drive of a wide point forward shape, I would urge you to try it and see how it works. That is part of the beauty of being able to shape your own boards.
Seems to me the wide point went back as boards got shorter, lost volume and everyone wanted more responsiveness. Look at it this way: putting it aft of center means that the lifting area of the board is farther back, so you have to stand farther back and closer to the fins which are the pivot point. Result: you turn more quickly and there’s very little front/back weight shifting. Downside: it has been taken too far and many boards, many riders, can only snap turn. This makes 'em look jerky and spastic. Think: where are the smooth riders now, the ones with flow, that connect maneuvers together rather than only one snap move at a time with jerky transitions between?
The way modern high performance thrusters is NOT just a function of wide point. Rocker and other factors must be taken into consideration. The modern high perfomance is designed for performance in the pocket and critical moves in critical sections. On the practical side this design is NOT ideal for your average surfer. If you want to move your wide point forward you have to adjust other aspects also. Im gonna take a stab at a guess, if you move the wide point forward adjust your foam distribution forward and nose width wider, I would also spread the cluster out and move it forward perhaps 1/4 -3/8 of an inch. low entry rocker and medium tail rocker. I think someone else with more experience could chime in with better advice here.
My understanding is that the single fins of the past with there wide points forward “pulled” the board thru the turns. The thruster with so much more fin is driven by those fins. Thus the wide pt. moves back as does the surfer. If you watch old short bd. videos you will see that after the initial bottom turn the rider would almost always shuffle up a step and trim. Thruster riders plant their feet and barely move. Also the swing weight of the noses are much lighter now then the old beaks further lessing the front of the boards role of pulling the board along.
Spot on OJ, l found that jumping from mal to shorty the main difference is that there is no weight up front on a shorty and it takes a while to adjust and learn how to drive it down the line again, l tried an interesting test one day, l had been surfing my mal for a few days (small swell) and when the swell came up again l new that it would take me time to adjust to my shorty again, so l went down to the bait & tackle shop and bought some lead weights (6), l placed a heap of wax up the front of my shorty and pushed the lead into it, the weight up front was pretty radical but when l took off on my first wave l didn’t notice it at all, as a matter of fact it felt faster, l could surf it straight away, after about 5 waves l started to feel the weights so l slowly took them off one at a time wave after wave, it was a great experiment and l have since tried it again but placing weights in different parts of the board to feel the effects. Forward weight is definatly momentum and gives you that pendulum feeling through turns. lf your not adverse to light weight boards give it a go its very interesting. KR