Steeno, Bud and Parkesy who is responsible ?

[jamie]

I spotted Tom Carroll running past our place to the jump off spot at my local.
He had a five fin set up just like Steeno's, complete with FCS plugs.
Interestingly he was riding it as a 4 fin, it was a full gun shape around 7'4" at a guess, though his such a short arse it might have been shorter.
The tail was standard pin tail so the cluster looked very tight.
Surf was a solid 8-10 feet with some of the sets a little bigger, direction was spot on for our break alomost straight East, plenty of guys not getting to the bottom or being left behind so maybe the 4 fin has less drag.
Anyone seen a stand-up like this before?

[zorro]

nearly on topic:

saw a shorter board up the coast recently, big concave through the nose and off the tail, guy had set it up as a quad but couldn't tune it,

he ripped on it as a tri,

said he was a "slut shaper" for aloha, weber etc, said he'd made it for Sonny Boy Gomes (whatever the guy's name is) .....amd never handed it over cause he thought it went so well...

quads are out there lolling about in the sub mainstream

[stevea]

jamie,a shortboarder by the name of glen winton rode a quad in the early 80 s maybe late 70s i saw him surf ocean beach box on a classic day he blew the whole crowd away he was a direct influence on me going to a quad back then ,another shortboarder here is thinking of going to a quad setup he surfs a fish in small surf and last year i witnessed him score a 7sec tube ride 15ft plus ulu watu ive been alternating between a 6ft thruster and a 5'8quad i like the positive aspects each has to offer thinking off putting another plug in the 6'ft board and see what happens ps say hi to my young bloke if you see him at nn hes living there at the moment and he just loves kneelos well more than he does mals anyway

[stevea]

jamie,a shortboarder by the name of glen winton rode a quad in the early 80 s maybe late 70s i saw him surf ocean beach box on a classic day he blew the whole crowd away he was a direct influence on me going to a quad back then ,another shortboarder here is thinking of going to a quad setup he surfs a fish in small surf and last year i witnessed him score a 7sec tube ride 15ft plus ulu watu ive been alternating between a 6ft thruster and a 5'8quad i like the positive aspects each has to offer thinking off putting another plug in the 6'ft board and see what happens ps say hi to my young bloke if you see him at nn hes living there at the moment and he just loves kneelos well more than he does mals anyway

[john -]

Ive seen a "strapper" mini mal quad fin at 13th beach...dont know if it was shaped by Micheal D, owner of strapper and kneelo extrodinare...which would be mildly ironic as he seems to only ever shape twins as kneeboards...or the occasional tri set up for those venturing down south!

[splashy]

Yeah - they've been around for about 20 years - Ritchie West and Bob Cooper were shaping and riding them about 1984 in Coffs Harbour. Mark Richards won a few national titles on them in the years after that.

At the same time they were also using fins they called "Hookers" - curved fins that Ritchie made by laying out the glass on a 44-gallon drum and then foiling them out of that.

They were great fins. Really fast and just great for crazy turns. Good for zappy beach-breaks that just peak and throw all over the place.

[jamie]

sorry guys i have seen a four fin set up before, but not a five fin that was being used as a four fin and maybe later as a five fin, depending on conditions.

[Steeno]

i also have stand up fish boards with the same 5 fin setup, Dave has been ripping them out to the Byron boys for years

[splashy]

Oops, sorry, misread the question....

I think you can probably blame Dave and Steeno - I think it was a solution ages ago for a three fin that can be ridden as a four... and Steeno has also ridden them as a five.

I've had a possible 5-fin set up on my four-fin medium-wave board for about three years now - only use it on super super sucky days with a little stabiliser to help things hang in.... but I can't even turn a three-fin, let along try a proper five fin....