Les nouveaux packs SUP First 2025 sont disponibles

Nouveaux packs SUP First 2025 en ligne

Discover the 2025 range of inflatable wing boards

Discover the 2025 HIPE

2025 TEAM SERIES WINGS NOW AVAILABLE!

Les Wings 2025 Team Series sont en ligne !

The revolutionary "NOVO" kite surfboards

Cart

Cart0

Your cart is empty !

It's flat around here...

Packs Wingfoil

Packs SUP

GEAR: THRUSTER OR QUAD?

News
Surf

07 september 2022 0

The Batmob, the Devil’s Tongue, the Catch and the Alu allow you to set-up your shortboard as a thruster or a quad. A major perk to adapt the board to the conditions of the day or your surfing style. Here are some keys to better understand these different settings.

Surfer: Evelin, GONG team rider, in Batmob EPS.

Thruster

The thruster is the fin set-up with two side fins and a central fin.

Its outbreak in the early 80s under the boards of Simon Anderson is a turning point in the history of surfing. It marks the entry in modern surfing with boards that are shrinking and maneuvers that are getting more and more radical. If the thruster has quickly become the benchmark in shortboarding it is because it has allowed, combined with shorter boards, to tighten the turns and produce a more aggressive surf. Before this revolution, the surfing world was split into two groups, you were either riding a single fin or a twin fin for the more progressive surfers.

Quad

The quad is a fin set-up with two side fins, identical in size and placement to the side fins of a thruster, followed by two smaller fins, also positioned off center along the rails.

The total surface of the fins is larger on a quad set-up, which provides more grip and drive. As it makes it easier to generate speed, it is often adopted on boards for sloppy conditions. That is to say, boards with a tail that is generally quite wide and buoyant. However, we also find this set-up on gunny boards in powerful and hollow conditions, especially for the grip on the face of the wave and the speed to exit the tube. We are then less focused on maneuvers than with a thruster.

On the Batmob, the Devil’s Tongue, the Catch or the Alu, the choice of a quad set-up will be recommended to gain control and acceleration in imperfect conditions. We will opt for the thruster on beautiful days when we can more easily produce an aggressive surf, with tighter turns and powerful carves. However, depending on the styles and habits of each surfer, we can rethink this whole theory! 😉

The best way to find the perfect set-up for your board is to experiment. Thanks to the FCS II boxes which require no tools, you can easily unclip your thruster set-up for a quad and vice versa (even in the water if you are careful and organized).

In one word : surf! Looking forward to hearing about your personal conclusions on our social networks ;).

-16%

END-OF-LINE UNAVAILABLE