With his famous headphones, cigar in his mouth, and planer in hand, William “Stretch” Riedel has been building a wide range of innovative surf craft from surfing to sailing. The freakishly tall (6’6) yet skinny as a rocker stick shaper first learned the art of shaping from his father, who was a shaper for Velzy Jacobs Surfboards in the 1960’s. Stretch worked at several LA surfboard factories before starting Stretch Boards.

Stretch later moved his business to Santa Cruz, California, where his junkyard factory and prime California coastline has enabled him to experiment with alternative design techniques and different resins, making Stretch surfboards lighter and faster.

An unfortunate windsurfing accident caused partial paralysis throughout his right side yet he has been shaping with his locked-up right hand for more than half of his entire shaping career.

For many years, Stretch was as underground as Santa Cruz shapers get until he exploded on the surf scene when he was voted 2005 Shaper of the Year by Surfing Magazine.

His team riders include Jason “Ratboy” Collins, Nathan Fletcher, Nathan Florence, Garret McNamara, Josh Loya, and others. He also has a variety of Surftech epoxy models and the Stretch Quad surfboards are some of surfings hottest/most popular board designs.

Rusty Surfboards was started in 1984 by up and coming shaper Rusty Preisendorfer. Previously, Rusty had been shaping surfboards for Canyon. During his somewhat low key years, he shaped board for 10 of the top 16 surfers in the world which included Mark Occhilupo and Shaun Tomson. One day, former world champion Peter Townend suggested that Rusty develop his own surfobard label and so the R-dot was created.

Rusty has since become one of the surfboard manufacturing world’s icons with a surfboard production near 15,000 annually. The company however, claims that their Rusty brand is still grassroots through its successful custom surfboard offerings.

Rusty’s communication and feedback with team riders and shapers along with his innovation in surf design has helped accelerate the evolution of modern surf design. The company has been at the forefront of CAD surf design and experimentation of composite materials with companies like Surftech, Aviso, and Salomon.

The Rusty team features a wide variety of fresh and experienced world class surfers. A few of those surfers include former World Champion Derek Ho, Pipeline specialist Kalani Chapman, Santa Cruz big wave hellman Flea Virostko, Josh Kerr, and “Freak Show” Jamie O’brien.

Recent News: Rusty was recently sold to the Australian licensee Geoff Backshall of Rusty Australia.

Quad fins are making a comeback and increasing in popularity. Superstars like Kelly Slater and Bruce Irons are riding quads and there is talk that once someone on tour wins a contest with a quad, all hell will break loose and the quad will see an explosion similar to the abundant fish population.

Four fin quad set-ups first arrived in the early 80’s during the thruster rampage. Back then, quads felt were very similar to twin fins and because of that surfers were looking for something which provide something in between a twin and a single fin. The early thrusters provided a happy medium by providing an excellent balance of drive and turning ability. Thus, the quad died a quick death and was over shadowed by it’s popular thruster cousin.

Many shapers have since dusted off their original quads from the 80’s and have tried to apply quad fin setups to today’s modern day board design, foils, rockers, fin templates, and everything else in between. The modern day quad utilizes today’s board technology in the pursuit of helping surfers achieve that elusive ‘next level’ of surfing.

Why Do Quads Work Better?

Quads are way faster than standard thrusters or even twin fins. Most would think, how can they be faster with an extra fin…wouldn’t that create more drag? Actually, because both sets of fins are working together on the rail, there’s nothing to slow you down like the center fin of a thruster. Quads are a lot more efficient with speed.

Quads are much more responsive than twin fins or thrusters. The reason is that the fins are set further up the board which essentially puts the fins directly under your back foot. The end result is an ultra responsive board that goes where you want it to go and fast.

Four fins boast an extraordinary amount of holding power in larger surf. A large number of the world’s best big wave surfers use quads in giant surf at Jaws and Mavericks. Many of them claim that a quad fin board has better holding power and speed in giant surf. If it works well at Jaws, imagine what it could do at your local beach break?

Quad fins have a ton of versatility due in large part to the advent of the removable fin system. There are countless combinations of different fin setups you can use in your quad from fin size, cant, rake, angles, fin material, and more. You can basically find a fin setup that will work for your quad and if you have a quad that isn’t performing very well, you should probably check your fins.

Quad Fins

FCS PC-3 Performance Core Surfboard Quad Fin Set – Red		FCS PC-5 Performance Core Surfboard Quad Fin Set – Blue		Future Fins VFT1 Quad
$87.99		$87.99		$60.00
Future Fins Stretch Quad		Future Fins Stretch Quad		Future Fins VFT1
$88.00		$53.00		$49.00
Future Fins FYU F.Glass Set		Future Fins FEA Fiberglass		Future Fins FAM2 Fiberglass
$66.00		$68.00		$68.00
Future Fins FJC1 Fiberglass		Future Fins VII JC1 Quad		Future Fins VII FAM1 Quad
$66.00		$53.00		$53.00
Future Fins VII F4 QUAD RTM		Future Fins VII FSG1 Quad		Future Fins VII FR1 RTM
$88.00		$53.00		$88.00
Future Fins VII FR1		Future Fins VII FJC1		Future Fins VII FAM1 RTM
$43.00		$43.00		$88.00
Future Fins V II FAM1		Future Fins VII FR2		Future Fins VFJC1
$43.00		$43.00		$49.00
Future Fins VF4		Future Fins FAM1 RTM		Future Fins FPS RTM
$49.00		$64.00		$68.00
Future Fins FJC1 RTM		Future Fins FAM2 RTM		Future Fins FWT RTM
$59.00		$64.00		$64.00
Future Fins FSG 1 RTM		Future Fins FPS Fiberglass		Future Fins FJC1 RTM
$64.00		$68.00		$36.00
Future Fins FAM 1		Future Fins V2 FJC1 FC Set		Future Fins Scimitar Quad
$36.00		$40.00		$60.00
Future Fins V2 QJC1 400 0.75 in.		Future Fins VII FEA Quad		Future Fins VII 1 Quad
$50.00		$53.00		$53.00
Future Fins VII F4 Quad		FCS H-2c Quad Set		FCS S25 PC S.A. Quad Set
$53.00		$85.00		$88.00
FCS SF-4 Rear 4 Set
$56.00

Quad Fin Reviews

Kimo Greene Retro Quad Fish

Mike Eaton began his shaping career working for Bing Copeland in 1966. Prior to that he had been making catamarans all through out the 60’s and built one as long as 46 feet. Soon after joining Bing, he made his first paddleboard in 1968 and stayed with Bing until 1978 after the company was sold to Gordan & Smith. Later that year he started his own surfboard label, Eaton Surfboards.

Eaton Surfboards is most known for their classic/vintage surfboards and quality paddle boards. Mike Eaton has two epoxy paddle boards through Boardworks.

Con Surfboards was founded by Con Colburn in 1958. His first surf shop, originally called the Surf House, was located in Santa Monica, California. A year later, two other retail shops were opened and Con changed the name of his surf shops to Con Surfboards.

Con Surfboards’ two most popular models were the ‘Ugly Surfboard’ and the ‘C.C. Rider Surfboard’. The Ugly model was created during the noseriding craze of the 60’s and showcased a ridiculously blunt nose perfect for long noserides. The C.C. Rider, designed by Claude Codgen helped Con Surfboards enter the growing East Coast surfing market and featured classic rocker and superb noseriding.

The company offers a variety of longboard designs from the original ‘Ugly Surfboard’, modern performance noserider, to the classic pin.

Glenn Pang has been Town & Country Surfboard’s lead shaper for quite some time now. Born in San Francisco, California, he began shaping for T&C in the 1980’s learning the art of shaping under the wings of Glenn Minami , Dick Brewer, Ben Aipa, and T&C founder Craig Sugihara.

Glenn’s shortboard and hybrid fish shapes are the most popular out in Oahu’s vast line-ups and the majority of boards in T&C shops have the G.Pang label on them. He believes that everyone has a unique surfing style and rhythm and the goal of a shaper is to match the surfer with the correct type of board and then fine tune things.

Glenn Pang’s shortboard designs leads T&C’s Surftech epoxy lineup offering his top designs in a stronger and more durable form.

He’s shaped for many top pros including Martin Potter, Marvin Foster and Jason Shibata to name a few with Rocky Point local Mikala Jones headlining the T&C team.

I just recently tested Surfco’s 9″ Proteck Powerflex longboard fin in our Kimo Greene 9’0 x 22″ x 3″ Honolulu model. I had been using a regular flex 9″ Proteck center fin as a single in the Honolulu model but we had a few days of pretty small/slower surf so I decided to give the flexible Powerflex fin a go. The main feature about the Powerflex fin is that it actually flexes in your turns and releases coming out. I have to say that this fin worked extremely well in the smaller/slower surf and gave the Honolulu model a smooth feel to it. Turns and cutbacks felt like butter and I could really feel the fin flexing just the right amount helping to smooth out my turns. The regular flex proteck fin felt a little too stiff in the slower waves and was slightly less forgiving in the smaller surf.

The only downside to this fin is that it only works well in shoulder/chest high surf and under. I found that in head to overhead plus surf the fin flexed too much and lacked enough drive to really generate sufficient speed but in the smaller surf it provided the perfect blend of flex and drive.

Surf Safer

The other great feature of the Powerflex fin along with all Proteck fins is that they protect you from nasty fin cuts. The Powerflex fin features a flexible core along with softer urethane edges which can save you and your fellow surfers a trip to the emergency room. Proteck fins perform just as well if not better than carbon and fiberglass fins. Research has shown that 66% of all surfing injuries are caused by the ultra sharp leading and trailing edges of carbon and fiberglass fins. Using Protecks gives me the confidence to attempt maneuvers without worrying about getting skegged. I’ve been hit by my Protecks numerous times and the worst I’ve received was a minor bruise. Had I been using fiberglass fins, I probably would have had 20 stitches in my leg. Many surfers have been making the switch and surfing smarter.

One of my Dave Parmenter fishes originally came with FCS triple plug keel fins. I’ve never seen keel fins on modern/hybrid fishes before so when I saw the fins on my fish I was somewhat skeptical. I’ve heard a few shapers say that keel fins are needed for retro fishes with wide tails. That being said, the FCS keel fins looked like a bit too much fin for my narrow tailed 5’9 fish. Another note worth mentioning is that the FCS keel fins are quite heavy and made my fish feel extremely tail heavy. I’m not exactly sure if that has any negative effects on performance but I think that lighter fins work better.

These fins weren’t working very well and the board was totally unresponsive without any speed. It was basically a dead duck in the water and a total dud! I decided to replace the heavy keel fins with the FCS MR Twin fins iand all of a sudden, the board had life again. The MR Twin fins created a unique blend of drive and looseness inn the turns which made this board a terror in smaller surf. The MR’s trailer fin (included in the MR twin set) created more drive in the Parmenter fish in larger surf. The MR fin with trailer is a very versatile system which allows you to change the dynamics of your board for a variety of conditions.

FCS MR Twin Fin with Trailer

The immense popularity of old school/retro style fishes has made the twin fin cool again. Surfers were so fixated on thruster fin setups for years but currently, it’s cool to have twins.

Most retro twin fin fishes utilize a fin of the past, also known as the keel fin. While most surfers probably don’t know the difference between the various types of keel fins, my own experience has shown me that the board being equal, different keel fins have different characteristics.

Old School Keel Fins

One of my favorite fish boards utilized a very old keel fin design without much rake in the fin (see photo below). When I first saw this board, I thought “Wow, that is an old school fin…it must be very hi-performance.” I was quite surprised at my first go out with the board. Most of the fishes I had ridden prior to that board were quite slippy and too loose for my liking. This board however, had tremendous drive and felt more like a thruster than a loose twin fin fish. If you’re looking for a twin fin with a good amount of drive yet still loose enough to throw your tail around, the old school keel fin is for you.

The only negative I have about these retro low rake keel fins is that they make it more difficult to release the fins than a fin with more rake. The low rake gives these keel fins an extremely wide base which is great for drive but less than great for turns and snaps. You can still throw your weight around with these fins, just not as easily as modern keel fins.

Keel fins with very low rake

Modern Keel Fins

If you’re a surfer who’s ridden a thruster fin setup for most of your life, a modern keel fin with moderate rake may be what you’re looking for. These fins make retro fishes extremely loose, almost to the point where you feel like you can push a turn hard enough and disengage the fins into a 360. I would say that these fins are perfect for the surfer who really wants to feel a significant difference from their standard thruster shortboard.

Moderate raked keel fin

Personally, I like my fishes to be slightly more drivey. That way, I can surf it like a thruster but with the wave catching ability and insane down the line speed of a fish. To summarize, if you want your fish to feel more like a thruster, go with the low rake keel fins. If you want an extremely loose and slippy board with the potential for 360’s in the pocket, get a moderate/high raked twin fin.

While taking a look at Firewire Surfboards, I also noticed Surtech’s new TL2 skinned surfboards. The intriguing aspect of these boards was that they looked and felt like a traditional fiberglass board. My gripe with Surftech boards has always been that they feel extremely stiff and dead. The company has been promoting the TL2 skin as their next advancement in epoxy technology which offers performance improving flex.

Technology

Each board features a Techlite blank which is hand finished. The board is then vacuum bagged where it is wrapped in epoxy, fiberglass, and Acrylite which ensures a superior glass job. The Acrylite provides durability while providing ‘Variable Flex Engineering’ which the company claims to produce “desired flex and drive.” The boards are then processed by finishing shapers for last minute fine tuning and then glassed with clear epoxy glass and hot coated.

What separates the new TL2 boards from the older Tuflite surfboards is that TL2 boards go through the scrutiny of a hand shaper where as the Tuflite boards were mass produced pop outs. I couldn’t believe how different the new TL2 boards felt and if they do provide greater flex and drive, these boards could prove to be a great improvement over the Tuflite boards of old. These boards only appear to be available in an off white color…a big change from the colorful epoxy boards of the past.

We will be testing a bunch of Surftech boards including TL2 boards in the new future…our Hawaii Surftech rep has been cool enough to hook it up. Read our Surftech reviews.

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