Quad Fin Review - Quatro 95L Starboard 92L

[nanmoo]

Ok so in case anyone is interested here is my day one review on the 2011 Quad. I'll add more as the next days pass. Although I don't have a lot of experience nor crazy mad skills like some of you folks, my naive-ness due to the fact I pretty much have only sailed one board probably makes this boards traits stand out way more, and therefore maybe this review offers some insight and value. Also hoping to demo the Quattro quad on Thursday to see if it performs differently.

First things first, the main difference I can tell between the 2011 Quads and the 2010's is the size of the fins. The 2011's carry fins around 20% smaller for comparable board sizes. Many of them also drop the swallow tail (as is the case with the 92L I tried today), otherwise they look pretty much the same near as I can tell. The graphics on both the 2010's and 2011's suck, though 2011 is considerably suckier in my opinion. This was made particularly obvious as I was derigging beside a guy with a new 83L Quattro KT Quad, which has some shreddin' cool graphics all over it, plus a slimy green finish (which on the water looks better than the Levi Siver beige ones imho). Standing on the board it looks about as wide as my RRD, but shorter and thicker. Beside a Quattro KT quad it looks like the Starboard carries more volume in the middle with a more symetrical shape front to back vs. the quattro having a more spoon-like shape with volume forward. FYI - The KT quad has a tail section that is nearly twice as thick (actual thickness not width) when compared to the Levi Siver version of the same volume, leading me to believe the Levi version carries even more of the volume forward. I should note I had the fins in the "onshore" setup, big fins in the front, small ones in the back. I was slightly underpowered to perfect power on a 5.3 all day. Wind was Side-On and at times really puffy.

On the water when you first step foot on this board it's twitchiness is immediately obvious. Apply pressure anywhere, or tip your sail forward or back and this thing responds fast, even slogging. Compared to my RRD it is way less directional, and it takes a while to sort out the twitches while slogging so you can actually point in one direction. The quad pointed upwind like a champ while slogging, better than my RRD, but probably a bit slower. While slogging the board feels well balanced and easier to control than my RRD despite not being used to it.

Compared to my RRD in marginal winds the Quad doesn't naturally let you know it can probably be planing. It sort of hit's this natural plateau of speed when slogging and then just stays there unless you pump the sail or the wind picks up a few notches. This was sort of surprising because even when it didn't seem possible, if you gave the sail a few good pumps the board would rise right up and you'd be blasting along. My RRD tends to progressively pick up speed and more "naturally" planes in marginal winds. Does that make sense?

Up and on a plane the twitchiness was amplified. Heading out this probably was not as fun for jumping as my single Fin RRD as it just doesn't seem to b-line at ramps the same way. Though as the hours wore on it got easier and more natural to keep the board driving straight into a ramp. On the wind chop you can lean hard into the rail and not once did I lose all 4 fins and spin out. That was pretty cool. Punching out felt about the same as the RRD, but it seemed shorter so it wasn't quite as easy to pop over waves, especially when it was just breaking down on you.

Gybing felt quicker than my RRD, but you have to be really careful not to attach the turn to hard, or the quad turns on a dime and leaves you pointing upwind with no speed. Take it easy and it felt smoother and faster than my RRD. That said it decelerates much quicker if you overdo the turn when compared to the single fin. Planing it points upwind just as well as my RRD, probably slower, and with a different feel. You definitely don't get the same "levering off the fin" feel, and the board seems to naturally stay flatter.

On a wave the turniness is awesome. This is where I can really see where the extra fins pay off. You know how there's that perfect point where you want to head down the line, a second later and you end up too high on the wave's face, a second earlier and the face might not be steep enough to keep your speed. Well the quad allows you to lead with the board when you want to. My RRD requires a heck of a lot more effort to turn it, either with rail pressure or using the sail. I could see this being really fun on smaller swells back home like at Kook or CB, and on the Oregon Coast it would just be amazing. Dropping in (especially if you were late and coming from a forming lip) on head high waves the board would hold on at the bottom, rather than spin out like I've experienced with the RRD, it is definitely more forgiving for someone with less refined wave skills. Overall, it just felt more forgiving than the RRD, it was hard to screw up on the wave and end up paying for it.

Synopsis:

This board is super fun, with a ultra super twitchy, skatey, loose feel. Although the board is the same volume as my RRD, it feels way smaller, it felt like riding a snowboard or skateboard, it was just soooo turny. In waves this is awesome, but for Nitinat conditions I think this board would suck. The extra turniness really just wouldn't serve much of a purpose at the lake and would probably just get annoying. Your straight line speed would suffer, and I don't feel like it would achieve the same jumps off marginal chop. I am beginning to think the best solution for our conditions back home plus the odd Oregon coast trip would be a ~80-90L quad for waves and a ~90-110L FS board for the lake and flatter days at Kook/Gordons/CB/PA/Nitinat.

More to come tomorrow after some hopefully higher winds.

[winddoctor]

Thanks for the review, 'moo! I hope you get a chance to try the Quatro LS 95 or the smaller *board quads (77).

[downwind dave]

can't read, pic too large

[jim mckenzie]

That looks like a nice beach. Where is it?

[KUS]

yeah, it sure is.....sailing log Nanmoo, check yer pm's, maybe the quatro quads ready afterall for pickup, not sure yet. Be great if you could initiate them at such a great place

[nanmoo]

can't read, pic too large

Looks like someone resized it. I couldn't figure out how to do it with MS paint in Windows 7. I think they got rid of that feature.

[downwind dave]

nice work there namu.
now, remember to keep your hands off the coral this time!

[nanmoo]

Day two impressions:

Wind less on-shore today and more side shore. Super holey gusty 5.3 conditions with a huge hole in the impact zone.

Again I am going to say this thing is overall more forgiving, but there was a major downside today. The tide set up such that there was a 100 foot section of 2 foot standing wave curb death chop just before you entered the impact zone. In this death chop it was very hard to keep the quad going straight ahead since it responds so quickly to pressure anywhere. Thus it is kinda frustrating and hard on the ankles. Still, on the way in, once that wave kicks up it is just so damn easy to initiate the bottom turn. But I think for our conditions the advantages are just not significant enough except as a specialized big CB day/ OR coast board.

Switched the fins on the side shore position (big in the back) for tomorrow and might try it with twins too. Maybe a twin fin is the magic compromise. Was hoping higher winds would let me try a smaller size, so far no luck.

[nanmoo]

Slightly higher wind today at least for a few minutes, plus big fins on the back. Way better set up. The board stays on it's line way better through the chop but still seems to turn down the line just as easy. Major downside is that it doesn't point as high while slogging. I could see the big fins on the front being super fun if you were wave riding where there was no wind chop (does that exist?) Looks like I might get to try the quattro quad tomorrow to compare.

[downwind dave]

too bad there is no option to move the big fins in a bit to a sweet spot, say maybe right in the middle.

[winddoctor]

too bad there is no option to move the big fins in a bit to a sweet spot, say maybe right in the middle.

Pure genius! But how would you fit two fins side by side in one box? Wait! Maybe you could cut the two fins down the middle, glue the opposite sides together and put them in ONE BOX! Imagine the weight you'd save?
Dave, you're on to something here...get Quatro on the line! Oh, and the patent lawyer! Windsurfing is about to change 4 evah!

[more force 4]

Nanmoo - its great having that honeymoon period with the new board. Getting to know each other's moods in different conditions, trying out all those new exciting positions, trying to spend longer in the critical zone, spending a little quality time apart while you write reviews - wait, that last part doesn't sound quite right. Remind us why you are in Maui (this was meant as a gentle tease only in case it doesn't come across the web with the right tone).

[nanmoo]

(this was meant as a gentle tease only in case it doesn't come across the web with the right tone).

Haha. Relationships are all about compromises!

[nanmoo]

Tried the Quatro LS 95L today.

First off the graphics are sick, love them. I call them iGraphics since they have that apple-isk clean look. Even if this board sucked I'd probably still buy one just cause of the graphics.

The shape is way different than the starboard, the V carries from the tail to a huge double concave up front. Starboard is more of a traditional V - the quatro guys showed me with a ruler and straight edge all the differences between the KT and the LS, and the KT is definitely more of a true wave board and thus similar to the Starboard. The LS has similar traits to my RRD but 3 extra fins. Tail width is probably wider, but loses some volume due to the moon tail. Fins are slightly closer and forward, both are larger than the Starboard equiv.

As you can imagine due to the concave it planes up really quick, faster than the starboard by a long shot. I didn't find it to have that lag between slog and plane. The quatro is definitely more directional, it actually felt very similar to my single fin RRD through chop. Gybing was not as tight as the Starboard but it kept speed much better, allowed for more "attack" in the turn, and didn't tend to try and overturn and round up. On the wave, heading down the line was required more effort than the Starboard with either fin setup I tried on it. Once initiated the turn took off better than a single fin, but to initiate it felt similar to a single fin. The quatro generates more speed than the starboard, and it has more rocker up front. Therefore it jumps like a dream, and looks good while doing it. It was far easier to boost than the starboard. Slogging, the quatro felt better than the starboard, much easier to keep going straight, but it didn't slog upwind nearly as well in marginal winds.

Pros:
Directional, looks cool, turny, good balance between on wave and B&J traits. Faster straight line speed than starboard. The MFC straps are the best ones I've used, adjusted, stuck my foot in.

Cons: Not as turny as the starboard, not as loose feeling either. This could be because the quatro uses 15-20% larger fins. Also the fins have much different outlines. These things ain't cheap. 4 fins are more to stab you with while trying to clear the sail in 24" of water in the impact zone - just ask my pinky finger.

[KUS]

ok, on this reasonably great IV day I got to try the 2011 LS95 Quatro Quad for the first time. I am the holdout mega sceptic on this quad thing but was stoked to try this machine (yeah, I admit the graphics made me feel younger, Moo ) since inserting the fins and realized, man, I will never remove these, will I?? So when I got to the beach and had the screwdriver in hand it took me a while to realize I can skip this step felt a little lost Kinda like using an outhouse and you miss the flush, ya know what I mean?
Add ons: fins are sweet and G10, exchangeable so no right or left making having a spare easier; pads are thickest I have seen and my aching knees and back were very thankful; straps are of similar design to Dakines, very compfy if not a bit sticky and my foot got stuck in gybes a couple of times even tho I left them a bit large; single bolt attachments make me nervous, I like double bolts on straps like my OES boards.
Set up: I had installed the front straps one all the way forward (where I usually like them) and all the way back on the other side (where I was told to put them by Quatro) to see/feel the diff. The rear strap i had in setting two of the four toward the front. Mast base about an inch ahead of minimum forward, about an inch back from mid setting. Rigged 4.7 even tho that was reaching as it wasn't supposed to get that windy til later. Waves were lame to start and the outer bar was going off nicely but not much inside. Didn't take me long to figure my forward setting works for me as a heavy weight in the early going.....I wasn't powered fully and wanted to be forward more and my arm and lower back was getting strained with the strap back position. Stance was easily a foot width wider than normal, I kept missing the strap by exactly that distance and looked down constantly to see what was up....4 inches wider. Lateron when I was fully juiced and then some I wondered if the mid or back settings might not speed things up a little, reduce the stance, plenty of carving and gybing power and you certainly don't need the front foot and rail emphasis to carve this baby!! It does it almost on autopilot....in fact it does most everything by telepathy
Planing: A decent pump and bearing off helps to bounce the board onto a plane in light wind, when powered I cannot remember full speed planing out of so many gybes, it just kept finding the groove, once there is just stays there....cool I think there were many lulls/holes today (I mean to 8 knots from 20 something) and only in a couple did I actually fall off the plane. Pumping, bearing off and getting forward maintains the speed easily. Weeds were a non-issue, what a great relief during marginal conditions
First impression: Holy Cafeteria Tray, Batman After a half an hour this became "I kinda like this". An hour into it and seeing the ability of the board to rotate, carve, snap over chop, dive and not pearl, spin on the wave face.....it became "I love this". At the end it pretty much came to "what the hell am I gonna do with all my single fin boards "
Upwind performance: not sure what the people were up to that said this thing has an issue here, that Quatro absolutely rips upwind, outperforming my biggest board and mega wave fin easily.
Jumping: tried a few airs and the board felt more balanced than my favorite board. Never even when I had a poor take off or entry did I feel like I was going to buy it. Backloops that I tried were totally different. Had some good releases and went quite high on more than a few. I felt completely in control, rotation steady and a breeze, and thought this was the day I was going to land a few of these babies...I have no doubt I would have if there had been more ramps, came sooooo close a number of times, nose in and total balance, amazing after the zillion tries with my other gear and all that over rotation scary stuff.
Gybing/ Tacking: I didn't even look, just turned and sheeted in, it was that easy. I can offer no explanation. The board does like to round up when slogging or water starting, perhaps the mast base can be place another inch forward too, this was quite noticable but only is an issue after you fell or over carved anyway so perhaps an annoying stall is a good penalty for poor performance on the wave or gybe. Tacking/helis no problem, no stall, backwind sailing easy as pie, in fact planing when I didn't mean to.
Waveriding: Well, basically you can do no wrong on this, its' almost cheating it's so easy. In fact I was heading straight into faces, bouncing off and over white water, taking too long to exit on breaking waves just to push the limits of this board......impressive, fast, and whenever given a smooth positive driving turn it rewarded you with instant planing lightning speed coming out. Quick downwind slashes, no speed loss. Whenever I caught an actually meaty wave the board seemed to come alive even more. The one and only area where I think my single fin outperformed the Quatro is when running downwind over extended distances when not entirely powered and the fin generated more drive to keep ahead of the waves. When the phone booth was going off today I felt that after about half a dozen turns the Quatro lost speed. In the late going this was not an issue as there was tons of wind. Also when you screw up and fall/lean back on your rear foot and stall out a turn, the tail has little volume and can stall out as the rail bites. This of course is a rider's mistake but the fatter tailed waveboards sometimes let you get away with stuff like that, not this bad boy. When winds cranked to high 20's lo 30's the board just held its ground and simply got faster. Gotta like that
Cons: likes to round up when stalled; difficult to maintain downwind rides beyond 5-6 turns in lighter winds; low floatation tail not forgiving; straps held by single bolts but rotation is unlikely as the pads are so thick, however I prefer the strength/load spread of double bolts; the fins are very nice but seem easily damaged and you'd be buying more than one if you hit IV beach or got worked, also they and boxes add a bit more weight; price; the 85 is the same graphics as the 95, if you have a few beers you might grab the wrong board
Pros: Everything else you can possibly think of, no bull
Bottom line: Would not recommend this board to a beginner or intermediate or a lake sailor type (tho it deals well with chop, it is a wave machine). You would be better off with a floatier, longer, perhaps faster on a linear level and frankly less expensive rig. Having said that I think though I purchased a package of 25-30% more skill Any wave sailor will instantly benefit from this ride. I didn't know there are shortcuts in the windsurfing curve but I think I found one. I am a believer OMFreakinG I can barely wait to get out again