There are 2 quad standards in the surf industry. Edge quad (Stretch) and McKee. Shapers often tweak these standards to suit their own styles, but in general terms, these are about as close to a standard as you're ever going to get in surfing.
Companies doing Edge quads: Stretch, PSH, C4.
Companies doing McKee quads: Channel Islands, Rusty, Naish
My Naish came with the rear fin locations tweaked from the published standard for McKee. The board never quite felt as good quad as it did thruster, so I decided to move the rear fin boxes to match McKee specs exactly. Presto, the board now rocks quad and thruster. I can have fun with both.
The day after I performed the fin box surgery on my 7'8, I get this tweet from FCS telling me Kelly Slater had just won Teahupoo on a McKee quad. Kelly actually gave props to McKee for the fin placement. That made me feel a little better about the surgery I had just performed on my board!
If you're wondering what the difference between the 2 systems is all about, the more you move the fins from the rail and toward the middle, the more you pick up some of the benefits of thruster, while still holding onto some of the advantages of quad.
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| Slater's quiver with quads located per McKee specs |
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| The red dots indicate the factory fin box location |
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| Freshly re-quaded to McKee specs |
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| On the beach this morning |
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| I like it! |
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