Muzza's Trippin' - "THE STINGER QUAD"

The Purpose of The Stinger Quad

Having trialled and understood the modern quad this idea has come about for the lust for even more speed, and more precise control, through the use of additional smart sized and well placed fins.

Board Specifications

DIMENSIONS: 6'0 x 12 x 19 ½ x 14 ½ x 2 3/16
IDEAL WEIGHT: 75 to 85kg

DESIGN EMPHASIS: The Stinger Quad has flatter tail rocker about 2 1/8 and a forward concave, with a rear vee with a modest double concave built inside. The swallow is 7 inches wide. The stinger flyer is up 16 inches from the tail. The quad fins are clustered a little closer together than normal quads as to allow the inclusion of the small C5 vector, which is placed just ahead of the front fins and directly adjacent to the stinger flyer.

Muzza's Ramblings

When you first eyeball a quad with all those fins attached, the first impression you would likely get is that the whole gismo looks too finny, and probably too stiff with excess fin area; and therefore not a good choice for small waves at all. Well the actual is the opposite, the quads are as loose as hell begging the belief that the centre fin slows a board’s response time and prevents sudden acceleration except when overpowered off the bottom and the top of a wave. The stinger quad is an attempt to load up with even more fins but still avoiding the inclusion of a central fin.

Why more fins? More speed is the quest and maybe more traction and power in and out of turns. The C5 vector fin up on the rail opposite the flyer has more grunt than you would imagine and I believe will pull the rail into the face quicker than side fins positioned further back but due to their size will not be difficult to rip back out and get on with the next turn. The flyer should also help in this bight and release process. Having seen how the stinger plan shape behaved with a single fin under it during the Bertleman and Buttons era, where the forward flyer forced the tail to slide helping the nose to come around quicker, is something I am hoping to avoid due to all the extra fins back that will hold the tail firm. Also the water that is forced through between the small C5 fins and the front quads causes a squeezing pressure that, if works then there is a thought in my head that this may be effective at both ends, if I cluster up the main quads more so water will be squeezed through them as well. But lets see if it is gonna work up front first. One thing worth noting is that the C5 can be whipped out in a second if it does not work and also can be moved forward and back about a half an inch to suit.

The fins that I have put in are the Future high punching Semitar, that feature a warped concaved inside surface that project a board like a sling shot so the fin design is gonna add even more speed. The board dimensions will lend themselves to go wider and thicker rather than longer for the bigger guy who wants to bust some moves on this baby.

Prediction

Hopefully a quad with more claw and squirt and speed, with most notably an ability to be savaged in and out of turns at great speeds without an ounce of tail give.

Results

Feedback on the STINGER QUAD:

Well the thing locked up and felt like it needed to be turned from too far forward but when you moved up there it locked up. One thing it was bloody fast but hard to find the sweet spot. When we took the C5’s out of the front the board wailed which proved how dominant they were for such small fins. In retrospect just looking at the board on the bottom from a distance it is obvious that the fins cover too bigger area and this is why it locked coz there was no small sweet spot to make them all operate as one unit. If I was to move forward with this design I would cluster all the fins closer together and bring back the flyer a little closer to the tail, but quite frankly I think I might just throw it in the bin and write it off as a design with too many fins and just leave it at that!

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