FIREWIRE MACHADO SEASIDE QUAD – FCS FINS (FINM-SQU-4F-2-O-BMBK)

The design story of the Seaside Quad began with the Go Fish in around 2016.

I rode the Go Fish with keel fins. I’ve always loved keel fins. And at the time, I had never loved quads. I had never even really ridden quads before 2018.

Sometime in early 2018, I began synthesizing the Go Fish board model into what would become the Seaside board model, and I had a moment where I recognized something that most of us take for granted about quad sets – they’re all derived from the design of a thruster set. For example, you can look at your favorite thruster set and add two quad trailers to it, and the trailers look just like the front two fins but smaller. Quad fins are, just in general, inspired and designed in the spirit of thrusters.

But at the time I was riding a keel fin in my Go Fish, and since I had no history with quad fin sets prior, I began designing a quad fin set for the Seaside that used a twin keel set as a starting point, not a thruster set as a starting point.

What I landed on is a quad set with the same drivey, basey feelings of a keel fin set, designed specifically for the Seaside, but it also works in any quad fin board you put it in. It’s the best of keel fin feelings, distilled into quad form for any quad shape you ride.

Today, this new and updated version of my original quad set was improved to create more of a balanced and all-around performance characteristic across a variety of different surfboard shapes.

The front two fins are slightly more raked back than the original, and the two quad trailers are slightly more upright than the original. I did this to maintain the same carving characteristics of the original quad set, while adding in a new ability to pivot more tightly and immediately than the original quad set.

Overall this gives the new and updated quad set a bigger and better sweet spot, enabling the surfer to position their back foot more freely on the tail, without sacrificing either a drawn out carving ability, or a quick and pivoting ability to slide or slip the fins free when wanted, for a wider variety of maneuvering than the original quad set.

The effective area on the front fins of the new Machado Seaside Quad set is moved towards the back of the fins with a little more sweep/rake in the profile in comparison to pervious versions.

The front fins have 2 degrees less cant than the previous sets, a slightly fuller foil and are a slightly stiffer than previous versions.

The back fin on the new Machado Seaside Quad have more curve, fuller foil and are slightly stiffer than previous versions.

The weight of the entire set is 15% lighter than previous versions weighing in at 0.6 lbs per set.