choosing new fins

[Pendergast]

i have been surfing with the same board for the past two years and just deposited 100 for a custom made. im getting a quad setup. now it jst hit me how should i choose new fins? and do they come in a set of four? because i have only seen them in a case of three. thanks

[surfitch]

you can buy sets of four fins for quad set ups. generally you can choose fins based on your weight for the general size. from there you can mess around like having smaller inner fins for a more fishy feel. rusty wrote some good articles on quad fin selection.

[isaluteyou]

well fins depend on this. your weight + board type + type of waves you ride + riding style. Oh and are you going fcs, future or lock box etc...

[Pendergast]

ok so im about 160lbs. and my board is going to be 9' by 21" and 2 5/8" in thickness my wave is around 4 to 5 on a good day and im looking for FCS. so whats does that come down to? haha

[Forage]

Usually a new custom board will come with some fins. So the first thing you probably want to do is ride it with the stock fins for a while to get used to how it feels.

After you've done that, or if it doesn't come with fins, you want to find a surf shop with an FCS test centre. Just start trying out a ton of fins, buy the ones that feel the best. If none of them feel a lot better than the fins that came with the board then congratulations. You just saved 50+ dollars. I spent a few weeks trying out different fins to replace my GMB's. Stuck with the GMB fins. Still love them.

You can also get fin sets in quads. H2's and TC Aqualines, I'm sure there's more. Something a lot of people also do is buy two sets of tri-fins and use a pair of side fins in the front and another one in the back. This means there's hundred of possible combinations, athough probably only few dozen that you'd ever actually seriously consider.
Scour the internet forums for ideas and start trying stuff out.