In 1992 Tom Curren made his first trip to Jeffreys Bay South Africa.
He appeared in the Rip Curl videos 'Search 2' and 'Searching for Tom Curren' and in the majority of the footage of the larger size wave sessions he was riding a 6'11" x 18 x 2-5/15", McKee Quattro, four-fin, swallowtail, gun.
The fin set-up consisted of the rear fins being larger than the front fins. The fin cluster was fairly spread apart with the rear fins being close together and quite far back. The fins all had a medium flex and were glassed on. The bottom shape was a light forward Vee in the middle to a deep Vee with deep double concave in the tail. This helped give the board it's amazing speed and control.
The fact that he was riding a four-fin or 'quad' was amazingly never mentioned.
He also appeared in the video 'Ultmate Sessions', section shown here, where all of his J-Bay performance was on the McKee Quattro board. The commentator even incorrectly states he was on a 7'3" pintail when a close look at Tom running up the beach with the board, clearly shows him carrying a quad fin swallowtail.
In another sound track the commentators even incorrectly claim the name of the supposed shaper..
It is a mystery why this surf-industry changing truth was never revealed to the public.
Tom's next session riding a fish in Indonesia, did though, launch a revival of the fish style board..
Maybe one day, someone will tell us why, or who, decided to keep the technological nature of this momentous day at Jeffrey's in 1992 a secret.
The result allowed shaper-designer and inventor Bruce Mckee to continue his 'Mission Quattro' which finally resulted in the 2001 launch of his website containing fin position formulas and relevant detail that has become the reference point for high performance quad fin enthusiasts.
Already saw that post on Sways - was one of the reasons I started sippin' the quad koolaid!
rlocke1027 in reply to deadshaper1 (Show the comment) 17 hours ago
Perfect!
IKillGoliath 2 months ago
geez louise, so casual....so FAST!
csong808 9 months ago
so inspiring... dane, jordy etc etc can perform great moves but they dont have the most important thing in surf: class
tom curren is so cool to watch in any era
rnneto2 10 months ago
beautiful!!! would kill for style like that, forget dane and jordy. currens where its at
jonno69098887776766 1 year ago
: Its on itunes...
Ericsouthswell2001 in reply to Ericsouthswell2001 (Show the comment) 1 year ago
Music:
Rhodes Time by Skizzo Franick
Ericsouthswell2001 1 year ago
This is on a McKee Quatro (Oz designer). I've been a believer in quads for the last 30+ years. Anatomically they are capable of higher speeds. See my "Quads R Quick" post in Swaylocks!
deadshaper1 1 year ago
@michaelcushing13, no that's 'cheeeeezeeee'. Skate triks knock carving out of the water. Go Dane!!! I saw Curren surf in person in 1983 at his best, in great waves, and it was awesome, but the new school is even more awesome and wow.
ToolsnFire in reply to michaelcushing13 (Show the comment) 1 year ago
I LOVE this clip, and Curren is still my favorite surfer, but every time I watch this video, the guy who edited it pisses me off for cutting the flow of the music in two spots. The music goes perfectly with Curren's surfing, but the moron who put it together doesn't seem to know about flow when it comes to editing.
sgmontero83 1 year ago