Surfboard Fin Review: Bamboo Quads from Torres Fins
The fronts are a little bit bigger than the rears, with a little bit more sweep.
Michael Torres (of Torres Fins) is a skilled craftsman and finmaker. His work is precise, artful, and goes really friggin well in the water.
His sandwich glassed wooden fins come in a number of different materials, from walnut to balsa. And everything is made entirely by hand- all by him. The foiling, the glassing… Everything.
The first thing you’ll notice when you hold a set of his fins is how absurdly light they are. Seriously. A front fin from Torres’ Bamboo Quad Set is less than half the weight of a standard fiberglass fin of similar size. Torres says that by making his fins attentively by hand, he’s able to “Remove every fraction of a gram of unnecessary weight.” And he’s not kidding. They weigh very little and look absolutely perfect.
Front fin from Torres Bamboo Quad on top of an AM2 fin, for rake and base comparison.
While Torres Fins look very beautiful, they are by no means mere sentimental surf ornaments. They’re as high performance as any Pro Signature Series RTM set I’ve surfed from any of the big fin producers like FCS or Futures.
His ultra-light Bamboo Quad Set is a solid bamboo core that’s been carbonized and oriented in vertical lamination. The bases are also reinforced with carbon fiber. This all adds to fin strength.
The template for this set is an insightful balance of classic and modern quad outlines.
Sandwich comparison between lead and trail fins in the set.
If you like quads, these are extremely satisfying to surf. They have less rake than your typical performance fin, which means you can make sharper, more pivotal movements- as well as putting more rotation onto your turns.
Flat inside foils on all four fins gives that true-to-quad, loose, but powerful feeling that lets you generate more and more speed going rail to rail, and then blow it all out over the lip with a big maneuver.
Torres Bamboo Quads are a fast and responsive set of fins that work well in most conditions. I like them best when there’s a little punch in the water; on a hollower wave that makes you race down the line, as these fins really let you gather a lot of speed with small movements and enable you to climb into your turns sharply and very vertically.
Full set of Torres Bamboo Quads, with Darc Drive and Knubster stabilizers.
Highly recommend checking out the Bamboo Quad Fins from Torres Surf.
Be sure to check out the Torres Fins website (he does awesome wood inlays on single fins) or contact Michael Torres for more info. He’s a great craftsman, and with his fins- you’re getting not only performance on par with a mass produced RTM fin, but you’re also getting something handmade and custom built from natural materials- in the true spirit of surfing.
