JC: Despite a trend amongst many PWA and Hawai’ian wave riders to buck the quad trend and switch over to tri fins, Brawzinho is still an exponent of riding with four fins in the water. I asked him if he’s open to change and why he’s still riding quads?
MB: I was using quads for the Aloha. I used an 84 and a 92 for most of the heats. The 92 was my back up, the 84 was the main board I used. That’s what I ride at Ho’okipa every day. I like the quads for now. I’ve not spent that much time on the tri fins. I’m sure they work well, but I’ve not put my energy into riding them. I tried them a few times, but I felt more comfortable on the quad. Right now I will keep following that direction. I’ll try the tri fins again this winter and see how they feel. We go through a lot of boards all through the year with Goya. It makes a big difference.
When we’re free sailing we’re always developing and testing new things because we want the production boards to be better and they all come out from our results. Francisco just orders tonnes of boards all the time. It’s good because it’s so quick to get a board made and go test it. We test with the whole team and everybody can watch each other and give feedback.