Harley Ingleby HIBT 3+3 Review: Quad, Twin & Asym in One Board

Performance fish for surfers stepping up or stepping across

Same Shortboard Feel. More Volume. Three Fin Setups to Choose From.

The Harley Ingleby HIBT 3+3 is a Thunderbolt-built performance shortboard that swaps between quad, twin, and asymmetrical fin setups on the same board, so an experienced surfer gets more paddle power and volume, coming from a shortboard or a mid-length, without trading away how the board actually rides.

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By Hawaiian South Shore — a surf shop at 320 Ward Avenue, Honolulu, since 1996.

What Is the Harley Ingleby HIBT 3+3?

The HIBT 3+3 is a performance fish-style shortboard, built by Thunderbolt with two-time World Longboard Champion Harley Ingleby, designed around one idea: let a single board be three different fin setups. It's the first board Harley Ingleby and Thunderbolt shaper Billy Tolhurst built completely from scratch together, rather than an existing shape Harley brought into the Thunderbolt range. That's actually where the "BT" in the name comes from. One customer knows it by an easier-to-say nickname, "HI Bolt," but Billy Tolhurst's own initials are the real story behind the name.

The shape itself is a full nose blending into a "sting-style flyer" (a flyer is a hard, angled point along the rail near the tail that helps the board release into a turn), which runs into a deep swallow (fish) tail. The rocker (the curve of the board from nose to tail, seen from the side) is flat and fast through the front with a flick added at the tail, and the bottom carries a very light double concave underfoot (a shallow scoop on either side of the centerline that channels water for extra speed and control). Harley Ingleby calls it "very much a shortboard" that just happens to paddle like something bigger. If you want the background on the shaper himself, read Who Is Harley Ingleby.

Who Is the HIBT Built For?

It's built for two experienced surfers coming from opposite directions, both after the same thing: more volume and easier paddling without losing shortboard response. Neither one is a beginner board. Both riders already know how to surf well.

The first is a shortboarder who needs more volume than they used to. That's the customer Hawaiian South Shore sees most often on the floor: someone who's been riding shortboards for years, and between work, kids, or just getting older, needs a board that paddles easier and catches waves sooner, without giving up the speed and the ability to turn hard that made them a shortboarder in the first place. Guy, an HSS customer, is a good example. He's been coming to Hawaiian South Shore since he was about 10 years old, a lifelong shortboarder who needed more volume to stay caught up as life got busier. He picked up the HIBT at 40 liters and rides it as a quad, and even with the added volume, it kept the shortboard feel he was used to. His full story is below.

The second is a mid-length or longboard rider heading the opposite way: someone who already owns a Moe or Mid 6 and wants something shorter that still surfs like a shortboard, not just a bigger board that paddles easier. Kevin, another HSS customer, is exactly that rider. He loves mid-lengths, but wanted a shorter board that still paddled well and surfed like a shortboard, and found it in the HIBT at 6'0". He runs his as a quad, calls it his best setup for speed and vertical turns across the flats, and is upfront that the twin fin felt a little off to him, depending on finding the right twin fins for his own feel. His full review is below. Harley Ingleby built the HIBT with both riders in mind — that means it's sized to grow into from either direction, not something you'll outgrow in a season.

What Sizes Does the HIBT Come In?

Six sizes, 5'10" to 7'2", from 32 liters up to 50 liters.

Every size ships in the same Thunderbolt Red colorway. Thunderbolt splits the range internally into a shorter, more performance-oriented group and a longer, higher-volume group, but it's still one board, one build, and one fin system across every size, not a different construction depending on length.

What Size Should I Get?

Volume, not length, is the number to check first. It's the single best predictor of whether a size will actually float and paddle you the way you need, and two boards at the same length can carry very different volumes. From there, the right size also depends on your weight, your current board, and the waves you actually surf, not a single number on a chart. The most useful way to size this board is to look at real riders who already ride it. Guy, an HSS customer, is 6'0" and 220–225 lbs and rides the 40L (6'6"); Kevin, another HSS customer, rides a 6'0"; Ryan Leopold, a rider outside Hawaiian South Shore at 5'10" and 160 lbs who normally rides poly shortboards around 28 liters, rides the smallest size, the 5'10" at 32 liters, already a step up in volume from his usual boards. Harley Ingleby himself, around 195 lbs, keeps a 6'6" as his go-to.

Harley Ingleby's own general advice, when a rider is stuck between two sizes, is to size up. These boards paddle well, and the extra length tends to help more than it costs. If you're not sure where you land, send us your height, weight, current board, and the waves you surf most, and we'll point you to the right size.

How Does the 3+3 Fin System Actually Work?

The HIBT uses a six-plug fin box that lets you set the board up three completely different ways. The idea traces back to Harley Ingleby's own asymmetrical board experiments from 2016, which he shelved for years before building them into this board.

Set with the black plugs, it's a true quad (four fins, two on each side, no center fin), which gives more hold and drive, especially in bigger or punchier waves. Set with the white plugs, it's a true twin (two fins, one on each side) using Harley's own "Power Twin" fin design, which feels looser and faster in small, playful surf. Set as an asymmetrical hybrid ("asym"), the board runs a twin fin on your toe-side rail and quad fins on your heel-side rail, based on whether you're a natural or goofy-foot rider, not which way the wave breaks. It blends the quad's hold with the twin's speed.

Real riders land in different places on this, and you'll hear directly from a couple of them below. Harley Ingleby's own favorite is the asym setup, which he rides close to exclusively even though he's tested and enjoys all three. His own personal recommendation is his own quad design as a starting point for the quad setup, and his Power Twin fin for the twin setup. Fins aren't included with the board, so budget for a set when you order.

If you want the full story on how Harley Ingleby thinks about fin setups more broadly, HSS sat down with him for a talk story on fin setup with Keoni Watson.

How Is the HIBT Built?

The HIBT is built with Thunderbolt Red construction: a hand-laminated EPS foam core with an internal carbon fiber flex system, layered with 6oz and 4oz fiberglass on the deck and 6oz and 2oz on the bottom.

Harley Ingleby says the internal layup is tuned differently across the size range. A full-strength layup at 5'10" "would be pretty rigid," so the shorter sizes are built to flex more, while the extra volume in the longer sizes goes into the front and mid of the board for paddle power rather than a thicker tail.

On durability, Harley Ingleby rides the board hard at his own weight, around 195 lbs, and describes his own board as having "little to no denting at all," including under heavy heel and toe pressure. Ryan Leopold, a lighter rider putting in frequent sessions on his own board, also saw no deck impressions over time. Different riders, different weights, same result.

What Waves Does It Handle Best?

The HIBT's core range runs from small, waist-high waves up to head-high, but real riders have pushed it well beyond that. Harley Ingleby has personally ridden it from knee-high through well over his head as a quad, including taking the longer 6'6" and 6'10" HIBT sizes to that same ceiling at his home beach. He hasn't personally pushed it any bigger than that. Independent riders back up a wide range: one surfed it thigh-high through just past head-high and found it stable even at the biggest size, 7'2". Ryan Leopold, riding the smallest 5'10" size, found it comfortable from small, soft waves through his own "prime" range of chest-to-head-high, with a practical ceiling somewhere around six to eight feet depending on the fin setup, including a windy, barreling first session where the board held up well instead of getting knocked around, unlike some lighter boards in the same conditions.

HIBT vs. the Moe: Which One Fits You?

Both are excellent Harley Ingleby boards built on Thunderbolt construction, and their sizes even overlap, but they're built for different jobs. Harley Ingleby sized the HIBT to sit "between the Moe and Mid 6," his two mid-length models, while staying, in his words, "really just a big surfboard," not a mid-length. The Moe is the easy-going, flowy mid-length: forgiving, stable, and built to make paddling and catching waves simple. The HIBT is the performance-first option, built for a shortboarder who wants more volume without losing the speed and vertical response of a shortboard. Size alone won't tell you which one is right for you. It comes down to how you want the board to feel.

Harley Ingleby, who designed both boards, puts it plainly: the HIBT has "a lot more performance feel than the Moe," with "an even faster trim speed," while the Moe is such a flowy board in its own way. Neither one is the "better" board. If you want an easygoing, forgiving ride, look at the Moe. If you want something that still feels and responds like a shortboard, the HIBT is built for that. Curious how it stacks up against another Harley Ingleby shortboard? Read the HI4 surfboard review.

How Do I Fix a Ding on a Thunderbolt Board?

Use epoxy-only repair materials. This is the single most important thing to know about maintaining any Thunderbolt board, including the HIBT.

Thunderbolt boards are sealed with epoxy and built with an advanced sandwich-laminate shell, so standard polyester resin, the kind in most basic ding repair kits, won't bond correctly and can make the damage worse. Always check that a repair product is labeled epoxy before you use it.

For small surface scratches, an epoxy-specific ding repair kit, widely available at surf shops, will do the job. For anything deeper (a crack, a puncture, or damage through the outer shell), take it to a shop that specifically handles epoxy and sandwich-construction boards, since the layered build needs to be repaired the right way for the fix to hold. You're also welcome to bring it by Hawaiian South Shore, or send us a photo, and we'll point you to the right repair option.

What Do Real Riders Say?

Real Hawaiian South Shore customers riding the HIBT describe a board that paddles like a bigger board and turns like a shortboard.

Worth noting: Guy says on camera that he hasn't actually ridden a Moe himself. His sense that the HIBT leans more performance comes from decades as a shortboarder, not a side-by-side test of the two boards.

Worth noting: Kevin is upfront that he hasn't tried the asym setup, so his comparison is between quad and twin only, not all three configurations.

Riders outside Hawaiian South Shore back up the same pattern. Ryan Leopold, a 5'10", 160-lb shortboarder who normally rides much lower-volume boards, tried all three fin setups and ended up preferring the asym, describing it as "the speed of a twin" with "the hold of the quad" for turns and laybacks he didn't feel as confident committing to on a straight twin.

Father time catches every surfer eventually. Schedules get busier, bodies change, and time in the water gets harder to come by. Guy felt all of that before he ever picked up an HIBT, and the board didn't ask him to give up how he actually likes to surf to keep up. Kevin felt the pull from the other direction, wanting a shorter board without giving up how a mid-length paddles, and landed on the same answer. Either way, the HIBT doesn't ask you to choose between more volume and more performance. It just asks which fins you want in that day.

Frequently Asked Questions