Aloha Gents,
I’ve been feeling very retro lately because I made a low rocker’d board by chance and it has turned out to work much better in avg FL BBs. I’ve been looking at the Channel Islands Mongrel with its relaxed low entry rocker.
So my latest design inquiry goes out:
What are the key differences between today’s common thruster shortie and a typical early/mid 80’s model?
Dimensionally, how do rockers’ compare…nose and tail in particular?
Rocker
Fins and placement
Outline
Bottom Contour
Volume
Foil
etc…
Mahalos in advance!
Dave
meecrafty, pick up a copy of the book “Essential Surfing” by George Orbelian. He has detailed specs on many surfboards including template outline, thickness outline, fin placement, etc, all on early 80s boards. It is an incredible documentation of surfboards of that era.
If my memory serves me correctly, the average thruster I rode in the early eighties had these dimensions:
Length: 5'10"
Width: 19 1/2"
Thickness: 2 5/8"
Nose: 11 1/2"
Tail: 14 1/2"
Bottoms were basically flat to panel vee, although there were variations including some form of channels. Hardly any concaves till the late 80’s when there was a resurgence of bonzer bottoms. Rockers were in the mid to high four inch bracket, tail rocker around 1 1/2". I would have to say that the Slater/Merrick surfer/shaper team highly influenced what is presently considered the standard performance thruster, in the pro scene anyway.