I hear the term all the time, and know it means that the board (or object) floats a lot. But can someone please explain why ‘corkiness’ is a bad thing? I’ve never surfed a board that floats ‘too much’ - if anything i woulda thought more float= more better. does it have to do with trying to sink a rail while turning? or hard to duckdive?
i checked swaylopedia, and found no entry.
( living where i do, i don’t get to experiment a lot with boards, other than the ones i bring in )
I am in the process of trying to evaluate my latest board which has big fat boxy rails. When I get it figured out, I’ll post a review. I can tell you that it feels “corky” in choppy slop. Any yes, it definately has to do with sinking, or rather not sinking your rails. Duckdiving? I don’t have one board that I can duckdive. But I can turn turtle on my boards and stay right next to the smallest shortboards when caught inside. It’s all technique. Watch for my boxy rail post in a week or two. Unfortunately I have a couple of other variables I have to factor in before my review. More waves will help too.
Conclusion: A less corky board rides and feels more connected to the water.
I just posted this explanation responding to a common misconception in the other thread about “Is a Home Depot board too corky?”…enjoy…
With a surfer sitting on top of it (your board doesn’t surf alone, right) that is a negligible difference in buoyancy. Make sense?
And that line of thinking is precisely where you go wrong!
The surfer is not static on his board. Lateral speed (cruising down the line) as well as vertical pressure (pumping down the line) are where a board’s corkiness really comes into play…and both have absolutely NOTHING to do with the surfer’s weight. It’s the variations in these factors – say, for example, when you’re walking the nose – that actually matter.
Consider two boards of identical shape – 1) a traditional log weighing in at 26 lbs., 2) surftech popout weighing in at 12 lbs.
Consider a surfer who has a perfectly smooth cross-step, gliding effortlessly to the nose. Then, contrast this with a less experienced surfer who more or less clod-hops his way to the tip. The difference is in the downward force created by the approach (which has NOTHING to do with the surfer’s weight – whether he’s 70 lbs. or 270 lbs., it’s sudden increases in downward force on the board that matter). When the corky popout is impacted with increased downward force, it sinks into the water and then wants to spring back. This is not good – it’s a surfboard, not a trampoline. When the heavier log is met with this downforce, the effect is dampened by the board’s weight and lateral motion, and the board will not spring back because isn’t all corky like the popout.
Also, consider the same two boards just cruising down the line. They hit a little chop on the face. The heavy board just drives right through it as though it weren’t even there. Corky popout, on the other hand, gets thrown for a loop.
In some aspects, the way a board surfs needs to be measured independently of the characteristics of the rider. The effects of a board’s corkiness has absolutely nothing to do with the weight of the rider, and the buoyancy effects of a 10 lb. difference in the weight of two boards will remain even if there is a much greater difference in the weight of the surfers. The rider’s weight doesn’t do a thing to mitigate this effect.
NOTE: This has already been discussed at great length in other threads (basically, every time someone makes the comment that the corkiness of one board over another makes no difference when a 200 lb. dude hops on and takes it for a spin).
A corky board will be loose, bouyant and maneuvarable in small or mushy surf.
That same corky board will not sink it rails adequately in bigger surf and you will find
that is less of a winner than you thought it was in the marginal slower surf.
Culprit : Corkiness…rails/volume too full.
This can especially happen toward the tail.