With regards to a shortboard,/thruster , can someone tell me what the performance characteristics of a flat deck versus a domed deck would be? I figure, given the same rail thickness, the dome will give you more float but what do you lose? Would it be better to have a slightly thicker rail and a flat deck with the same volume?
I just want to go fast and turn hard.
You will find that a flat deck tends to flex more and be less stiff initially, which you may or may not like.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Flat deck pivots mose because your feet are more engaged at the heel and ball. Flat decks many times have a bit more built in speed but you can’t pump up the speed as much as you can with some crown.
A more crowned deck makes your turn a bit more centered on the board and generally has a bit more drive. Also the rails are usually thinner which make the edges sink easier. Again more drive.
crowned decks are also more tippy to sit on and paddle.
Taking the thickness out to the rail using a flat style deck like Doc Lausch does can allow you to go thinner overall. Thinner supposidly provides for higher performance…
Big boys like fat rails since they let you put all your weight on rail without biting too hard. Nothing worse than catching a rail at speed.
Also depending on how severe a cause of “primo belly” you’ve accumulated over the decades, a domed deck will feel alot more uncomfortable paddling out than a flat or concaved deck. You can still get thin rails on a thick flatty by using SK8 rails like Jeff Alexander does.
I guess you could say a domed deck feels better under your arm than it does under your pot belly.
It’s kind of weird cause I always thought that concave decks were more “responsive” than domed decks but maybe that’s just more “sensitive” cause it’s thinner under your feet. Heel toe only matters for those with got big feet otherwise its how you weight unweight your kness and torso. I always thought your power was in the spring of your hips and shoulders but I could be just plain old school wrong.
Remember, you can always compromise one aspect of design to make up for deficientcies in other’s…
I figure I spend most of my time standing on flat surfaces, not telephone poles…
The insides of my shoes are almost flat…
If I want thin rails for more bite, I can narrow the tail…
If I want more float, thick rails are it…
If I want less float, I can make it thinner…or narrower…
If I think I need thin rails to sink at speed, I can narrower the board, add extra V, or soften the rails…all help the rails hold at speed…
But I DO know that NO skateboards, wakeboards, or snowboards use a crowned deck for any reason.
I remember reading somewhere about Michael Ho asking to have his shaper “hide the thickness.” I take that to mean that a crowned deck and thin rails. It sounds from your post like you go more for the crowned deck (“more drive” sounds good to me). Being that you’re the man when it comes to EPS shapes, if I shape a board 2 1/4" thick, how thick would the rails be, say 3" in from the outline at the thickest (2 1/4") point? I’m probably going to go with EPS on my next board and since there are none around to study (except Surftechs) I’m trying to get an idea of how thin to go to avoid the “corkiness.”
As far as the other posts on this thread- I don’t have a belly that would give discomfort from paddling a crowned deck. My problem is the opposite- my ribs get sore, especially in the summer with no suit.