is an s-deck / step deck just for aesthetics? or does it provide some actual benefit to the way the board works?
if you guys tell me it reduces swing weight, i’ll bite, but come on, that insignificant amount of foam and (sometimes) stringer can’t amount to much. most of the boards i see s-decks on are not geared towards fast, snappy, high-performance turns. theoretically isn’t surface area ever-so-slightly increased, there for requiring more glass/resin (weight)? : )
does it affect buoyancy/balance for floating/planing?
for the record, i think they look awesome, was just curious about an actual reason for them other than looks.
Probably more for looks on those mini simons. On a longboard I like the thinner nose and flat deck in the step section. A hull is not a hull without and S deck. Don’t ask me why. I admit that I just shape things. Looks and aesthetics play a large part in the way a board may ride. If its a thing of beauty you will be more stoked. If it’s a dog you say “what a piece of shit”.
I once shaped a board for a smart ass team rider punk who was in the shaping room with me and I did what he wanted. He brought the board back and said it sucked and wanted another one.
I took it in to the sanding room and took of the pins and resin dart off the deck. I then shot different color pins and gave him the same board back. He loved it.
So…to answer the question is an sdeck better? Who knows…it sure does look good though.
An S deck and step deck are not the same thing. S decks became popular during the transition era, mostly to retain volume in an effort to increase flotation.
The step deck certainly does reduce swing weight, as it moves the balance point of the board’s volume aft.
Try telling Rennie Yater he’s wrong. Let me know what his reply is.
instead of a smug answer, can i get some insight? i’m not trying to call anyone out and i don’t doubt swing weight could be effected. it just doesn’t seem like that much weight would actually be removed from the technique unless the board has a super wide stringer.
I surf with a bunch of guys who like step deck longboards. They are a lot different than an “s-deck”. I have also made a few, but don’t like my version of them too much and don’t surf one myself. It’s all about rocker for those guys. The board flexes downward and flattens up the rocker when you walk up to the nose. They don’t last too long tho, flex cracks in the glass job usually are an indicator that the end is near! (LOL, longboard noseriding joke). An “s-deck” is usually shaped into a board that is traditionally a single fin board shorter than a longboard and is done to place the foam to help paddling and also change the rail line. Liddle is the master of this type of board as far as I am concerned. There is a lot more going on in these shapes besides the “s” . The mini-simmons shape shown is more of a “scoop deck” vrs. an “s-deck”. There are lots of good threads of “s-deck” shapes here on Sways. Just my 2 c…
For a little perspective, take a look at some of the Bob Simmons Twin Fin boards. What is that? OMG, it’s a genuine S Deck, on that board!!! What in the world was he thinking? Gee, do you suppose there was some actual science behind his decision ? Just sayin’.
what is the science behind it? i’m geniunely curious to know, which is why i asked the question. i have no doubt the shape exists for a reason, i’m not questioning bob simmons or yater or anyone. i’m asking a question about the design/shape.
claiming “it’s science” is no better than the modern marketing you guys all seem to hate.
sammy’s balance point answer makes sense and i can even believe that in a long board, flex gasp could come into play w/ the shape like surfteach said. if it really is swing weight, then so be it, i’ll believe it.
i’m also stoked to learn that there are a lot of different versions of this and my general thought was not accurate - s deck, step deck, scoop deck etc.
I shaped two simm type boards with the s(coop) deck and the first one was ok and the second one was much better - the curves and the way that the rail line changes was a little difficult for me at first.
You start with your rocker curve. Then you establish your thickness, not just at the middle, but at the tail, and under your chest.
In the pictures below, the bottom picture the deck is a straight line created by the tail thickness and chest thickness. But if you carry the flat line out, you end up with a kind of thick nose. So in the top picture, the deck line breaks into a step. You get a thinner lighter and more flexible nose area. Foil is all about putting the thickness where you think it should go, not just where the blank you bought puts it.
I use an s-deck foil in almost all of my boards. Swing weight is one reason but mostly it for balance and adjusting the sweet spot (same thing? probably). A neighbor came to me with a problem. She is a novice surfer. She had a board that she loved once she got to her feet but it was very difficult for her to “get over the edge” early enough for her to get to her feet easily. I checked out the board and it was made by one of SD’s better shapers; a nice fun-egg with a modern rounded square tail and a very round Liddle-like nose. Flat bottom with a tucked edge nose to tail, and thruster fins set up.
She couldn’t get the nose to pitch down and just stalled at the top of the wave. So I took a template from her board and started to fiddle around with the foil and nose outline. I pulled the nose in to a classic “Phil Edwards”. Then I put a subtle but deep S-deck in the front third of the board, reducing the foam and float up front but keeping the middle at 3 inches thick. I kept the rocker the same.
She now had a board that would pitch a little bit more when she was paddleing but still surfed the same as her old board because the dimensions were the essenially the same where she stood to trim or turn. The S-deck also allowed her to adjust her paddling trim without moving around too much. She’s a small but athletic woman and to get her old board to tip forward enough she would have had to be right up on the front of the board putting all her weight on the entry rocker and bogging. Now she can stay over the flatter middle rocker and still put some weight on the nose. She loves the way the board works and is catching waves easily. (it also helped that I chucked the thruster set-up and used a widow-maker with a 7" Bonzer center and 3 inch sidebites with no toe-in)
I have a longboard with a slight but noticeable s deck and you can feel it flatten when up near the nose. I rode a similar sized board recently without this and it was a lot stiffer. Even sitting on the board in the lineup the difference was noticeable. I got a bit carried away with my mini sim and sometimes the nose will feel trapped under water if im to far forward its to flat. Good excuse to make another when it dies I suppose.
Step decks were all the rage, back in the day, but there’s only five or so persons on this list that were there then. But anything to bring in a sucker, I guess.
I will quote Mr Thrailkill: flex is a good thing on someone else’s board.
