…this is a good visual to offer up. Although somewhat crude, it gets the job done just fine and illlustrates the apex thing (or whatever you wanna call it) perfectly. If you look at that bottom curve as you would an outline curve, then it becomes more and more personal in the total package of what you want to make for yourself or someone asking for certain characteristics in their board.
As stated previously, some guys will take this thinking further, and place the curviest part of their planshape in harmony with their rocker apex. I would think this would be particularly true of the guys looking for ‘turn on a dime’, pivot carve type performance. That’s esp. true of the “K3” curve depicted here with the “A1” being more conventional but adequate for most surfers wanting a less sensitive turning board. Guys preferring the “A1” might also site that a full initiated turn (bury the board to the rail) has a rocker curve that feels better to them than the “K3”. The “K3” has what I’ve termed in different threads as an “induced straight”, and the note here that it delivers thrust, is entirely correct.The “K3” has gotta be popular with the ‘get in early’ crowd that are jockeying for wave position at crowded spots.
With the postioning of the peak aka apex, aka deepest part of the bottom rocker curve, the dynamic of each becomes readily apparent to anyone riding these approaches. If you took boards that were identical in every other aspect other than these bottom curves and rode them, they would all feel and surf like very different surfboards.
Would one be better than another? That’s totally subjective and relative to what the rider wants.
The one for Tony Ray, is a forward draft, longer waterline approach that makes total sense for big Sunset or large facey waves whereas a bit more tail rocker curve like the “A1” (but not exactly) might be preferable for a Pipeline type wave. It depends on if the guy ridiing the board wants some release in the tail or is riding it in conjunction with concaves, just as the Tony Ray one might incorporate vee for increased rail rocker and drive.
The bottom line on these is that these lines are highly personal, and how well you can manipulate them to a surfer’s needs is directly relative to how successful you are at delivering a board that someone is ordering from you.
Like I said before, once you start envisioning these “curves as lines in space” (BB), you will become a friend to some, and soul mates to others…
