One thing that many people forget when dealing with rocker:
If you are using concave bottom contours the rocker jigs will not give a true rocker template of the board. For instance, a boards stringer-line rocker may be less on a board with “single to double concave” than that of one with a more “flat” bottom contour. While, taking both boards “rail-line” rocker, just the opposite may be true. It is important to find the overall true rocker before adding the bottom contours.
Blakestah: What if the foil was the last thing he’d messured correctly and that made the board magic? Doesn’t the eaton example just prove that you have to get everything right to make a magic board? For those thrusters, take away the sidefins and they are all dogs. For a thruster the most important design element must be the fins. The main thing about the rocker will then be to not hinder the turning radius created by the fins(and other design elements) without creating excessive drag.
NJ surfer: I agree, rocker has alot to do about fitting into the wave
Tigermeat: 43 feet, huh? Let’s just once and for all bury the myth that you can do a carving turn on a surfboard(a turn where the entire rail line passes through approximatly the same point) unless you are on a very, very big wave. So every turn on a surfboard is in reality a skidding/sliding turn. No wonder they throw spray.
Daklaw: I think the more rocker paddles better example is really an example of improper rocker, foil and volume combination(for paddling. For surfing it may be way different. ). I have a board that actually paddles better if the nose is submerged a couple of inches. This obviously creates a few problems… If I put the nose over water it paddles like a dog, basically because the tail will be very low and the entire board will be at an angle. If it had more volume or more noserocker I could paddle it well without submerging it. I remember a thread where someone stated that sometime people tended to believe that the extra float of a 1/8" thicker baord made it much easier to paddle, but in reality it was the change of the entry curve of the rocker because it floated higher that did the trick. Something to ponder.
I still wonder what mechanics and design elements are really behind the tight turning you can do on a single fin, because surely it not a 43’ radius rocker?
regards,
Håvard
“Everything is connected to everything”
--Gro Harlem Brundtland