When shaping a board, I have usually chosen a blank and shaped it without actively trying to change the rocker. I just follow what is naturally in the blank.
I recently measured rocker on 3 of my recent boards and a 4th board that was built by a well-known, well-respected shaper. All similarly sized, small wave twinzers.
The numbers surprised me.
Turns out I like LOW rocker…
Like sub 4" nose and sub 2" tail for a 6’0" everyday shortboard for standard California beachbreak.
The pro-board also has LOW rocker.
So, of course, I am happy to learn (quantitatively) what I like. Because, this means that I can incorporate it into future boards.
On the other hand, very few stock blanks (USBlanks) easily match this size/shape board.
Either the rocker is close but the blank is 3"+ thick or there is too much rocker…
I currently have the 62A sitting on my racks. This happens to be the blank that I built my favorite ever board from. It has -1/2"N rocker just like my magic board. Which is great, the rocker #'s at the tips are close. Unfortunately, the 62A has a weird rocker “peak” in the middle that needs to be flattened/smoothed. That’s not a huge deal. Just an extra few minutes of careful shaping for me (total backyard hack).
I like a flatter rocker, and I frequently buy a longer blank and cut the nose off to get it, but for my level of surfing, I don’t notice a big difference either way.
I like that line “please discuss” - so GG on the ERBB’ish.
The 60R is good. I have built one board from it so far that I really liked.
I wish I could get the 65R about half an inch thinner. That would be ideal.
I emailed USBlanks recently about getting a 65R with 3in cut out of the center. That should help a little with the thickness…
I wonder if I could get one of the P blanks glued up to the 65R Stringer?
You can ask any US Blank with any rocker you like (as long as it more or less matches the original blank, some don’t like to be distorted too much). As much as it’s a hassle for us Europeans since ordering a custom blank (custom rocker or custom stringers) is a true adventure and takes at least two months before you get it, you guys should take advantage of having US Blanks at your door, so to speak, and submit your custom rocker templates.
Com’on man, all you need to do is make a few more passes with the planer? so you want a flat rocker 6-0, get a 6-3 or 6-5 blank and carve it up, cut some nose off …or a tad tail. refoil the nose and tail, then thickness plane to profile. Boom!
I like my boards a bit thicker than most of you crazy kids. I do about 2 3/4 or so, My slender girlish figure is keeping me around 215lbs…so by the time I skin and get flat…then cut the concave I have very little room for error…most blanks start out a 2.88 to 3.0, then end up 2 5/8 middle concave, with 2 3/4 outside concave rail. Basically about 2 passes each side.
I do EPS most of the time, so my guy cuts whatever I need, thickness, custom rocker, close tolerance etc.
hahaha
Thanks Jay
I realized as I was typing that I need to just learn to shape and just go DO IT!
If I cannot whine and complain and snivel to you guys, who can I???
My wife won’t let me.
hahaha
On another note…
The blank on my racks is outlined and the bottom is true and flat with the rocker right where I want it…
The blank at the nose is still over an inch thick. Normally, I would foil the deckside nose down to the thickness I want…
But, I’m thinking maybe I will give it some rocker flip in the last 6-12 inches of the nose…
The business portion of the rocker will be right where I want it but the nose will be flipped for those rare instances when it’s better to have it flipped. Steeper later drops, etc…
I’m thinking that the flip won’t affect the way the board rides at most other times…
1" thick at the nose. Sounds like a good time for the ol’ beaker. I still don’t see anything wrong with a beak. They can still look good and will stand to abuse unlike the potato chip/flip /tips.
6-8P almost hits a lot of the 6-5R numbers if you take a similar length off of the nose and tail. I would think a 6-5R rocker would fit the blank pretty easily. I like the foam distribution and the deck rocker on the 6-8P a bit more than the 6-7P
I did that with the last short board I made. It has the flatter rocker of my favorite little rocket ship, but I added a little kick in the first 6 inches. I felt that I needed a bit more in the nose after surfing on Kauai and having lots of late takeoffs on waves that tended to jack up quickly.
If you want a blank with 3” removed from the center just order the stock blank with extra cuts at 1.5” offset, as if you were going to make a triple stringer board. Then remove that section and save it for another build, and glue in your own stringer.
Guys…having 1 in of nose is nothing. I have a huge nose.
Chris, you are a good shaper. I’ve seem you boards. So it just takes a little more planning than a blank that you just skin and roll the rails. I get my EPS blanks in slab cuts, so there always is a bit more shaping going on because I start with a big chunk square. So when I get to thinning out the nose and tail, things are starting to get more refined
On the nose…, by the time you blend the top and bottom it can look razor thin or full on beak. you could chime the bottom a tad and roll the top. just run the planer the front 10-12 inches of nose and thin it out to 3/4 or 1/2. really not that much to do,…way harder when you are making a fish out of a long board blank and you have to make it happen with 3.5 inches to work with.
On the tail…I like a some tail kick out the last 6 inches, so that’s super easy to hide. By the time you roll the leash plug area, and kick the tail you end up with 5/8 in the very rear butt.
its all fun, who knows you might even make a better board. I goofed up last night and reversed my FCS jig. Instead of my boxes being 1 1/4 off the rail. I ended up with 1 1/2 off the rail, might not mean nothing…or it might be a dog…might be golden…IDK, just gotta see how it rides.
I been putting my fins at 1.5" off the rail, but I’m building my boards specifically for the FCS H2 fins. It didn’t seem to hurt, may have been a good thing for me.
I wish there was a box that allowed movement from the rail in towards the stringer. It would be a great way to really see how that affects the board. Although I’m so numb that I don’t notice the difference an 1/8" makes fore and aft.
You guys should all get over it (i.e. soft foam) and take a look at the Millennium catalog. They’ve got it covered. I’ve seen some complete deck failures on US Blanks just recently. Millennium has got rocker and variety covered and you don’t have to do S-Cloth on the deck to make sure it doesn’t fail.
