Give you 20 crusty crab credits if you know where that title is from.
Just after a bit of advice and experiential opinions on tail shapes and rockers. I’m about to move the family to live on a tropical island. The waves here are all short intense barrells, that is; not much turns will be happening.
About to start carving up a 6’2 and 6’5 tube tuned board. The rocker shapes I have planned are about 5" - 2 1/4" for the 6’2, and 5 1/2" - 2 1/2". I realize that there is any degree of differentiation in bottom curvature dimensions, but does that sound about right for nose and tail rocker for a barral tuned board?
2nd question. I always ride swallows in pretty much most boards I’ve owned, from more pulled in my bigger boards and a bit wider in my grovel boards. I love the way they bite into turns. However because I won’t be doing much if any open face carves do you think it would be best to go pin/ rounded/ thumb tails. I know the benefits of riding pin tails in the tube, but do you rekon pulled in swallows still hold there own in the pit?
…more important are the rocker dims at 12 and 24 from nose and tail. Also, you should think in a board that has projection after the bottom turn or no bottom turn at all, and another board for when those tubes are not so big and you need more lose board. These are a combo between rocker and fins.
-regarding swallow, yes, you are right it s a very good tail better with a thruster set up. You know, you have a “window” for the rear fin to hold more in the pocket; however you should shape it very swallow, if not is like all those diamond tails that do not work at all. You should pull those diamond tail to really short the outline and have a pivot point, so with the swallows do the same, large cuts to see perfectly well the rear fin.
Reverb always has some good input. We’ve been seeing a lot of shapers messing around with lower entry rockers because it “pushes” less water and allows you to paddle and surf faster. Like Reverb said, the rocker profile is super important from 6" back and not so much at the very tip. As far as concaves go, everyone has their opinions and they can all make sense depending on how hard the person sells you on their reasoning. Thumb, or rounded pins are great because you keep that rail line in the water for when you’re riding tubes and you can ride them as quads as well which is also great for tubes…as well as turns depending on how you set up your quads. There’s just so many options that it’s best to put 5 fin boxes in your board so you can go from thruster, to quad, to five fin if you feel like it.
Was going to stick to a more subtle convave with slight inset doubles amongst the fins. However have been enjoying watching Todd Proctor’s videos he has posted on his website about his boards. Liking his appraoch to a fairly even single concave running through out the board, and all the way off the tail. Check out his vid on his ‘Mendia’ and ‘Super Typhoon’ model.
You are not saying anything about template - do you have this sussed?
I agree on the low entry rocker - at present I am on a quest to see how far I can go. I really like the less plowing feel, it paddles better and gives more front foot drive. I think more nose rocker is really only useful in recovering from exceptionally radical direction changes. Some say “It helps with late drops” and I call BULLSHIT on this, if you are depending on that last little bit of kick to save you then you are dreaming, I’d way rather get in a second or two earlier. This getting in earlier (a relative term in such waves) seems really valuable when every split second counts as it hits the ledge…
re: template I am allergic to anything at 14" or above in waves such as you describe - I go 13 3/4" on a regular board and 11 3/4" for when its going off.
Sweetbix, cheers grasshopper, gives me a bit more confidence. How do those rockers fire in the crystal chamber? You like?
Yip getting in early on these waves around the island will be key as it will all be over fairly quick, so not so keen in becoming at one with the lip. But still want it to feel right in the keg.
Single to double concave does feel familiar and confortable under the feet. It’s worked well in step-up customs that I’ve travelled to Indo and the Pacific with in the past. Also find subtle doubles can help with channeling slight wind chatters when the trade winds kick in, but still feels good when it’s glassy. Got some grovellers that have full single concave to all the way out the back and love the way they get up and boggeying straight Away off the take off, but don’t feel quite right when leaned over on rail in the back third when driving around hard turns. Probably a lot to do with plan shape to being wider all around I suppose. So not to sure how that all translates to a full single in standard performance and step-up short board.
Check out those vids above of Proctor explaining. Been following his stuff and like his korero. He talks about deep singles under the fins gripping the face more, but I dunno.
