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[Kit Sidwell]

I've been staring at this new tail rocker i'm gunna try

y'know when you look at something too long, and you lose track of what your actually looking at...
Now I can't decide if it's too curvy
The amount of tail rocker is what I want at 2 7/16, I just can't decide if it's too much of a round arc...

What do you guys think?

or am i being too critical.....

Problem is I just made a new rocker table with that rocker, and now i'm second guessing myself.
It looks really curvey on the table, maybe it should be flatter, less "belly"?

.brd file attached

[Kit Sidwell]

Heres a screen shot for those who don't wanna open BoardCad and ghost a rocker over it

[StrangeBrew]

dave's got a great eye for rockers; have him look at it.

my opinion, and that's all it is, is that the kick you have in the rocker is too far back. That "bump" isn't a bad thing....as long as it's properly located. Right now, the focal point of the rocker bump is almost in the middle of your rear fin...not the most useful location unless you happen to surf off the outside edge of your back foot. I'd move the red guidepoint for the rear rocker up to 3.9 from where it is at 3.2. What you've got right now will probably work really well in hollow, sucky, not too big beach break where the board is right back in the pocket, but if you want to project, you may find it slow and draggy.

the outline of your board has some subtle hips in it at ~ 11". Make the rocker work with that feature; i.e. move that "belly" further forward and make it more of a "kick" in the rocker, around the rear edge of your front fins. Pretty easy to do while maintaining your overall rocker endpoints, though by combining the design features you'll probably find you'll be able to get away with less tail rocker and still have the maneuverability you're after.

btw; board looks real "thick" through the last 1/4-1/3 of the board towards the tail....

[Kit Sidwell]

Cheers Geoff, great feedback

Yeah in that file only the bottom rocker and outline mean anything, the thickness is nonsense

It's going to be used in very very sucky beach breaks, you can't ride these waves bigger than OH 1/2
So thats what I was thinking about with the curvy tail rocker.... just might be a bit extreme

good point about the curve placement, i'll think that over again

cheers!

[Kit Sidwell]

Yep your so right

Thanks man, I really needed another set of eyes on it.
I'm going to go with exactly what you recommended, it looks right now

[RoyStewart]

It looks like the rocker increases as it moves from the apex back to the tail , not a good idea imo as it slows the board down, so I agree with Strangebrew.

It's impossible to tell what sort of curve one actually has with that sort of design tool though, which is one reason why I don't use them.. ..  they can't make mathematically defineable curves.

.

[Kit Sidwell]

Thanks Roy,
That makes a confirming second opinion, i'm sold!

Yeah i was playing around with it for so long, trying to make a board that would turn on a dime for all the punchy tight summer waves..... ended up going a bit extreme

[Sparrow]

not a good idea imo as it slows the board down

Roy, is the slowing due to the "spoon under the tap" trick ie the water sucking the rear of the board into the wave?
I saw this weird thing for long boards that they can place over the fin that looks just like convex of a spoon, the wave sucks the rear of the board down so hard that the rider can nose ride for a really long time. Although, it looked like a gimic to replace lack of skill if you ask me.

[paul cannon]

drop the rocker to 2 inches or less and slow the curve down
its got to much belly

[jeff matsuno]

Thanks Roy,
That makes a confirming second opinion, i'm sold!

Yeah i was playing around with it for so long, trying to make a board that would turn on a dime for all the punchy tight summer waves..... ended up going a bit extreme

In my very humble opinion- for "turning on a dime in tight punchy summer waves" I'd got to a very short board with a curvy outline, where you can just hang with the back foot right back on the pad, and then have very little tail rocker to keep it drivey.   Dave1 advised me to reduce my tail rocker and he was right on.  My last board (5 fin 6'0") has 1-3/4" and I'm thinking of 1-1/2" for my next shortboard.

[StrangeBrew]

that's my mentality too Jeff, but he said he'd already cut the rockerbed, so I was looking to suggest a quick fix that would be easily implemented. I did a 1 1/2" tail rocker on my 6'10"; what I can safely say is that on a board of those dimensions, I was left wanting more...alot more and that board will be getting reworked; fine on the backside where it's easy to load the tail and snap; garbage frontside as it hangs on cutties; can't load the tail enough.

Depends on how you surf the conditions as well; a rear footed surfing with a "pivot and tuck" drop style for the tube will like more accelerated rocker through the tail to make best use of the bowling wave face; a "get in early and pump into the tube/backdoor" style will demand a more continuous rocker flow with more equal foot weighting and more drive off the rail, stalling to hang in the tube.

Kit, the other suggestion; if you knock that point we discussed up to about 4.2 (so that the tangent is pretty much parallel for the last 1" or two of tail), and knock the last 1" off the rocker curve, you're approaching something that looks very user friendly for the conditions you describe without having to reinvent the wheel; just take you sander and knock that extreme curvature off the last bit of the rockerbed.

I'm hoping for exactly some of the conditions described above (stupid steep two stroke paddle beach closeout tubes) this weekend....though I doubt I'll have the balls for alot of them  . My go-to-board for those waves has ~ 2.25" tail, with a distinct rockerline kick; I'm the lazy two-stroke, pivot drop guy.