can make some difference, but a good rider will be able to work with any board.

But in general a board with low rocker and high flex will be very comfortable through chop and have good upwind ability.

A board with high rocker and low flex will give more pop, but be less comfortable.

thorn said...

Hi, just wondering how different boards affect your riding. I've never placed much importance on boards providing it is fairly new and can go upwind well. Now I am starting to think more about them. Can they really make much of a difference to your jumps/pop or is technique more important? What makes a board go better through chop than another? I ride a North X-Ride at the moment and mainly ride free ride and old school. Any advice before I make my choice on a new one would be appreciated.

few things you might want to consider is pop, flex, rocker
other parameters fixed board with more rocker will handle chop better as tips are more upward

Some quick helpful associations- all my own opinions, please feel free to add your own experiences.

Rocker- Small rocker(flat) boards are usually great upwind because they move very little water and offer the largest surface area exposed to the water for early planing. Large rocker is the exact opposite pushing great deals of water and rides with minimal amounts of exposed area. This usually means that (wakestyle/large rocker boards) are ridden in larger sizes than what the same rider would use as a FR board. Due to the Large rocker they produce great amounts of "pop" though for more loaded tricks where line tension is the key, flat stiff boards produce more force against the lines.

Concave - concave = Forgiveness IMO. flat concave boards are usually very forgiving for learning tricks where OA landings are common. Concave help with boards tracking ability and control acting like extra fins. Larger concave boards (usually single) make great boards through choppy wavy conditions when the fins contact with the water is not always strong but can have annoying effects when trying to land tricks like i experienced over and over again on a 08 Custom.

Flex - too much to discuss. have had Stiff boards and soft boards in teh past but never been able to see a stable trend in their performance. Mostly comes down too where the designer has decided to make the board soft or stiff (look at 2010+ north boards) for a good example.

outline - quite a big topic but to put simply round tips (naish sol) soften out chop making very user friends and comfortable boards while square big tips (naish momentum, thorn, North team series, cab customs) allow more more water displacement to go bigger when pop-ing but often collide with chop creating face splash.

Ok sweet I had the same situation. I had a 2010 xride and found that it was great to learn on I wanted something with less flex through the middle and something a bit livelier under foot. I demoed about 8 boards and bought a 2011 Xenon Laluz. I find it much better in everything but severe chop.

Yeh I reckon the print design is all that matters, not rocker, flex and shape.

Roger21 said...

board with more rocker will handle chop better as tips are more upward

I'd have thought it wouldn't handle chop as well as it would give you more pop, which I'd presume isn't what you'd be after in "handling" chop.

Ahhhh bugger the shape flex pop'corn'

Its all about the COLOUR

Real men wear Black - HTFU

thorn said...

Hi ApatheticEnd
I have been told that the North X Ride 2009 is very flat and therefore hard to pop. Just wondering if other boards made a difference. Thanks for all the responses, it makes joining a forum worthwhile.

The North x-rides are very easy to pop. They are very controllable and allow you to boost big in chop. I would argue that they are better in some sizes than the Jaime pro.