HOW TO CHOOSE A BOARD - And which rocker is best for you.

[89 skier]

Here's a great article out of the Feb. '04 Wakeboarding Magazine that I thought I'd share with everyone since there's always a reoccuring debate on which board is right for me, and which is better 3-stage or continuous rocker.

It's long but worth reading.

GET ON YOUR ROCKER
Finding the right board the easy way
By Kyle Schmidt

This year there are well over 200 wakeboards on the market, and they’re all eager to get wet and ride at a moment’s notice. The toughest part is choosing one.
When you’re browsing for a boat, the first things that pop out are the name and length, maybe even a connection to a pro rider you’re into. Good start so far. Then, all these crazy features start pouring out into one big flood of confusion – molded this, cupped that, different tips and tails, bottom materials, rockers, widths and fin configurations. Where do you start?
Let’s go about it in a different way. Consider the wake you usually ride, then think about your riding style. This will help you figure out the most important feature for your riding: rocker. When matched properly, rocker alone will improve your riding more than any other board characteristic.

IT’S ALL ABOUT ROCKER
Rocker is the most important variable in respect to the wake your ride, determining a board’s speed and pop. Think rocking chair: Rocker is the amount and type of bend pressed into a board from tip to tail. All the other features help the board, but compared to rocker they each play just a subtle role in how a board relates to the wake and your style.
The flatter a board is, the faster it planes across the water. The more bent the board is, the more water it will push, making the board slower. Now don’t jump to the conclusion that faster is better. Everyone may want that Ferrari feeling, but slower boards are preferred so the rider can go up straighter and not get sprayed in the face when a wake is steep. In other cases a flatter boar is better, so the rider can edge through a mellow wake and go way out in to the flats. So keep an open mind till we get to the good stuff.
When you’re looking at board specs, rocker will be displayed in inches, measure by the maximum height of the board’s edge off the ground. These days, anything less than 2.5 inches is considered pretty flat,, while anything 2.5 and above is giving you some serious curve.

CONTINUOUS ROCKER
That rocking chair visual that’s been sitting in your head is called continuous rocker. It’s a smooth, uninterrupted curve from tip to tail. Continuous boards tend to be faster than 3-stage boards with an equal amount of rocker, due to a smoother water flow across the curve, though these boards usually won’t pop as hard.

THREE-STAGE ROCKER
These boards have two distinct bend points and a flat spot in between, rather than a smooth curve. If you split the boat into thirds, right at the line between each section would be where the board bends. You can move these lines closer to the middle or away from the middle to create a bigger or smaller flat spot for the board to land on. Enlarging the flat spot slightly speeds up the ride through the water.
So each rocker type has its pros and cons. But don’t establish a favorite yet – we still haven’t talked about wake types.

WHAT KIND OF WAKE DO YOU HAVE?
The cool thing about wakeboarding is you can ride behind anything that will pull you out of the water, and it will have some sort of wake. This gives us a variety of wake sizes and shapes. Narrow boasts are easy to weight down for big wakes, but those wakes are steep. The wider the hull, the softer they get. So it’s best to find a happy medium.

PWC
Personal watercraft have smaller wakes, but they can be considered the most accessible. We all know there are tons of PWCs out there, and these watercraft are more affordable than most boats and are becoming popular for wakeboarding.

STERN-DRIVE
As the boat grows, the wake usually grows. I/O’s, or inboard/outboard boats, also called stern-drives, tend to be a runabout family boat for cruising across the lake. The narrow deep-V hull allows the boat to cut through the waves but makes the wake steeper.

INBOARD
Most inboard ski boats are designed to have a very flat wake at high speeds, but when you slow them down and weight them you can get a decent wake for wakeboarding. If the hull is flat and narrow in the back, the wake will be on the steeper side. If it has a little V and some width, the wake will be more on the mellow side.

DREAM MACHINE
Ideal wakeboard boards are V-Drive, open-bow and heavy. They are usually 21 feet or longer and have the ultimate wake characteristics. The same rules apply: If the hull is narrow and flat in the back the wake will be steep. If the hull is wider and has some V, it will be a mellow transition.

EFFECTS OF A MELLOW WAKE
As the wake gets mellower, you create the pop more by using your edge. Smaller mellow wakes forces riders into having very fast, edgy style, since there isn’t much energy in a small wake to boot you up real high. Creating the pop is like doing tricks on the cable. You create the pop, the wake doesn’t. Bigger mellow wakes allow a rider to create a lot of speed and edge all the way through the wake, taking moves high and way out into the flats. Mellow wakes are geared toward edgy flips and inverts due to high line tension. The downfall to speed and line tension is that it’s harder to pass the handle for spins.

EFFECTS OF A STEEP WAKE
The riding styles related to these different wakes are usually affected by the shape of the transition. No matter what size the wake is, a steep wake is hard to edge through. You need to create pop more with your legs and not so much with your edge. A steep wake allows the rider to move across the back of the boat slower and go straighter up and down the transitions with a smooth, long-grab, spinny style. It’s not quite as easy to manage tricks taken out into the flats, though, since the transition is pointed straight up and not out.

TWEAKING
You’ll see these additional rocker descriptions on some higher-end boards. These rocker lines are relatively new and are designed to gain more speed, more pop, or both.

Subtle – A toned-down version of a 3-stage or continuous rocker line, to gain speed. For continuous shapes, it usually means the board has less rocker and you can see that in the measurement. For 3-stage boards, it is a more discreet version of the 3-stages. It feels faster because subtle rocker lines have more contact area with the water, for a faster feeling as you carve around and also while riding up the wake.

Blended – Currently used for continuous shapes. It creates a flat spot in the middle of the board. The edges maintain a continuous flow, but the bottom center of the board has the blended flat spot. It’s designed to give you a continuous edge and then a 3-stage pop.

Abrupt – Designed to be more explosive off the wake because of a kinked tip and tail. Used for boat continuous and 3-stage designs.

Progressive – Used for both 3-stage and cont. boards, it means a noticeable amount of bend applied to the tip and tail. It is fair to say that progressive and abrupt are similar in their meaning and application.

EFFECTS OF MORE ROCKER
Boards with a lot of rocker are aimed at the steeper wake and a slower, straight-up oriented style. Wake-to-wake grabs, spins and handle-pass inverts are a lot easier to manage with a board with more rocker. It will force you to use your legs, keep the line tension low and go high, but keep to the transition for some of those first hucks at these tricks.
If you are learning your first tantrum or front roll, which are the “trip-flips” of wakeboarding, having a board with a lot of bend will help you switch edges and trip straight up for the flip.
For off-axis spins it is crucial that you get into the air and pause. You have to go up and over the handle to spin. This high pause will help you get your body in the right position to spin. The big bend in the board will let you go slow enough into the wake, get the bounce you need and land down the transition so you can stop your body from rotating. If grabbing and flipping is your thing, then you will have more time to keep your hand on the board instead of just slapping the rail as you flip. You can still take tricks out into the flats and go big, but more rocker will make you work harder to produce the speed to sling yourself up and across the back of the boat.

EFFECTS OF LESS ROCKER
Flatter boars with a small amount of rocker are ideal from mellow wakes, aggressive riders and an edgy, out-in-the-flats style. Any “load and release” trick will be better executed with less rocker.
If you are learning your first front flips or raleys, then the edginess of a flatter board will help you load up the line, making the water catapult you upward whether you are using the wake or not. To learn your first raleys it is smart to learn how to jump way into the flats before you attempt them. You need speed to get the distance, and a flat board will allow this to happen. You won’t spend all your energy trying to make the board move, enabling you to spend that energy on managing the line tension in the air.
When the nose of your board starts blasting water in your eyes, that’s when you know your board is too flat for that wake size.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Now you should be a little more confident with your thoughts on choosing a new board. Follow the guidelines below. Remember; first establish your wake type – big or small, steep or mellow. Then determine your personal riding style – slow and straight up, or fast and out into the flats. These determine how much rocket you need. Then decide the feel you like – a continuous fast feel or a 3-stage abrupt feel. If you’re a person who does everything, then establish the feel you like – 3-stage or continuous – and grab a board with average rocker to suit all conditions.

[radjosh2]

Great stuff for a newbie like myself. Awesome, i need to get a subscription to that mag.

[Bill Y Bob]

I think this article needs to be a freaking sticky. Lots of good information for everyone.

[Blindside_137]

definatley needs to be stickied, it has more than enough information

[DavidHoff]

Very good post 89 skier. Worth the long read, very useful info.

[89 skier]

Glad I could help guys.
And let me know via PM if there are any typos I need to correct. Sometimes spell checker doesn't work like it's supposed to.

[ballywho]

OK I was searching for how to grab spins w/o letting go of the handle and I found this. I think that this should be stickied in every forum, this is probably the most informative post I have read. Lets bring this thread back!
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Love Help

[Centrider]

89 skier, Nice write up. I did find a few spots where you put boat instead of board. Just letting you know.