I just love smooth flat rockerlines don´t you? Here are 4 points why like it.
1) Fast and long gliding
The SUP just glides better over the water. On flat water you hear the water just brushing against the bottom, almost as if you are eating away water with every stroke of you paddle. Okay I am talking jibberish maybe, but I also Wind-and Kitesurf and I am used to hearing the water agaist the board. For our Magic Glide we spend hours drawing Computer Added Design Rockerlines. We tested dozens of boards and made various prototypes, to come up with our perfect line which we put in our Magic Glides. There is actually quite some performance difference and especcially paddling in gnarly conditions using lots of energy, it is nice to know you are on the fastest board possible.
2) Cathing waves
It all comes from having having a nice fluent line that already starts mid-section of the board and not going up more then 10 cm. The above prototype managed to do 8 cm which started about mid-section. We also gave it just enough tail-rocker, for it to have the tail free out of the water.
This prototype-board was very special when it came to cathing waves. Normally very small waves, like on lakes, lack power to pick up the board.
The prototype was made after some tests with other prototypes. We had a blue& white version which just kicked ass on speed and on this prototype I was paddling lake style when all of a sudden I felt for some fun and powered up just before a 30 cm small ´´wave.. ´´ You can also call it a baby-chop in the water as it was so small and had almost no power. The wave took me suprise and rode me all the way to land.. For me a big wow factor.
Let´s look how that happened.
Here is an absolutely minium hardly watcha can call-a-wave. I am giving it a hard paddlestroke
Seconds later the wave is almost vanished. Switched hands and gave it one more paddlestroke on the other side.
Now my paddle is already out of the water..sort of thinking it´s not gonna happen..
But 1 second later .. off she goes..
Amazing. That ´´wave´´ is merely higher then the 12 cm thick inflatable SUP. Not a lot of power, but thanks to a flat rockerline, the boards gets caught and is taken away by the wave. The light-weight of the board also contributes, but still pretty astonishing such a small wave with minium power can take a relative big (10´8) SUP.
That ´´wave´´ rode me all the way to land which was a 30 meter ride.
3) Flat rocker doesn´t get caught by side-winds
A lot of cheap boards have the nose poiting up at the tip. This is easyliy catched by side-wind. The problem is then that the nose gets blow away downwind and it gets hard to paddle in a straight line. Logically a flat rocker = a flat board that doesn´t get caught by side-wind.
4) The just look awsome and like regular Hardboards
Okay no scien-terrific argument but a personal to close-up my 4 reasons. For me a board is more then a watersports-tool. It´s my buddy on the water during sports, performance, discoveries of coastline, floating-device to spend time on with friends, tools for freestyle-fun like nose 180-ties. After a while I feel like I know a board and I can jump on it and go without a learning curve.
So besides functioanlity it also needs to look good.
What do you like in a board? Do you think it makes any sense thinking about rockerlines?
Let me know now.
Paddle hard *
Mark