surfboard features

Rocker

• Entry rocker - Less rocker is faster and stiffer while more rocker equals looser and less speed. Basically, an inverse relationship between speed and looseness.
  
• Exit rocker - a steep exit rocker or more kick, allows for a quick transition to the tail from front foot - http://cisurfboards.com/sb_kboard.asp . A straighter tail rocker increases drive.

Thickness

For a heavier guy or a heavy footed guy who bears down on waves, want thicker. I personally prefer a slightly thicker board.

Width

More dictated by the type of wave. For instance, a small wave, get a wide board like a fish. Narrower boards gain speed better in hollow waves than a thick board, at a certain point.

Length

More to do with wave size. Smaller the waves, shorter the board and thicker the rail. The bigger the waves, the longer the board and the

Concave

http://www.rusty.com/index.cfm?page=2&shaping=1

http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/whoknows.cfm?id=1006

Nick Carroll

All bottom designs are attempts to modify or control the water flow unde to the benefit of the rider. The water's hitting the bottom at a variety of angles and under various pressures, and it's constantly changing those angles and pressures -- but generally, it moves from somewhere near the front half of the board, through part or all of the bottom contour, and out somewhere near the back half, even directly off the board's tail.

The basis of all bottom design is the rocker line or bottom curve. This is the curve you'll see from nose to tail of your board when you hold it on its side. The three fundamental options listed below, are options to alter some part of the rocker, or basic curve.

1. Vees - Wherever it's placed, a vee tends to create more rocker along the stringer than along the rail line. This helps to break up the water flow, guiding it out at angles away from the stringer and toward the rails. In the veed area, the board becomes easier to roll from rail to rail and to adjust turns. However, the raised stringer line causes an increase in drag, and the easy water release reduces water pressure and the resulting drive.
2. Concaves - tend to reduce rocker along the stringer line, while maintaining it along the rail line. This contains the water flow under the board, pressuring it along the concave curve under the rail and back toward the tail and increasing lift and drive. The board becomes highly responsive to pressure and accelerates quickly from almost any point on the wave. However, the inflexible water release and fixed rail curve can make rail turns "sticky" and difficult to adjust. A heavy single concave through the tail makes the board alive in the pocket. A heavier concave
   through the fins adds more responsiveness.
1. Single: Chest-to-double overhead+ conditions. This is a single channel in the bottom of your board running from the nose through into the tail, resembling a faint “dug-out” appearance. Here the flow of water is not refracted and is collected from the nose into this channel and runs uninterrupted through the fins. Single concave is designed for fast, large waves where you can expect spending more time in the barrel than hitting the lip.
2. Double: Ankle-to-overhead conditions. Instead of having a channel dug out of the nose area, the bottom of your board stays relatively flat to about three-quarters of the way down then develops a “hump” that splits the water off into your two side fins. This is a great board for smaller waves because the flat front portion of the bottom of your board provides glide and speed-boosting planeing, then the double-concave gets your maneuvers going.
3. Channels- are designed to achieve both concave and vee effects and in the hands of a master shaper are surely one of, if not the, fastest and most purely functional designs in surfboard history. In the hands of a skilled rider, channels produce extraordinary length through rail turns and provide wave "feedback" unlike any other board. But they're difficult to manufacture, unpredictable in choppy surf and perhaps best suited to expert riders and/or flawless surf conditions. According to Rusty - Channels are ideal for Knee to overhead conditions. They are radical concave additions that have always been and still are experimental additions to design. Channels are always found in the back-quarter of the board through the fins and tail. They increase speed as the water flows through the many “gullies” that make up a channel bottom. They also provide for a different feel while engaged in rail-to-rail surfing.
   

There's as many combinations of rocker, vee and concave as there are breakfast cereals in your local Ralph's, and as many different opinions on what's best for which wave and rider.

However, most modern shortboard designers are using a subtle blend of vees and concaves from nose to tail, modifying the water flow to try for the best of all worlds. Personally, WK prefers a very slight vee just under the nose, flowing into a concave which peaks just in front of the forward fins and flattens out into an incredibly slight vee just behind the back fin. Result: a nice straight stringer line, acceleration and rocker curve between the feet, and easy water release right off the tail.

Types of surf? Generally, as the waves grow bigger, the modifiers grow more subtle, with vees playing a bigger part in the action; you don't seem to need acceleration assistance on a 10-foot plus wave so much as comfort and rail-to-rail ease. Vees are simpler and easier to handle than concaves, and suit beginners very nicely, while advancing surfers can use a concave's jet propulsion to good effect.

Don't you go using this in a school assignment now without asking nicely, will you?

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/kelly-slater-talks-about-the-innovative-deep-six-shortboard-that-won-him-the-billabong-pipeline-masters-magic-_21187/

Truth is, this stubby little 5'11" so-called 'Deep Six' model won the Pipe Masters in pumping six to eight-foot Pipeline, and has rightly become the most talked about surfboard of the season.

Channel Islands' Travis Lee was kind enough to lend us the board to shoot it, which is why it's been here for the last day, and explains a little of the magic: "Kelly worked with Channel Islands' CAD software and library of designs to marry a 7'0" K-step and a 6'0" K-board into a completely original 5'11" with the wide point pushed forward. Once our in-house CNC machine milled the blank based on Kelly's specs, he walked the board over to Al's shaping room to have him put his finishing touches on the Deep Six. This 5'11"x 18.5" x 2.5" round pin enabled Kelly to get into the hollow waves earlier and deeper allowing for adjustments that only a shorter board can provide."

Kelly himself has been on the Big Island the last couple days, but Surfline caught up with him last night and asked him some questions about his magic carpet:

SURFLINE: How did the idea for this crazy board come about?
KELLY SLATER: I've had it a couple times where the nose of like a seven-footer has snapped off in bigger surf, like in Haleiwa, and the board has actually gone better. Some of those boards have too much swing weight in the nose; you have all this unnecessary weight out in front of your front foot. So the idea was to take the tail of a seven-foot board that has the same width but more curve.

"The idea was to take the tail of a seven-foot board that has the same width but more curve."

--Kelly Slater

Travis mentioned you shaped it yourself?
Yeah, Al [Merrick] said I should start shaping, and I got on the computer for a couple hours and took my small-wave board and laid it on top of a seven-footer. Then I messed around, flattened the rocker, lengthened the tail and figured out how to fit this nose on it. This was a shot in the dark -- I was guessing as I went along. That machine has allowed our theories (Al+me) to be tested out on real boards with instant feedback, which is great. I actually made four boards based on this design: a 5'3", which I rode in Micronesia last week in waves bigger than the Pipe Masters, and would have ridden in the contest if it didn't break; the 5'11" I rode in the contest, a 6'0" and a 6'6" that I rode at 10 to 12-foot Pipe on the day of the Eddie opening ceremonies, where I would have normally ridden a 7'2".

What else makes these boards unique?
I put more thickness in the board; it's thicker than my normal 5'11" -- more like my 6'5" - and all the curve is in the nose. When I drop in, the rail is engaged in the face and the wave is pushing against the rocker. All that curve in the front helps with late drops and pumping through sections. Plus, fin placement was further up, like a longer board. I was putting the fins on the 5'3" where a 6'0" fins would be. This increases the radius of the turn. Also, the front fins were pretty flexy: you can handle more flex in a fin for big waves 'cause the turns are longer - smaller waves need stiffer fins, 'cause you have less play.

Will any of this translate to regular surfers?
I'd like to think it will translate to regular guys, but I'm not sure. The most important thing is catching waves, but once you're on the wave, you want to be on the shortest board possible - guys are riding the biggest waves in the world on 5'6"s. I hope there's something that will translate. This is our first batch -- I'll be working on it all winter.

http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/photo_bamp_900_v03.cfm?id=22559&ad=1

Darren Handley

http://www.surfingthemag.com/news/surfing-pulse/2009-quiksilver-pro-gold-coast-day-1-stuart-cornuelle-022809/

And AI wasn’t the only thing missing today: a significant portion of Kelly’s board seems to have disappeared – about 5” off the nose and a fair bit of volume, by the look of it. As with everything the Champ does, however, Kelly’s switch to a diminished surfboard is pure, calculated strategy. His widely reported adoption of a dwarf quiver (he calls the boards “Wizard’s Sleeves”) is now being tested outside the Santa Barbara laboratory, on the world’s biggest stage. This is a monumental change of tack, as if Tiger Woods were to make his Masters debut with a chopped-down set of clubs. The confidence to put a major championship on the line with new equipment is literally the biggest endorsement these super-competitors can make. Simon Anderson comes to mind, as his kooky Thruster design didn’t gain acceptance until he took it out in the Bells contest and promptly emptied a clip into the rest of the 1- and 2-fin tour. Victory speaks volumes.

CAD system

http://www.surfline.com/video/featured-clips/how-it-works-the-shaping-machine_22015
CNC is the machine that cuts, while CAD software is what figures out the dimensions.

http://manufacturing.cadalyst.com/manufacturing/On+the+Job+(Manufacturing+Case+Studies)/Surfboard-Shop-Waves-Hello-to-CAD/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/362544


http://aps3000.com/
http://www.shape3d.com/products.htm

http://www.transworldsurf.com/surf/article/0,19929,1554604,00.html

Shaping Machines Are Here To Stay.

Since its very beginnings, shaping surfboards has been a handmade art form, but over the last ten years, many board builders have started relying heavily on shaping machines. The evolution of automating the shaping process is a story of fits and starts, but about twenty years ago making a surfboard became as easy and automated as manufacturing the leg of a table. Purists condemned the industrialized process for tainting the sport's organic vibe. But during the last decade, technological advancements have allowed shapers to not only increase production, but also to make progress without completely losing the personal touch of shaping.

These days the question of machine-shaped boards not having as much "soul" as a hand-made board is nearly a dead issue, as just about every top-named builder uses a machine in some capacity. "Using a machine isn't as pure as hand-shaping a board," says Lost's Matt Biolos. "But it's a lot more detail driven. It helps us see numbers and patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. You couldn't keep up with the technical demands of surfers nowadays doing all your boards by hand."

Many consider Digital Surf Design's (DSD) Surf CAD to be the unofficial industry standard. Created by Brazilian surgeon Luciano Leao, the program uses software akin to the type architects and engineers use to design buildings and airplanes. With DSD, shapers choose from a large bank of original templates and then modify the shapes to fit a rider's specific needs. The virtual board is then burned to CD, loaded into the machine holding the blank, and from there, the surfboard is carved in twenty to 30 minutes.

"Anyone can now go to their local shop and buy a board with the same shape and quality as Andy Irons rides," says Leao, who also stresses the idea of intelligent design over mechanical autonomy. "The program that allows the shaper to design the boards is much more important than the machine that shapes them. It's where the shaper really works-that's his shaping room."
Interestingly, Todd Proctor of Proctor Surfboards says computer shaping has instilled a heightened sense of family between shapers, some of whom are notorious for being territorial: "There's no 1-800 number to call when you need to fix something with DSD, so everyone helps each other."

And rounding out the friendly clan, two other machines-the APS 3000 (an Australian machine by Nev Hyman) and the California-made KKL (most useful in producing huge runs)-are also widely used. "All our partners around the world use the DSD Surf CAD, so it's easy for me to e-mail them my designs," Biolos says. "But the KKL and the APS 3000 seem strong in all markets, too."

Though CAD systems are highly accurate, most shapers won't completely relinquish their hands-on role anytime soon. "I fine tune every board that comes off the machine by hand," says Proctor. "Ultimately, that's what makes the difference between an A and an A-plus board. Making a surfboard is more than just numbers and measurements."