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.
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.
There's a large variety of boards on the market nowdays.
I think it's mostly up to the rider, a good rider will be able to use just about any board and make it work. But then certain boards excell in different areas.
I like my wakestyle, there's no waves where I ride, and I try to get on the flatest water possible, and I recently upgraded my board to suit. This helps?
Sounds like you are already on the right type of board for your conditions/style. Why the change?
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.
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.
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.
Biggest thing i look for in a board is the foot pads and straps, doesnt matter what board your on if your not comfortable you will struggle. And then what your into e.g freeride, freestyle or wakestyle
its pretty simple, wide ends, no flex, flat rocker = hard ride, big pop
lots of rocker, very flexy, narrow ends, = soft ride and very carvey
now most people spend many seasons looking for that perfect board some where in between.
The answer is: have as many boards as you can carry
sure, boards with rocker will have more pop but i don't see where this is problem for handling chop. from my own riding have noticed that less rocker results in tips getting more caught in small choppy waves. more rocker minimizes that and this actually somewhat compensates the general loss of upwind that comes with more rocker
Ahhhh bugger the shape flex pop'corn'
Its all about the COLOUR 
Real men wear Black - HTFU 
Board development has progressed over the past 2 years
Some end up with an easier more forgiving ride.
Others are built for pure performance
Best thing is to try as many as you can,
Here is some info Duncan from Shinnworldoz sent over.
more on their website
