After 20ish boards I’m looking to foray into my first triplane hull design. I recently made myself 9’6" longboard with the wide point back (kind of pigg-ish) with the standard 9’8"Y US Blanks rocker. It works really well but I’m sure it could turn a bit better. For my next trick, I’d like to combine the pro’s of the WP back pig-ish outline with the (alleged) benefits of a triplane hull (I also like the technical challenge). I’m going for a 7’10" middy/funboard. On to my question:
There are a few blanks I can choose from. I generally don’t deviate from the rocker of the blank as I figure the legends that designed them have a bit more experience (I’m not opposed to it but I just haven’t felt the need to yet). Looking at midlength blanks theyre all fairly similar with one exception. Most blanks seem to have ~4.5" nose and ~2" tail rocker (give or take a little). The exception is the 8’0"H which has 3-1/8" Tail and 3-1/2" Nose. I’m leaning towards this blank/rocker profile for the mid-pig-triplane I’ll be shaping next but am curious if anyone has any input into this unique rocker. My experience with additional tail rocker is that it provides better turn/pivot off the tail BUT sacrafices speed and can get sucked into the wave (i.e. noserider). I’m concerned it might not paddle as well as I’d like, but then again the lower nose rocker may help? I’ll probably just buy it and see what happens, but I’m curious if anyone else has input as to how these close nose/tail rocker rocker profiles perform. Does the increased tail rocker help with steep drops (i.e. compensate for the lower nose rocker)? For what it’s worth, I’ll be surfing east coast beach breaks.
Thanks to everyone who shares their experience/thoughts!
Fineline’s “Hot Generation” was among the first of the modern wide point back midlengths to become popular, probably going on 12 years ago at this point. If you want pivot and turn in a midlength then (IMO) that’s a good starting point. The rocker numbers are similar to what you’re seeing in the blanks but there are some differences to how Hilbers does them.
- he runs the fin way forward compared to a conventional egg. The finbox gets mounted 8" forward of the tailblock. You don’t have to get all the way on the tail to turn the board. Really, you don’t have to move around on the board at all to surf it, although you can do the half shuffle a couple steps forward to put the board in trim on the face.
- He cuts the midlength from an 8-9Y blank by taking 10" off the tail. This moves the apex of the rocker back closer to the widepoint. So even though the 2" endpoint at the tail is the same, there’s a bit more curve over a shorter length when compared to taking the template out of the middle of that blank.
simple bottom with a belly entry, flatish through the center and vee in the tail; tucked rail in the tail with a distinct edge.
Personally, I don’t think I’d go for an actual triplane unless I was doing a 2+1 and shooting for agressively surfing the board like a thruster. That’s for going fast.
Wow thanks Gdaddy - awesome info! I’m actually thinking I’ll do a 2+1 to surf it a bit more aggressively but still to be determined. There’s actually a video online of the board you mentioned being shaped which is super interesting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I3qiHIzO-U). The shape/design is pretty close to what I’m looking for but I might pull in the tail (pintail) and add those sidebites. The only thing I don’t understand (and I’ve tried in the past but still can’t wrap my head around it) is the idea of a rocker apex. Can’t any curve have an apex at any point? Is a rocker generally a curve that’s composed of just two circles (one large diameter in the back and smaller diameter in the front) that meet at a point which could then be called the apex? If it’s a more complex curve than that (i.e. not two circles combined), I just can’t wrap my head around the apex. Thanks for sharing - you’ve got my brain working.
I only surf boards like this in smaller and slower conditions, where I want to more/less stay with the energy of wave instead of outrunning it. So I don’t need that much nose rocker. I order the blanks with a lower nose rocker.