Camber Vs. Rocker

If you are looking into buying a new deck for winter and you wonder what board to get? maybe you are interested in reverse camber boards but you head start spinning after looking at all those manufacturers calling it different names, etc..

So let's start with the basic and the next week posts, I will go over some major brands. However until you test different models, you will not know for sure what is the best board matching your style. At least I will try to sum up all the info I can get so you are not as confused.

Before going into all the rocker variations, it is important to understand what we used to ride for over 20 years: cambered boards.



camber is a mellow convex rise from the contact points of the tip and tail inward with an apex at the midpoint. If you lay a cambered board on the ground, you can usually put your finger between the center of the board and the ground (7-12mm). Thanks to the rider weight, the camber will flex under the pressure enhancing edge hold, pop providing lively turns and giving a better stability at higher speed.It will be also better in XXL park, it will give the possibility to readjust your body placement if you landed too much on your tail or tip (but longitunal flex has a lot to do with that too). However it will require more effort to do presses, butters and will be less comfortable for jibs. on smaller jumps, the board will not be as forgiving as a rocker board in the landing if you came short in your rotation (or over rotated).

Rocker is essentially the opposite of a camber, so instead of being convexe, it is a light concave arc from contact point (the centre of the board). Each manufacturer has added its own recipe that will work for certain type of terrain, riders, etc...
the advantages are better powder float, rails, butters and forgivingness. It is easier to initiate turns and tricks.
the disadvantages are less control at higher speed. BUT manufacturers have came up with additional tech to improve the pop and control (mini camber, carbon fiber, variable sidecuts,etc..)


In the next post, I will talk about the different reverse cambers, etc...