# Disadvantage to Rockers (wha?!)



## Guest (Dec 30, 2008)

So.. all the hype about bananas and rockers, and the whole reversed camber lot. I was explaining reverse camber to my friend, and he raised a ear shocking question, what are the disadvantages to a rocker. Well, seems like this year, all the rage has been to bananas and rockers. It raising the nose and tail contact points, making it less likely to catch and edge (great for park riders). The natural shape makes it popping ollies easier than ever without preloading, nose & tail presses, buttering is like second nature. Raising the nose and tail contact points, riding in pow makes the board float up higher (maybe just the nose, but whatever that means..).

Now that being said, who has something to say about the disadvantages of reversed cambers? (blasphemy!)

I found this website from some post Shred Betties | Gear Reviews & Information | Reverse Camber Explained , saying if you go front or back side heavy, it can cause you to over turn or wipe out (especially in jumps?), also edge to edge can be a bit squirrelly? 

Anyone else got any other disadvantages?


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## Mooz (Aug 14, 2007)

Ive been riding mine here on the ice coast so far just fine. I do have to hold a tighter edge to keep it from getting squirrelly but that's when I'm holding a turn on ice. As far as edge to edge transfer, I've had no issues. I also have a real good up-weighting and down-weighting rythem when I ride so that may be masking the squirrell factor.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Of course there are disadvantages with rocker boards, just like there are disadvantages with cambered boards. Rocker boards can be good, but are just not as good as cambered boards for high speed riding. On steep, icy, hard packed terrain, a cambered board is just plain easier to control and much better at it. I don't care if the rocker board has MTX, Neversummer recurve, whatever. Really though, rocker is a lot of fun and works for most everything. If you are riding hard boots, or fall and you die terrain, then rocker is probably not for you. Otherwise, you'll have to look at what you like to ride and how rocker relates to that. For myself I can go either way.


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2008)

Snowolf said:


> I have yet to ride one so can`t say.
> 
> From the viewpoint of an instructor, one thing I have some concerns about is if learning to ride on one will allow the new rider to "get away" with bad habits that will really mess with them later when they try to ride a conventional cambered board. The forgiveness of these things allows a rider to be more sloppy with edge control and I think this could cause trouble later on.
> 
> I don`t know if there is any merit to this concern, but I throw it out there for consideration.


I agree... You gotta pay dues, and this whole scene just by-passes that it seems... Plus, look at the whole marketing behind this technology, they bash skiing, and everything to do with it. There are more skiers than snowboarders, it's just a fact. They generally have more money, so while some kid who wants a reverse camber board because it's "cool" is begging his parents or selling weed to his buddies to buy one, skiers are spending millions yearly keeping resorts in operation. That's the reality of it. Skiing started it all, not skateboarding as one would believe. The first recorded history of surfing was almost 5000 years ago. Polynesians use to wander out in low tide to gather up whatever they could, and ride the waves back to the beach on a board. In Scandinavia, just as long ago, man had discovered that they could glide on snow with wooden planks under their feet... made hunting easier. Point i'm trying to make is, skiing has more in common with surfing than snowboarding does, since both sports were born out of necessity. I'm gonna demo a reverse camber board first chance I get, but I guarantee that I'll light up anyone who's learned to ride on one of these...


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## squishydonut (Nov 13, 2007)

hotsauceaddict said:


> but I guarantee that I'll light up anyone who's learned to ride on one of these...


for buying into the hype?


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## Jenzo (Oct 14, 2008)

TBH, I can't say I noticed some massive difference riding the NS SL-R. Don't get me wrong, the board is amazingly well made, high quality board. I just think the rocker thing is really not that big of a deal. The biggest thing I notice is I catch an edge easier, not the other way around, it threw me funny the first few times I rode it, nothing major though. That could have been the summer leg lazy syndrome as well.

Now I rock it fine, but I really haven't tried it on ice so I can't say if the Vario Power Grip does anything.


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## Grizz (Nov 10, 2008)

hotsauceaddict said:


> Plus, look at the whole marketing behind this technology, they bash skiing, and everything to do with it.


Which is ironic because skiing has been quicker to adopt the concept with more rockered models overall.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2009)

My question is how do these boards perform in pow?


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2009)

fl3x said:


> My question is how do these boards perform in pow?


Mine does just fine in pow


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2009)

good to hear about the pow

i talked to this guy whos been riding his www rocker for about 2 weeks now and he says that it would fail at massive jumps and double blacks 
anyone agree or disagree?

he also said that he would have rather bought the www without the rocker



hmmmmm


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

WWW Rocker barely has any rocker in it.

Big jumps and double blacks suck for him because of one (or all) of these problems:

a) he sucks
b) the WWW is a soft park/jib deck


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## arsenic0 (Nov 11, 2008)

He picked one of the softer Rocker boards if he is planning on doing big jumps and double blacks...


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## Jenzo (Oct 14, 2008)

arsenic0 said:


> He picked one of the softer Rocker boards if he is planning on doing big jumps and double blacks...


lol, I can ride double blacks on a weak chattering park board, but my SL-R is certainly not in that category


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## jmacphee9 (Nov 11, 2008)

legallyillegal said:


> WWW Rocker barely has any rocker in it.
> 
> Big jumps and double blacks suck for him because of one (or all) of these problems:
> 
> ...


exactly what he said. the www is an almost flat rocker, and its really soft. its a park board, period.

and someone asked how rockers perform in powder, that is rockers strongest point. any rocker should be capable in powder even if its a soft twin because the nose is already angling up.


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## mesomike (Mar 12, 2008)

I have been riding my never summer sl-r for a while now. I decided to switch back to my regular camber (nitro MFM) board to see the difference. It took some getting used to again, but I could ride it just fine. I noticed that my sl-r griped better on the ice. I did have to be more concious about edges on the nitro, but nothing too bad. The nitro was more agile edge to edge. I would say riding the sl-r is easier, but nothing so much that it is cheating. Most of the ease of riding it I think comes from the soft flex in the middle, my nitro seems real stiff torsinally.


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2009)

1 disadvantage.... scraping the bitch after waxing
my board has rockers at tip , tail and between the bindings...
ain't fun scraping


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## Mooz (Aug 14, 2007)

falconis said:


> 1 disadvantage.... scraping the bitch after waxing
> my board has rockers at tip , tail and between the bindings...
> ain't fun scraping


QFFT! x10


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2009)

Mooz said:


> QFFT! x10


= say what?


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2009)

falconis said:


> = say what?


Quoted for fucking truth ? (He agrees with you)


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## Incogneato (Nov 14, 2007)

ok a couple things, there are various incarnations of rocker so you can't make any blanket statements about how they all ride. that being said the consensus is that sometimes you have to be more precise when you land because if you land with your weight a bit back they will slip out easier, due to their more loose nature, however if you have any skills as a rider you should be able to compensate for that as you get use to the board, people have a bad habit of thinking the board does most of the work when its the exact opposite, you control what the board does within its limitations. i have been riding a hero for about 9 months now and i won't go back to regular camber. i have spent some time on a libtech banana and a k2 turbo dream but not much, and they both rode fine in my opinion.


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

falconis said:


> 1 disadvantage.... scraping the bitch after waxing
> my board has rockers at tip , tail and between the bindings...
> ain't fun scraping


That's about the only disadvantage imo. It really isn't even that bad on my Lib w/BTX. It's a pain in the ass on my Bataleon w/TBT.


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## squishydonut (Nov 13, 2007)

Triple8Sol said:


> That's about the only disadvantage imo. It really isn't even that bad on my Lib w/BTX. It's a pain in the ass on my Bataleon w/TBT.


TBT is a female-puppy in that regard, i agree 100%. any tricks or tips?


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## mesomike (Mar 12, 2008)

Scraping the never summer sl-r and infinity-r sucks too.


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## EvoKnvl (Mar 5, 2008)

squishydonut said:


> TBT is a female-puppy in that regard, i agree 100%. any tricks or tips?


I did mine a couple weeks ago... I don't think it's harder so much as you just have to scrap more to make sure you get the curve. At the tips and tails, I used the short side of the scraper to help get the wax off there...


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

squishydonut said:


> TBT is a female-puppy in that regard, i agree 100%. any tricks or tips?


Not that I know of, but I'm def open to any ideas! For now it's just a little more time and alot more patience.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

Just buy yourself a Wintersteiger.


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## SnoeMan (Oct 8, 2008)

I got one but maybe its just me
harder to skate at high speed


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

SnoeMan said:


> I got one but maybe its just me
> harder to skate at high speed


I haven't noticed that at all.

I just scraped both my boards tonight. First time I've done both at once, and it was not fun. :laugh: I need some clamps, for real.


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2009)

fl3x said:


> My question is how do these boards perform in pow?


Really ")#$& well!

I'm actually finding my SL-R to be less forgiving than any other board I've ridden. In particular, if I don't lean downhill properly the thing washes out instantly, especially on icy groomers. My old Dominant is much more forgiving.

+1 on it being a beeyotch to scrape! After 3 days of riding, there's still a ton of wax caked on the tip and tail :laugh:.


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