wo0ter

Does Rocker really feel THAT different from regular camber boards? What are the main disadvantages to owning a rocker/banana? I keep hearing good things about rocker but not many bad things. In what situations does rocker perform the best? What about the worst?

I'm trying to decide which board to buy, but I have no idea what rocker feels like. I don't think Gnu or Lib Tech are doing any demos around here (NJ) either

Snowboarding101

Yes rocker feels different than camber, especially if its rocker that is raised in between the feet as opposed to outside the feet. Disadvantages - generally unstable, especially at high speed, less edge hold through turns. Advantages - absolutely awesome float in powder, easy to press/butter. Best situation - powder. Worst situation - high speed carving. In the end its all preference. Some people swear by rocker, others (like me) stick to regular camber for stability. I always recommend trying a rocker board before buying one. Even if lib/gnu aren't doing any demos there may be other companies that are. Or if not, maybe a friend has a rocker board.

Wiredsport

Hey WoOter,

Rocker is an overused term that inaccurately groups about twenty different variations on Reverse Camber designs. One common element to all of the "Rocker" boards is that by design, the tip and tail, when the board is flat weighted, are not in firm contact with the snow. Some current designs are using additional cambered sections, etc, to re-achieve weighted wide point contact, but these are straying from "true" Rockered designs.

Of the rocker designs there are designs that are made for pow only, others that are park only and still others that are taking a stab at all mountain.

Sorry to be give a non-answer, but there is truly no way to answer your question as asked. You will need to dive in deeper, define the type of riding that you do, What type of terrain you ride, your ability level, your weight and foot size, and start looking at specific models and sizes. Only then can you really get sound advice about the pros and cons of a design.

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Phenix_Rider

Well, as far as I know there are only about three variations on rocker: original/simple reverse camber, v-rocker which is basically a stepped reverse camber, and then rocker/camber which uses standard camber and reverse in combination.

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MunkySpunk

R.C. kicks royal fucking ass. It's most agile board I've ever been on. Still stable at speed.

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10/11 - 24, Smote on Feb 13

wo0ter

Thanks for your responses, Wiredsport and snowboarding101.

I'm borderline beginner-intermediate. On my most recent day out on the snow, I was able to transition heelside-toeside without much problems on green runs, except on the icy patches. I saw this as a huge improvement, since the time I went before that, I could barely transition without getting nervous.

For now, I'm probably just going to be carving down green runs and I'll move on to blue when I'm more comfortable with the speed. Eventually I'd like to try out some park stuff (maybe boxes, rails, small jumps), but I think it will be a little while until I have enough confidence for that.

I'm currently riding a used Rossignol 145, regular camber. I'm 5'3", 120lbs, size 7.5 (women's) boots. I live in NJ so most likely I'll be riding a lot of groomed trails with lots of icy patches.

I've mainly been looking at the Gnu B-Nice BTX: B-Nice Series » GNU Snowboards
It's a "banana" board though, and I'm not sure if that's really for me

Other ones I've considered are the Never Summer Lotus and Infinity:
{ Lotus } Never Summer Boards
{ Infinity-R } Never Summer Boards
Both of these board have "Rocker & Camber" and I'm curious about how that rides, but also don't know if that's for me

The problem is that the only board that I'm attracted to are so-called "rocker" or "banana." I haven't seen any 2010 girl boards with regular camber that have caught my eye

Anyway, I appreciate any insights you have. Thanks!

arsenic0

As wired said, you cant just flat out say Rocker is bad at high speed carving. I can only assume when you say that you are using a Lib Tech Banana as the board your talking about...which is true in that case because its a soft ass board meant for park riding.

There are plenty of stiff Rocker and Reverse Camber boards which will kill it at speed carving and pow but suck at park, as with any board.

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Snowboarding101

No. There is R.C. (Never Summer, or Libs C2), Burton S-rocker, rocker between the feet, flat between the feet and raised tips, camber between the feet and raised tips, and I think theres a few more.

I'd recommend either of the Never Summers before any gnu. They will both do great, and the rocker camber is 10 times better than just rocker in my opinion.

mike v

I tried out my new GNU BTX Street Series this past weekend at Titus Mt in NY and it handled well carving. This is more for wooter because the magna-traction totally made it earier to stabilize on the groomed icy trails.

surfstar

Some good camber/rocker reading:

The Angry Snowboarder Blog Archive Camber Theories Explained

The Angry Snowboarder Blog Archive Camber Theories In Use