Nose Modification "rocker" Thread.... making a sj a better surf ski.....

[yamaslut]

I'm thinking about modifying the nose of my ski by giving the nose "rocker" and shortening the length a few inches in order to make quicker turns on the face of wave, preventing "pearling" when dropping in and just giving me more confidence to attack a wave harder in shallow water...

My thinking is: a basic SJ shape is the equivalent of a long board shape w/ little or no rocker and harder to turn or slash a wave. I would like to give it more of a short board feeling by adding rocker to the nose and effectively shortening the hull by 6-8".

A friend of mine on the site Carter did this to his ski and it seems to work well. Since I don't and won't have money for even a BOB hull I need to do something to make this thing handle better as a surf ski. I have been really happy about the progression in hulls and I see how "rocker" really is a great advancement in freestyle/freeride jet skiing..

What do you surf guys think about it?

 

[Tyler Zane]

i would subscribe to the build and read it everyday. i think its a great idea, and its worth a shot. i just wouldn't do it to my main sj, just in case it doesn't work as planned. i have been thinking about taking a few inches of the back of my sj. but am very curious now to how a sj would preform with more rocker

 

[yamaslut]

not sure I understand removing inches off the rear bottom deck, but people do it. Seems to me it would just make your ski ride lower in the water and I don't see any advantage to that.

 

[Big Kahuna]

not sure I understand removing inches off the rear bottom deck, but people do it. Seems to me it would just make your ski ride lower in the water and I don't see any advantage to that.

look at it as the last 2-3"'s as a trailing edge. By removing them, when you go into a flat water back flip, your footprint of your ski is leaving the water sooner with the pump still having its effect upon the propulsion of the ski, causing the nose to rise that much faster with the loss of stiction to the water.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Hit up Berky on this. I believe he has worked with changing the rocker on the OEM hulls.

 

[Crab]

your on the right track Nick.

 

[Waternut]

not sure I understand removing inches off the rear bottom deck, but people do it. Seems to me it would just make your ski ride lower in the water and I don't see any advantage to that.

Besides the obvious backflip advantages whcih I will admit that I haven't taken advantage of yet, chopping the back has plenty of other uses. First, it makes the back end easier to work/push down. This is very useful when jumping or setting up to a wake but not that necessary in the surf. The other big advantage is when the back is cut, the ski will turn faster at low speeds because the nose rides higher allowing the ski to almost pivot on the back end instead of physically turning. Think of it kind of like a zero turn mower. Tubbies might make the ski carve better but chopping the back makes it pivot.

 

[SJBrit]

Nick, I shortened the rear of my hull by about 2" and I am simply amazed at the difference it has made to handling - the boat rides better in every way, including keeping the nose much higher out of the water. That's not to say that it feels like it's riding nose high now - it doesn't, but it does keep me from accidentally subbing in my flatwater world. With the shorter hull and a D-cut stock plate, it also turns better and has much better low speed handling. You might consider trying this easy mod first before you bite off a much harder rocker-modification project.

 

[SJBrit]

Besides the obvious backflip advantages whcih I will admit that I haven't taken advantage of yet, chopping the back has plenty of other uses. First, it makes the back end easier to work/push down. This is very useful when jumping or setting up to a wake but not that necessary in the surf. The other big advantage is when the back is cut, the ski will turn faster at low speeds because the nose rides higher allowing the ski to almost pivot on the back end instead of physically turning. Think of it kind of like a zero turn mower. Tubbies might make the ski carve better but chopping the back makes it pivot.

Funny - we must have been typing at the same time. Those are exactly my experiences - I'm loving my shorter hull.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Nick, I shortened the rear of my hull by about 2" and I am simply amazed at the difference it has made to handling - the boat rides better in every way, including keeping the nose much higher out of the water. That's not to say that it feels like it's riding nose high now - it doesn't, but it does keep me from accidentally subbing in my flatwater world. With the shorter hull and a D-cut stock plate, it also turns better and has much better low speed handling. You might consider trying this easy mod first before you bite off a much harder rocker-modification project.

How about stability on longer rides or chasing a boat (Like at Lanier) where you have running over 50% throttle trying to catch back up.

 

[SJBrit]

How about stability on longer rides or chasing a boat (Like at Lanier) where you have running over 50% throttle trying to catch back up.

I really don't notice much of a difference there. If anything, it's probably slightly better since the ski turns much better now, but I think that's too marginal to notice. I haven't found a single negative about this mod, except for the fact that I can barley pull a sub anymore!! It's just really hard to get the nose down and under, but that was kind of the point of doing it so I'm not at all disappointed there.

 

[yamaslut]

look at it as the last 2-3"'s as a trailing edge. By removing them, when you go into a flat water back flip, your footprint of your ski is leaving the water sooner with the pump still having its effect upon the propulsion of the ski, causing the nose to rise that much faster with the loss of stiction to the water.

that exactly the reason why as a surf guy that doesn't make any sense... thanks for the info

 

[OCD Solutions]

Look up the recent thread for the superfreak top deck conversion. They add rocker to a sn bottom and have the nose match up to the superfreak top deck.

 

[yamaslut]

thanks for the info on the rear but I am not going that direction so lets keep this talking about the nose

 

[yamaslut]

btw - I have spoke to Tem about this several times... not buying a conversion, I want to mod what I have.

 

[yamaslut]

Besides the obvious backflip advantages whcih I will admit that I haven't taken advantage of yet, chopping the back has plenty of other uses. First, it makes the back end easier to work/push down. This is very useful when jumping or setting up to a wake but not that necessary in the surf. The other big advantage is when the back is cut, the ski will turn faster at low speeds because the nose rides higher allowing the ski to almost pivot on the back end instead of physically turning. Think of it kind of like a zero turn mower. Tubbies might make the ski carve better but chopping the back makes it pivot.

thanks for the info... You make me want to chop the rear now... ha ha

 

[Tyler Zane]

anyone running tubbies with a chopped rear deck?

 

[the WaTeRhAwK]

look at it as the last 2-3"'s as a trailing edge. By removing them, when you go into a flat water back flip, your footprint of your ski is leaving the water sooner with the pump still having its effect upon the propulsion of the ski, causing the nose to rise that much faster with the loss of stiction to the water.

that exactly the reason why as a surf guy that doesn't make any sense... thanks for the info

because, wouldn't the same physics apply at the lip of the wave as you're leaving it for a flip? :dunno: seems like it would.

 

[yamaslut]

because, wouldn't the same physics apply at the lip of the wave as you're leaving it for a flip? :dunno: seems like it would.

I don't have issues w/ rotating flips... I usually over rotate if anything

 

[yamaslut]

anyone running tubbies with a chopped rear deck?

there has to be lots of peeps...