Platter Love

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Sought out and scored a nice little one day south that was pulsing up............brought along my two Mega Platters, the current one and also my 'last' one, the one that had a bit more tail rocker. I had all manner of buddies trying out both boards all day long, and the fun meter was noticeably pegged. At the end of the day, the consensus was in: Put the tail rocker back IN. The new board, with less tail rocker, was judged much faster, but not as loose. The next one may be some mix of the two. Here's a few photos taken throughout the day...

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More photos-

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Super fun day for me what with everyone trying out the two boards and giving me their honest and savvy opinions on 'em. Photos? Here's the last of it-

[bgreen]

Jeff,

Looks like fun. That's a bundle of kelp.

How much rocker is ideal, do you reckon?

Bob

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Bob- Sorry, but I don't have that dimension right in front of me here? But the designer/shaper has it all stored in his computer, so it'll be easy to reference when I contact him to do the next one. I'd have never thought that tail rocker would have ended up being such an important singular dimension on these boards? I'll go back to the 'original' tail rocker dim for my next Platter..............and then the next board after that, I'll probably go a little past that, to see what happens? I enjoy the experimentation, and I'm lucky in that a couple of my buddies are very savvy on being able to 'read' and decipher accurately what diff design additions/subtractions are really doing once they ride the boards, so I always have them ride the boards and then consult with them on their observations before I make a move with anything new.

[bgreen]

Jeff,

Great photo of the R & D team in action above the photo of the boat. It's good to see discussion of design parameters and paipo boards.

Bob

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Bob- It was funny, in what has turned out to be the 'usual' for us, we had a lot of very different boards and 'approaches' on the boat for the day. Onboard and FULLY discussed and analyzed: a custom 9-6 Bob Pearson PU SUP, a 9-0 perimeter stringer'ed EPS/epoxy Jed Noll longboard, a Fourth Gear Flyer surf mat, a 8-0 EPS/epoxy, bamboo deck laminated wide tailed quad L41 (*by Kirk McGinty out of Santa Cruz), and my two L41 EPS/epoxy 6-3 x 29 Mega Platters. Plenty of grist to keep the design conversational mill GRINDING! If I've learned anything in over 40 years of surfing, it's that the ocean welcomes MANY approaches and involvements, and it's this diversity that continues to keep things interesting.