If you are new to snowboarding or have had your head stuck under a rock for the last few years, then you will probably have seen the huge shift in base design by pretty much all the board manufacturers.
Manufacturers playing around with the shape of the base is nothing new, however, in recent years, the trend has been towards a cambered board. This is where, when a board is laid flat on the ground, only the section just before the tip and tail are in contact... pretty standard stuff...
However the last few years have seen a major leap from cambered boards to "rockered" to the point where some manufacturers are completely ditching their traditional cambered boards completely, convinced that rockered or flat boards are the future of the sport!
This modern trend was sparked off by Lib Tech and their skate banana rockered snowboard, which when laid flat only contacted the floor in the middle and raised upwards at the tip and tail. The immediate benefits to this were that it was much easier to initiate turns, and float in powder was helped by the tip already being lifted and this keeping it from sinking into the snow.
Other benefits of a snowboard rocker included being much easier to 'butter' (a term used for doing presses whilst riding along the piste, amongst other things) and easier to ride rails and boxes. Aided by the raised sections at the nose and tail this meant that the edge that was traditionally pointing down with a cambered board was now raised slightly and in effect out of the way of the rail or box on which it could possibly 'catch'.
This meant that more and more riders felt like pros attempting tricks that they hadn't even dreamed of because of the forgiving nature of the snowboard rocker base design, however there is always a downside to everything, and this is no exception.
If riding the park is your thing, and nothing else, then this kind of base design is fine, but in the event of carving some early morning groomers or charging at mach 2 you have to look elsewhere. Rocker boards are very easy to ride as a beginner, and work well in the park, but as soon as you take your riding to the next level, the rocker tends to be very 'loose' and doesn't hold its edge when carving, but washes out of its turns.
Burton's evolution of the rocker boards was to introduce camber back into the design, but in conjunction with the rocket tech...rocker from the middle, camber at the bindings, an a rocker nose and tail section. Called the Flying V Burton created a board that would seemingly work well in most scenarios on the mountain. The rocker providing added float in the powder and playfulness, whilst the camber zones bringing the much needed control and power through turns that a rocker board alone failed to deliver.
A completely different take on this is Bateleon's TBT... which is based on a conventional cambered board, keeping the benefits that camber brings, but shaping the base outside of the bindings so that the edges lift up off the ground, eliminating the catchiness of a traditional cambered board, but helping the board to turn, keep stable at speed and float gracefully in the pow.
Its a brilliant concept that has been finding its way into the mainstream, to the point whereby other manufacturers have to look at new ways of base technology because Bataleon patented their design way before the rocker revolution came to town! To understand just how good they are, you only have to look at the sales figures of some of the leading stockists, who now say that Bataleon boards are by far their biggest sellers!
Its not hard to see why... a board that really does give you the best of both worlds...
There is not enough time here to go into every manufactures individual take on base technology, but one thing is for sure, rockered board tech is here to stay in one form or another!
If you have enjoyed this article or it has helped you then you can leave a comment or feedback by going to my snowboard rocker blog post, thanks.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J_Oakley
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