Peter_Frank wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 3:08 pm
This is the downside with too short boards where your front foot is close to the nose
Fun and light, but some bad downsides also...
If you have a good strong rocker, it will be a lot easier to start, and survive touchdowns - thats the good thing.
But you will also get a horrible stance, where your front foot is higher than the rear, meaning you have to ride with back leg straight and front leg bent - this is REALLY annoying and tiresome, as I've tried this a lot when testing different trim settings and angles and rockerlines on supersmall foilboards.
So you have to decide whether you want a good comfortable ride once up, both legs straight or bent the same, or if you want a board that handles touchdowns better without crashing nose down violently.
One could think that something in between might be the best, but I am not so sure anymore, as then you have downsides from both, horrible starts and touchdowns, and uncomfortable stance
With a tad longer boards, for most this is around 110-120 cm I believe, you can have both, when having aggressive nose scoop, meaning the rocker curve starts just at and goes up and up in front of your front foot position (called nose scoop).
This way it can handle touchdowns, jump landings, waves, and waterstarts perfectly - and at the same time perfect relaxed even stance - you get it all in one so to speak.
Very individual I would think, some might find this uncomfy uneven stance okay, others will live with explosion crashes if they touch down but then have the very best stance so you can ride for hours and hours.
I hope it is clear what I mean, otherwise I could make a simple drawing illustrating.
Has always been a paradox with supersmall boards, and why I mostly avoid riding these.
If you have a super narrow stance, you can simply tilt the board angle a bit up, and you wont have as crooked a stance.
If you hardly never touch down, go for the most comfortable stance instead, board more flat that is.
If you like me are a mere mortal sometimes touching down, often in new transitions, or crashing, a tad longer board only gives you advantages as you can have the best of both above issues
Peter