CUT OUTS
This is one of the most complex dynamics of the board. Cobra are very good on the tolerances for the cut-outs so you can really play on the fine tuning here. On the cut-outs one millimetre can make a big difference, from a board that is draggy to a board that is super free! There are so many variables. When I travel I cannot modify a board on the beach when we are testing, so I have many plugs which I can add on to the boards with wax and screws so we can test with different modifications. It is kind of like Lego! I can change and make many modifications when we are testing. We try all the combinations, make our reports and then I can make changes based on the feedback we gather. This helps the development go super-fast.
ROCKER
Tail and nose rocker both work with the flat area of the board. If you have a long flat area then you will get planing earlier but you will lose top speed. So the rocker works with the outline, if you don’t have the outline matching with the rocker line then the board will not work. Every aspect of the board has to combine together, the concave, vee, rocker, flat area and the cutaways! For example, let’s take the extreme, a Phantom 377 is very long and narrow and planes very early, this is due to the length. The first slalom boards were quite long and narrow and still planing correctly but development has moved the designs on and nowadays slalom boards are quite short and very wide. You still need though a minimum area in front of your mast base to get the lift to get planing. On top of that you have the rocker, if like in the past you use a higher rocker on the wide nose then you will plane quicker but will go nowhere as your nose will create too much lift and drag, so control, acceleration and top end speed will be an issue. So it’s very complicated to find the right outline matching perfectly with the rocker line. My way to work is to have the same rocker line on all my iSonic range and adjust the outline to find the perfect combination and of course this takes way more time than cutting the board and adjusting the rocker line or adding tail kick. But is more efficient when you take the time to match perfectly the outline to the rocker line in terms of performance and control, which is very important for general customers and me. Producing very fast boards but difficult to control is not our aim.
Of course on top of that you have all the cut away configurations to increase planing, acceleration and top speed and trim the board higher to really ride over the chop. So putting that altogether gives an ‘alchemy’ for the best board possible. We test in many different places and use different riders from PWA level to customers to make everyone happy, not an easy one but we try, it is our main goal. We want the top riders to concentrate on the races not on the board.
When you make modifications then you have to go step by step as if you make multi changes in one board then you will not know which aspect of the change made the difference. It is quite a scientific process. Everything is step by step to make sure the changes you are making are positive. Then we go to the next step! I have on my computer all my notes for every single test since 2008! I can go right back if I want and find out what differences any changes made. This is very important. Many times I refer to my notes and check on details from past modifications! It is a never ending process. And every year I have to try and improve the designs, when I finished the 2018 designs on the 30th of November last year, I was already searching for what I will do for 2019. I know that after Martinique I will have found three concepts to work on! I will start on these as soon as I return to Thailand. I will bring prototypes to Martinique with any new ideas I have, this time back at home is a very key time of year for me.
