A wakeboard is a board used for wakeboarding.

Wakeboard Rocker

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Rocker is the bend in a wakeboard from tip to tail. There are two types of rocker: continuous and three-stage. A continuous rocker is a smooth curve that does not change from tip to tail, while a three-stage rocker has two distinct bend points, almost like a skateboard deck but not nearly as drastic. When you ride wakeboards with continuous rocker you lose a bit of pop off the wake, but you gain a fast ride because the water flows without disruption across the bottom of the wakeboard right out through the tail. Since wakeboards with a three-stage rocker has two distinct bends in the wakeboard, it pushes more water in front of the wakeboard. This makes your ride slower, but with a three-stage rocker you gain a lot of pop off the wake.

Not only are there types of rocker but you also have to deal with amounts of rocker. Just like tequila, more is not always better. The more rocker you have, the slower, looser and less edgy the wakeboard. With more rocker, you tend to lose the locked-in feeling of your fins, which allows you to break the wakeboard loose whenever you please which gives a rider more of a snowboard feel. For beginners, wakeboards with a lot of rocker will feel loose, but it will teach you how to edge rather than relying on your fins, which pays off in the long run. You are forced to be more gradual with your turns and for some the slowness makes them feel more comfortable. As far as landings go, the more rocker your board has, the softer the impact will feel, but you will notice a stuck-in-the-mud sluggishness when you hit the water and try to keep your direction.

In contrast, less rocker allows the wakeboard to move faster, hook up better and become more aggressive. You can be more aggressive with your turns and really edge hard through the wake instead of going slow and bounding off it. You will work less, last longer on the water and be able to land really far out in the flats because the wakeboard planes better and you don’t have to put so much effort into making the wakeboard move across the back of the boat. Beginners may feel a bit out of control and unstable with less rocker. Overall, your impact on landings becomes harder, but your recovery time after landing is quicker, allowing you to adjust and move right back into acceleration again fairly easily.

The size of the wake also affects the type of rocker a rider should consider. With a small to midsized wake, the pop is produced more by edging, so less rocker is ideal. Since the wakeboarder doesn't get that bounce up from a big steep wake, by using less rocker they won’t get sprayed in the face as they edge through a mellow, more gradual wake. On bigger, steeper wakes, the pop is projected straight up more than across, so the bounce created by a wakeboard that has a lot of rocker is required. The rider has to work a little harder to make the wakeboard go, but the end result is more height.

In summary, if the wake is really big but has a mellow transition you can lean a little more towards less rocker. If you start digging in and getting sprayed in the face by the wake you’ll know you have too little rocker. If you’re the type of rider who loves to turn fast, go big and land out in the flats but you ride a rigger, steeper wake, try to find a wakeboard with medium rocker. The slower, smoother and more wake-to-wake your style leans toward, the more rocker you need.

Wakeboard Length

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Throughout the years different riders have been known to ride wakeboards that may seem too big or too small for them according to the manufacturer’s sizing chart. The reason is that wakeboards a size smaller or a size bigger can help distinguish a certain style of riding. Shawn Watson has been seen in the past riding wakeboards that would seem to be on the smaller side of the spectrum according to his weight and height. Shawn is known for his off-axis 900’s and wake-to-wake 720’s, and smaller wakeboards carry less swing weight so he can spin really fast and land these high-end spins. On the other hand, Parks Bonifay is known for riding larger wakeboards to suit his style better. A larger wakeboard allows Parks to go really big and absorb those huge landings.

Sizing down will make the wakeboard feel lighter, spin faster and seem more aggressive. But your landings do suffer. There is not as much surface area to plane across the water, so the wakeboard will not float you as well. You will have to work a little harder to keep the nose from digging in and you may have to increase your boat speed a bit to help you plane. However, smaller wakeboards are great for people who like to do a lot of handle-pass flips and spins and move around the water fast. It can also be a great learning tool. If you have a selection of wakeboards and are working on a spin, for example, sizing down will help you rotate better and farther. When you get the landing and get comfortable on the smaller wakeboard, start trying to increase your rotation on the wakeboard sized for you. If you struggle to get the whole rotation, move down again. Land the trick then move back up.

Sizing your wakeboards up from your established size lends a slower, smoother style. A bigger wakeboard moves slower in the water, making you look smoother. The bigger surface area makes the wakeboard act a little like a dump truck, but really lets you spin slowly and hold on to those grabs for a long time. If you are into going big, the increased surface area lets the wakeboard land softer, saving your body from the bigger impacts. The trade-off is lugging that huge thing around in the air. But think of it like this: Have you ever seen a baseball player swing four bats before he goes up to the plate? After swinging the four bats for a while, dropping those and only swinging one makes the single bat feel like a feather. The same applies to furthering your rotation. You can use the different wakeboard sizes as a learning tool and size up or down to help you learn.

Wakeboard Width

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The width of a wakeboard directly affects how high it sits in the water. There are three places to check wakeboard widths: Tips and tails – those are generally the same – and in the middle. Narrower tips and tails sit lower and make the wakeboard turn more aggressively. However, to initiate spins you might have to wait longer because the wakeboard doesn’t release as well through the wake. A rider may want to load up fins on the ends of this wakeboard since it sits lower in the water. Wider tips and tails allow you to break your fins loose and slide around for lip tricks and surface tricks, and a better release for spins off the wake.

As we focus on the width of the middle of the wakeboard, the variable that changes is pop. The wider the middle of the wakeboard, the higher it will sit in the water and the harder it will bounce off the wake. You do lose some ability to edge the wakeboard really aggressively and cannot rely on your fins as much. This teaches you to use the rail of the wakeboard to edge through the water instead of relying on your fins.

Your next question might be: How does the size of the wake I ride influence my choice of wakeboard width? I find that if you ride a smaller wake you need a narrower wakeboard so you can load up the line and your tricks more. You sit lower in the water on a narrower wakeboard, so you are essentially creating more wake for yourself. For the big, mellow wakes and aggressive out-in-the-flats riding you should find a wakeboard that is wide through the middle and a little narrower at the tip and tail so you can edge longer and use your fins more. For an all-around loose snowboard-type feel and those huge, steep wakes, find a wakeboard that is wider throughout. As a coach, I would rather see a rider get on a wider wakeboard so that from the beginning the rider learns to use the edge and not rely on the fins. It may seem squirrelly at first, but it will pay off in the long run.

Bottom Design

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There are many different bottom designs in wakeboards – it is a feature wakeboard shapers use to express their own style. On the bottom of the wakeboard you will see concaves, channels or maybe nothing at all. Each performs a different function, fine-tuning how the wakeboard rides through the water according to its width from tip to tail, fin setup, rocker and tip and tail shape.

Concaves create lift and make the wakeboard sit higher in the water. Ever so simply, concaves in different areas of the wakeboard created lift in different areas of the wakeboard. For instance, a double concave in the middle and a single concave in the tip and tail keep the wakeboard riding higher in the water overall. But the double concave in the middle will always sit higher than the single concave.

Channels act like long fins. It’s something for the water to run into and along to help the wakeboard edge harder. If there are channels through the middle of the wakeboard and not at the tip or tail, it will be a hard-edging wakeboard but will still release well through the wake, depending on the fin setup. On a wakeboard with channels running through the tip and tail, the fins will hook better and the wakeboard will not release as well through the wake. Finally, a featureless wakeboard bottom basically lets the tip and tail shape, and the width throughout the rocker and the fins do their job, which can be a good thing – sometimes less is more.

Fins and Placement

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The closer you move the fins towards the center of the wakeboard, the quicker and better the wakeboard releases from the wake. The farther you move them out towards the tip and tail, the longer the wakeboard will stay hooked into the wake and it won’t release as well. Of course, how the fins work depends on what size fins you are riding:

• Surf Dog – hardest edging • A-Tac – medium edging • Ramp – least aggressive

Long based fins Their effect is based on their increased surface area – The more you have the better the fin hooks up. A tall fin with a short base is almost the same as a short fin with a long base because they have a similar amount of surface area. Long-based fins release better, give the wakeboard a loose, snowboardy feel when riding flat through the water, and they hold up better on rails and ramps.

Molded fins These are just big channels in the board that act like fins and hold up on rails and ramps.Molded fins are slippery, but most boards have a removable center fin.

Multi-finned setups These capture the maximum edge hold and aggressiveness into the wake and through the wake.

Canted side fins These are fins that lean out on an angle. These fins are not as active when the wakeboard is riding flat through the water, but the more you lean on edge the more the wakeboard hooks up. The inside fin digs while the outside lifts, creating leverage to help the wakeboard edge hard. Great for 50-50 grinds, nose presses and tail presses.

Cupped side fins They have the same effect as canted fins but add more of a push-pull effect. The cupped fin allows you to use a smaller fin but still get the hold of a bigger fin due to the increased surface area of the cupped side of the fin. These fins are very deceiving – they look small and loose but really aren’t.