nose < ----- > tail
This seems a good of time as any to give everyone a rundown on the Pocket Pleaser, I don't have a sketchbook page up on the website for it yet but I'll get one there shortly.
First off, the fabric on this was a total score from an antique store way up in Chico over thanksgiving...I saved enough for one more special project, I'm totally obsessed with the pattern which I'm guessing from the colors and feel of the material is from the early 70's.
And more importantly........
After riding my 8' v.bowls for the past 5-6 months and with winter coming on, it became increasingly clear to me that with wide flat tail of my original shape wasn't going to handle real juice that well and isn't confidence inspiring when it starts pumping, so I went to the brainstorm lab and made a few alterations on the original theme to keep the same feather-weight-freight-train-with-a-powerful-buttery-cutback-feel.
What I did in as simple of terms as I can explain is to give the nose rocker a little more lift and belly (more belly = more down the line pull when its good). From there I left the tail rocker the same but moved the vee back a few inches then added a pretty heavy spiral vee about 1 1/2 ft. ahead of the fin, running through the tail and then going dead flat in the last 3" of the tail. The rocker bend in the tail meeting up with that flat spot in the end creates a really positive last few inches of the board and gives you TONS of speed through the cutbacks...acceleration through the turn = good thing.
So keeping those curves in mind, add a long s-deck to the top with the volume all placed over the wide-point of the board (behind center), this concentrates all of the board's powers into a small area right between your feet. By moving that point forward and back I can alter where the board is going to react most from; the placement on these boards is to keep you on the back end of the board where most of us tend to sit, but to be very friendly when trimming forward on the board (where that frontal belly comes in reeeeeal nicely). I don't foil out my boards for no reason, they are foiled to concentrate the volume in a specific area so as to accentuate the best bits of the shape and give a more positive and connected feel.
The rails are high to low like a hull's foil, the deck just necessitates the flow of that change; where the turn down happens and at what angle. there is a lot of hard edge in the tail, I love hard edge and the Pocket Pleaser's is pretty specific and tucks hard. I'm hoping that this is illustrating exactly how important each individual curve is to the whole of the board, there is no curve that can exist the way I want it without the others - - my shapes are becoming more space-shippy over the past few years as a result of this. The Pocket Pleaser's curves are so sensual its ridiculous, there is a lot going on even in a 7'4" package, this is a performance board and not a longboard substitute, the v.Bowls takes care of that well and easily; the Pleaser is (as mr.John Lyon put it) the Super-Sport version.
