How is taper measured?

[Mr_Orange]

Been looking at a few boards with taper and it seems like for most boards its Taper = Nose width - tail width. Like the burton fish with an advertised taper of 30mm. The nose width is 315 and tail is 285 (for the 156 version). https://www.burton.com/us/en/phish-x...17-107101.html

Then i saw this board. In the description it says there's 40mm of taper, but the nose width is 313 and the tail width is 288: https://us-store.genuineguidegear.co...bon-splitboard

Shouldn't this board only have 25mm of taper?

Another case of this might be with Gentemstick, although im not sure. On their board specs there's something called 'Tepersd' which im guessing is supposed to be the taper. This board (http://www.gentemstick.com/productsDetail/id_161/) has a Tepersd of 21mm but the nose is 344mm and tail is 302mm.

However another gentemstick board, the giant mantaray (http://www.gentemstick.com/productsDetail/id_146/) has a stated Tepersd of 22mm with a 321mm nose and 299mm tail. So this one fits the nose minus tail idea of taper.
So what is taper supposed to be?

[PlayItLeo]

Usually measured as how far back from the tip the widest part if the ski/board is. Same for the tail.

[Mr_Orange]

I think what you're describing is the amount of rocker a board has no?

[adrenalated]

I think what you're describing is the amount of rocker a board has no?

No, rocker is where the camber ends and the tip or tail starts to rise. Which may or may not be at the same point as where the sidecut ends.

So, there are two types of "taper." Just to fucking confuse everyone.

1) overall taper. This what you describe above, widest tip dimension - widest tail dimension. This tells you something about how the ski/board will ride in soft snow ie will the tip tend to float more than the tail, or not. "Pintail" is used to describe a ski that has a dramatic (about 15mm or more) of overall taper. I have no idea if knuckledraggers use that term.

2) sidecut taper. This is a measure of how far from the end of the ski/board the positive sidecut begins. In other words, how far from the tip or tail is the widest point.* A traditionally shaped ski or board has a relatively short dimension here; elongating this dimension can make the ski have some of the benefits of a reverse sidecut ski (less hooky in variable 3D snow) at the expense of a shorter effective edge length (which can affect edgehold and stability). I have no idea if it has the same effect on a slowboard, I'm guessing it's similar.

Most likely most of the boards you're looking at are referring to overall taper, but the others they're talking about sidecut taper.


*on an RES ski (ON3P) the widest point of the ski and the point where positive sidecut begins are not the same point, but this is a unique design.

[PlayItLeo]

^^^^ word. He said it much more thoroughly (and better) than I did.

[Mr_Orange]

I think that might explain that specific G3 snowboard "A powder slaying beast with powder specific rocker profile and 40 mm of taper in the tail for superior flotation".

I don't think the 'sidecut' type of taper is usually presented for snowboards because most of those types of directional freeride/powder boards sem to have a significantly bigger nose taper than tail taper and you never see two different numbers listed.

I see the difference between rocker and sidecut taper. Something with a hybrid camber/rocker like a rossignol (http://static.evo.com/assetimages/fe...l-mountain.jpg) would have a much longer rocker than sidecut taper whereas on a traditional camber board, those two thiings are much closer in length. Furberg might be the only snowboards with a significant amount of sidecut taper.