I was wanting to know if there was any difference between rocker, particularly entry rocker, between the futura and jacknife models? For the waves I surf the futura has the perfect entry rocker being flat but just enough lift for when things get steeper. I am looking at replacing my 6'2 futura and 6'4 hellfire with a 6'4 jacknife but only if it doesnt have more nose rocker. I really enjoy the futura and how the swallow tail allows it to release so well in the top of the wave around the lip and pocket and how it handles bigger waves better than the 6'2 dom. I have put on a bit of weight latey and find the futura getting too difficult to paddle into waves, especially compared to the dom. I was going to get a 6'4 futura but after all the positve feedback on this site decided on the 6'4 hellfire. The hellfire cuts back much better than the dom and is more responsive but it is significantly harder to catch waves on and not as fast. The hellfire is a little better at catching waves than the 6'2 futura, but not as much as I would like and is nowhere near as good off the top, in the pocket, or as solid in overhead waves due in my opinion to too much volume in the tail. However the hellfire is very responsive especially off the bottom but foot placement is critical whereas the futura is more forgiving in this regard.

When comparing the nose rockers of the three mentioned boards I was surprised that the futura is very similar to the dom with only an extra 1/8th of an inch whereas the hellfire has comparatively more at 1/2 an inch. Compared to the futura the hellfire is slightly narrower in the nose but this is countered by being fuller in the rails. I am hoping that the 6'4 jacknife will have the same rocker as the futura??? and that this will make it paddle significantly better and catch waves easier than the 6'4 hellfire even though it has slightly less volume? For me wave count and catchability is very important.

I also hope that the extra 3 litres of volume between the 6'2 futura and 6'4 jacknife wont inhibit the performance or reponsiveness too much. The 6'2 futura certainly is a great board. I just wish I could find a board that catches waves as easily as the dom and then performs as well as futura!!!


Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or answers would be appreciated thank you.