In talking about Banana, C2 and Magna Traction in the previous article, hopefully you got some insight into how and why those boards are designed the way they are.  I wanted to talk about Never Summer’s Rocker & Camber technology and Vario Power Grip sidecut technology.  Never Summer recently was awarded a patent on their Rocker & Camber technology. This is an awesome accomplishment for such a small company!  While Never Summer wasn’t the first to look at rocker technology, they were the first ones to really incorporate the technology into their whole board line, taking a gamble in the process.  Let’s take a look at the Never Summer Rocker & Camber (R.C. Technology.)

So Rocker & Camber or R.C. as I’ll be referring to it from here on out, takes the best of both worlds into account when designing a snowboard.  While Lib has Banana, you’ll notice that Never Summer opted to skip a straight rocker design, instead incorporating both a rocker, and camber design into their boards.  This is by far my favorite rocker design concept, as a big mountain rider.  Let’s take a look at it.   Never Summers design, incorporates a rocker design between the insert areas, with a camber area extending out from the ends of the insert area.

Whether you like it or not, camber does have a function, and is known for stability, pop, and hard carving. It’s only natural that Never Summer would incorporate both the rocker from insert pack to insert pack, and camber out from the insert packs.  This not only makes the board a bit more playful, but still allows the board to really power in and out of turns, while still being snappy, poppy, and fun to ride.  The camber end points, allow those contact points to engage when you need, them, but still have the board track true, when you’re on flats.

Never Summer spent a lot of time thinking about the total geometry of R.C. Tech.  You can’t just incorporate a R.C. design without incorporating a new sidecut technology.  The new sidecut tech should aid with some of the softness, and such that rocker itself introduces to the board.  Never Summer has dubbed their design Vario Power Grip.  If you look at any Never Summer board, the sidecut/edge looks like a standard board at first glance, but if you really take a moment, and look at the board, you’ll notice the sidecut incorporates three distinctly different sidecut radii.  Out near the tip/tail you’lll see a deep radius blending into a very shallow radius near the binding inserts, which blends into a straight section in between your feet.  This straight section is pretty important, and cool at the same time.  When you initiate and engage a turn, the straight section will flex to form another contact point within the snow, providing more control and edge hold, but when tracking straight, or flat, the straight section reduces drag and  the “grabby” factor some of you may experienced in the past when flat riding. So Vario incorporates a total of five points of contact when completely engaged. This gives you, the rider, more response, and control, not found on standard rocker designs.

Of all the rocker technologies I’ve ridden, the R.C. Tech by Never Summer is currently my favorite.  It’s very stable at speed, yet playful when you want it to be.  The boards still have great pop, and track true on just about any terrain.  Never Summer really gets that a good rocker design, should also incorporate a solid sidecut design/technology to keep the rocker technology in check.  It’s not just about throwing rocker onto a board, and calling it done.