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THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A BOARD
The difference between surfboard shapes.
There is no perfect board shape, the nose shape, tail shape, and outline are a critical factor in determining how your board performs. There are dozens of noses, tails, length, width combinations that can be used depending on your personal preference.
Longboards
These boards are ideal for beginners because they offer better stability, are easy to paddle, and can be used for small waves.
Aside from giving you a larger surface area upfront, a round nose makes it easier to paddle into the waves and glide. It also helps you get into smaller, slower waves more easily.
Mini Mal
A slightly more progressive way to ride the longboard waves. A mini mal surfboard is essentially a combination of a longboard and a shortboard, a type of fun shape or hybrid range.
The nose of a mini mal surfboard is nice and chunky, the width and volume allowing for easy paddling and wave catching ability. This keeps you nice and stable down the line and mini mal surfboards feature thinned-out tails and a tri-fin set up for shortboard-like turns and manoeuvrability.
Shortboards
Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced surfers. These surfboards are made to give surfers maximum manoeuvrability. Shortboards feature a pointed nose and square/swallow/round tail.
A pointed nose reduces a surfboard’s lift and buoyancy. It also reduces paddling speed making it difficult to catch waves. On a positive note, it increases the surfboard's curve and the overall rail-line which increases its grip on steep wave faces. A pointed nose makes it easier to perform a duck dive and enables your nose to pop out of the water faster.
Fish
also referred to as swallow tail surfboards, fish boards are designed for intermediate to advanced surfers looking to maximise turns on small to medium sized waves. Their pointed nose is perfect for making sharp turns while their swallow tail enables them to generate speed over small waves.
The new surfer will want a board that has plenty of volume and stability, that they can paddle into waves. The added width and thickness combined with the general outline on these boards (wider, rounder nose, and wider tail) provide plenty of stability when trying to stand up on the wave. As time goes on, you'll obviously seek more progression and performance out of your shape.
Once you've identified your level your shaper will discuss surfboard designs, such as different surfboard outlines or the surfboard bottom contours, and how they affect varying aspects of surfing performance. Put all of these puzzle pieces together with your shaper to create the final image of your ideal surfboard.
Fitness Level
Even when you reach higher levels of surfing, fitness levels are going to play a role in what kind of board you’re going to surf depending on the conditions. Fitness levels impact your ability to paddle into waves. For this reason, choosing the right board can ensure your wave count doesn't go down on account of your surfing fitness.
With a little more volume in a board, the older surfer could stretch out their session to the same length as the younger surfer as they won't need to spend the same amount of energy to paddle into waves.
Height and Weight
This will help to determine how much volume you would need for a particular style of board. The average surfer is bodyweight x .04 = volume, however details such as ability, age, preference for board types, and the waves you normally surf give you the best results. These factors should undoubtedly be used as a starting point for finding the right board.
Wave Type
What type of waves are you going to be surfing? Hollow and fast - soft, slow crumbly? Which wave type do you like to surf? Wave types and conditions can be so different from beach to beach and even day to day.
A brief rundown:
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Small waves require a high volume. A longboard or fun shape is best.
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Medium waves become more specific. For a mushy medium-sized wave, you might still have a blast on a longboard, a fun shape, or a fish. For more aggressive, steeper medium-sized waves, you might want to bust out your performance shortboard.
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For big waves, you're going to need a performance board to handle the large conditions, and for XL-XXL waves, these styles of boards are known as 'guns'.
If you plan on surfing a lot, you're going to need a selection of boards to help you surf your best in everyday conditions.
These are all essential factors to consider and can directly impact your surfing performance.
The Nose.
When it comes to determining surfboard shapes, the first third of your board is known as the nose. When we talk about nose width, we take that measurement from 12 inches down from the tip.
The shape of the nose is a key element in how the board paddles and catches waves. The wider or rounder the shape of the nose the more buoyant it is and therefore, the higher the front of your board will be in the water while you're paddling. This is due to the increased surface area in the front.
This extra surface area works really on long boards and mid length boards that help you get onto smaller/softer waves, and help to provide stability. The other end of the spectrum is the pointier, narrower nose that’s more commonly found on higher performance boards.
Surfboard shapes with a narrower nose won’t help as much when paddling into waves – apart from when taking a late drop – it’s definitely going to help you with your performance surfing. With a pointier nose, you will get more curve in the overall rail line of your surfboard which helps you to fit into the pocket of hollower waves and helps stop you from pearling (when your nose sticks into the water) when coming out of big turns.
Duck diving is also easier with a pointier nose due to the less volume.
Since they span the length of the board (from the very top to the bottom), rails are another key part of surfboards and their performance.
There are many descriptive terms for rails, as well as an unlimited number of ways that they can be blended.
But basically, surfboard shapes are going to have either a Soft Rail or a Hard Rail. These can then also be either full or tapered.
This means you can end up with a ‘full soft rail’ a ‘tapered soft rail’ or a ‘full hard rail’ or a ‘tapered hard rail’
Surfboard shapes with Soft Rails are going to perform better in smaller gutless surf conditions and on longboards, mid-range boards and blended into fish and some small wave grovellers. Usually a rounder, fuller rail.
Hard Rails, which are more commonly found on higher performance boards, have a more defined edge at a certain point around the curve of the rail towards the underside of the board. This helps the rail to bite into the wave face and give you more hold in critical surf and helps you respond better through turns.
These are just some general types of rails and there are plenty of variations for each board and throughout the length of the rail of the board depending on the intentions of the shaper. The shaper also has to consider the overall length of the rail line in the water as well.
With a longer, straighter rail line you are going to get more speed in a straight line, whereas when you have a curved rail, you will increase manoeuvrability.
It is finding the happy balance of all these factors in surfboard shapes that makes shaping the rail one of the most crucial elements in the shaping process.
Let's look at some of the basic fundamental’s shapers will follow in Wider tails offer more stability and float and will give you a faster planning speed. Narrower tails are going to make rolling from rail to rail a little easier, and can also help with your hold on a steeper faced wave.
Surfboard shapes with a tail that has rounder angles or no angles, is going to help you ‘hold’ the water for a little longer. This will translate into more control of the board.
When you get harder angles in the tail, more water will “release” and give you a looser, snappier feel to the board. A rounder tail is better for a more open face wave with a little more size and carving potential. In more punchy, shorter waves, a harder angled tail will help you get as many snaps as possible.
1. Squash Tail
is the most common tail shape found on surfboards. With a squarer back end with rounded corners, you get the snappy feel of a hard-cornered square tail blended with a little more hold and release of water. They also give you that extra width which helps with slower sections of the wave.
2. Square tail
is similar in principle but with harder corners giving you a skater feel with extra release. Great for down the line speed in smaller conditions, the hard corners act as a pivot point for turning the board. The square tail is a more traditional tail type that is less common these days as the squash tail gives a similar feel with more to it.
3. Round Tail
for slightly bigger days with open faces, surfboard shapes with round tails are a great option. With a continuous curve to help your hold on the water, you can gain more control on bigger, more hollow surf.
The round tail is a great option for open face carving with plenty of width to give more lift when outside of the critical section of a wave.
4. Pin tail
is a staple among many step-up options and guns, where you may find yourself in the barrel or powering down the line in steeper, bigger waves. With less turning ability needed, these boards give you plenty of hold in bigger, more hollow surf.
5. Swallow Tail
gives you a wider tail for increased planning speed, the swallow tail is a great small wave board option. Don’t count this option out when it is barrelling though, it also gives you hold in steeper waves (like two pin tails) and can be a blast in steeper faced waves. Also, a ton of fun when turning on the rail. It is, however, harder to transition from rail to rail when trying to bust turns after turn.