Tail Shapes

What's the importance of tail shapes ? Swallow, Squash , Round tail and so on . Here we try to give you a simple explanation on design and the "tail shapes", that affect the way a surfboard performs.

When looking at different tails, a good rule to remember is more angular shapes will give you more pivotal and sharper turns. A rounder shaped tail will give you rounder and smoother turns. Tail shape influences the hold and release on the surface of the wave. Picture how water flows off the back of the board. Water is sticky and follows the lines of the board. Curves hold water flow whereas corners allow water to break away. A round or pin tail will hold the water longer making it stable in bigger surf. A square or angular tail will release water making it looser, skatier and snappy.

Different shapes will change the width of the tail, which determines surface area. This will influence how your acceleration and how much control you have on the face of the waves. Let's take a look at the "Pin Tail"

Pin Tails

This is designed for maximum traction and control on the wave. Pin tails have the narrowest width of all the tails. Less width minimizes the tail's surface area allowing you to sink and dig into the water causing the board to track and maintain direction. The Pin Tail shape is a straighter curved line that converges to a point, thus called the pin tail. This design gives you maximum water flow with better hold. Pintails can be difficult to maneuver and are not ideal for small waves where tail surface area is needed for lift. That is why you typically find these pin tails on bigger board for larger surf.

A full on pin tail is quite extreme design in the surfboard world , you can offset the traditional Pin Tails drawbacks by slightly "softening" the angle or in essence making a "rounded pin". Which will allow the board to turn but still gives it hold in bigger more powerful waves. Although we don't have a hard core pin tail in the range ,happy to do a custom if that is what you are chasing  , The "Have" is all about combining these proven ideas and making boards that just go good ! Check out the finer points of this model , now you are educated on the Pin Tail and the Rounded Pin Tail design !

Hope you enjoyed this short read , stay tuned as we will  add more design issues to the blog , to help you understand surfboard design.

Tail shape theory is great to know, it’s important to remember that the key to a good surfboard isn’t one single element, it’s how all the different elements work together. Please keep this in mind whilst educating yourself on surfboard tail shapes and reading any of our #design blogs.