Before you shave your head and go buy Kelly Slater’s pro model, you’ll have to think about if you’re surfing the way the GOAT does. The surfer makes the board, not the other way around and picking out the wrong board for yourself can make your day in the water a lot less fun than it could be. Here’s a few things to consider.
The type of wave you ride regularly has a lot to do with what board you should be riding. Make sure you understand what kind of conditions you’re going to be heading out on. If you’re just looking to cruise around on some ankle-biters, you’ll make different decisions for board choice than if you’re trying to become the pipeline champion.
Board design is generally the art of compromises. For example, shapes often trade stability for maneuverability so finding the right balance for yourself is important. You don’t want the board to be so twitchy that you’re never standing on it, but if you’re looking to perfect your cutbacks, your board can certainly be too stable and not allow you to impress all the babes oiling up on the beach.
Surfing is probably one of the most physical outdoor sports you can participate in and board design can help or hinder depending on whether or not your physique resembles Popeye or Olive Oyl. Generally speaking longer, more voluminous boards are easier to paddle, but can be tough to get past whitewater.
A surfboard's buoyancy is how well your board floats and it’s generally referred to by the volume of space your boards take up. Apparently, this term came from outside of the US as it’s referred to in Liters. Buoyancy is important because it provides the lift a board needs when getting up to speed and is key in catching unbroken waves. Part of the reason high volume boards paddle better is because the buoyancy lifts the board and gets it planing (out of the water) faster and reduces drag quickly.
Better paddling surfboards result in being able to take off on a wave at an earlier, shallower portion of the wave which is why longboards and midsize boards made for smaller weaker waves will generally have a lot more volume.
There’s some funky and cool fluid dynamics and physics that go into propelling a surfboard and “thrust” is a term you’re likely to hear when reading about a surfboard’s characteristics. This is something that comes into play when you begin surfing down the line of an unbroken wave. It’s essentially the characteristic of the board to redirect water coming across its base, towards the tail of the board. Fin configuration and base channeling are some of the main board features that provide this feature. By redirecting water, Newton’s 3rd law comes into play and by pushing water towards the tail of the board, it propels the board and surfer forward.
Drive, in a surfboard, refers to the ability of the board to turn wave and rider input into forward motion. Drive shows up in a number of different characteristics. The flex of the board, the grip of the fins and the rail engagement all contribute to how much drive a board can provide. It’s difficult to quantify as it’s a synergy of so many different factors, but you’ll know when a board has it.
Surfboard rail profiles are somewhat a function of the overall thickness of the board. “Hard” or sharper profiled rails provide easy engagement and disengagement for maneuverability whereas softer rails provide added buoyancy and drive. There’s likely to be a good deal of variation even within a single board - tails can have harder profiled rails so turning is easier while up on the board where under the chest and the nose of the board can be softer to provide buoyancy and lift.
Surfboard rocker, in simple terms, is how closely your board resembles a banana from the side profile. Boards with less rocker plane on water more efficiently and get up to paddling speed much quicker than heavily rockered boards.
Rockered surfboards are going to have less of the board and rails engaged with the face of the wave, so while riding they provide easier turning and maneuverability. Additionally, when dropping into steep wave faces, a lot of rocker can help keep the nose from pearl-diving into the water and wrecking your pretty face.
There’s two main things to consider when determining the right size surfboard - style and volume. First the type of surfing you’re looking to do. Are you looking to cruise around Waikiki with the dog? Or are you working on your backside cutbacks? Stylistically, they’re pretty different, so decide whether or not you’re going over or under 7’ (roughly) for a board. This puts you in the shortboard or longboard realm depending on your preference. Not sure which shape or style fits you? Check out our breakdown of shapes below.
Once you’ve decided if longboarding or shortboarding is more your style, then reference the chart below for choosing the correct volume in liters. Most board shapes come in varying lengths to accommodate riders of differing skill and bodyweight while maintaining the ride characteristics of that shape.
We’ve already talked about buoyancy quite a bit, but here’s how to appropriately determine how much volume a surfboard should have, based on your skill level and body weight.
The nose and front half of the surfboard is a good indicator of how the board will perform when paddling. The nose of the board is the first thing that comes into contact with oncoming water. Pointed nose shapes help reduce drag by cutting through the water when paddling as well as reduces swing weight when performing turns. Additionally, it’s less likely to catch a rail in the water when turning as there’s simply less material there to catch.
Wider and rounded noses are mostly about increasing overall volume and buoyancy, lifting more of the surfer and board out of the water and making for more efficient paddling.
Since the nose of the board is generally out of the water when we’re actually up and surfing, the tail and back half of the board is a good indicator of how the board will surf while we’re up on our feet and riding. The tail shape primarily dictates how much of the board’s rail is in the water while standing. Lots of rail engagement means lots of lift and stability, but also means that it’s difficult to pull the rail out of the water to initiate a turn.
Additionally, wider tails are generally more voluminous which provides lift in the wave. This can be great for small waves, where lift provided by volume in weak swell welcome, however in larger, more powerful surf, it becomes about managing the speed that’s already generated by the wave and a narrower tail is preferable. Lastly, the overall width of the back half of the board can contribute to the rail-to-rail maneuverability of a board.
So this gives us the outline of how to think of tail shapes. Pin tails are likely to have less volume and less rail engagement which means more control in powerful waves, but poor performance in weak waves. Conversely a wide squash tail is likely to help generate lift and speed in weak surf, but will not provide great maneuverability when waves are big and powerful.
Spyder Surfboard reviewsSwallow tails are a bit of a hybrid - they have the rail profile of a wider tail, but the cutout provides the volume closer to that of a pintail allowing you to dig it into a wave and pivot your turns.
Previously reserved for hawaiian royalty, longboards are the kings of stability and style. Here, we’re looking at boards generally 9+ feet long and sporting pontoon level (50L+) buoyancy. Single fins and egg-like shapes are most common, though the occasional squash tail and fish tail and occasional thruster/quad fin setups will show up on more exotic models.
Longboards are great for beginners, but a must for anyone who’s looking to improve their surfing ability. The increased volume lets you get out when the swell is small and the rock solid stability helps get more wave-time. These benefits come with tradeoffs, of course. Longboards are more likely to be trimming down the line and making smooth arcing turns rather than pumping and generating speed. Aerial maneuvers on a longboard? I’d pay $20 to see that.
As a result, longboards are a riding style of their own. Smooth and sweeping turns as well as cross-stepping and the famous “hang 10” will get you as much attention in the lineup as a big cutback turn or air.
Lose a foot or two off your longboard, or add a few to your shortboard and you’ll start to enter the realm of the funboard or midsize board. Generally between 7’ and 8’6” we get to more variety in shapes with pointier noses, a tad more rocker and pintails start to come in. You'll still see single-fin setups here, but quads and thrusters are more and more common.
These boards are for small, weak swells and for novice surfers looking to graduate from their wavestorm get a bit more maneuverability compared to their longboard.
For the surfer who absolutely must ride a shortboard, regardless of how weak the waves are, there’s now quite the variety of short, wide and thicc options available. While the original fish surfboards gained popularity in the 70’s, the intent and design has carried onto modern grovelers.
For the surfer who absolutely must ride a shortboard, regardless of how weak the waves are, there’s now quite the variety of short, wide and thicc options available. While the original fish surfboards gained popularity in the 70’s, the intent and design has carried onto modern grovelers.
Fish, hybrid and groveler surfboards are, in many cases, thickened and widened versions of classic shortboard shapes. You’ll see wider, rounder noses are more common as well as plenty of squash and swallow tails with lengths generally under 6. All of these are traits added to short boards which improve their performance in small, mushy waves. You won’t see any more longboard style single fins but the twin fin makes an appearance in this category, keeping it retro like your VW bus.