Favorite tail shape?

There was this one gal wearing yoga pants....

Sorry.

 

I have fallen hard for the "Dimond" it shortens the rail length while still allowing the tail to come back to a point.

 

I'd have to say, based on aesthetics alone, it's the swallow tail. Nothing like a good piece of split tail.

 

The shape of your tail = how you surf.....square tail you surf sharp and cutting, round tail you surf more flowing.......shape of your tail determines how you turn.

Just got a bat tail love it. dont know why.

 

BBPh - I've got a fatty 5'6 with a bat tail. Let me know what you think of that after a few sessions bro.

The two SBs I ride the most other than my retro are diamonds.

 

for new jersey i find myself using a 5'5 diamond tail most often, in florida waves i tend to prefer the swallow tail for mainly backside surfing

 

the only tail that i can notice a difference on is a classic pintail. all others are tomato/tomato, chicano/chicano.

 

I think the round or pin tail is the most versatile in surfing. Regardless of the surf's size, I think its the all around best. I road what was basically a thurster fish that was a 5'9x20 with a round tail and having the round tail really eliminated the squirliness of the fish shape. It was a high performance shred machine that turned on a dime. I think throwing a roundy on any shape will give you plenty of speed and control.

 

Wombat!! You'll never go back

 

I think I agree with zach. I'll be honest, I hadn't really experimented with tail shapes. Iv ridden many diffrent tails but each on very diffrent boards so I hadn't gotten to much experience. Not like fins were you can use them on the same board and really get a feel for the difference. I do notice though that all my boards with round/rounded pin tails are the boards I feel comfortable in most conditions in.

Like I said I don't have much experience in experimenting with diffrent tails but that's my observation.

 

I think it's the sport utility vehicle of tails. It works in all conditions and holds well. It holds in the small mush, and its also the go to shape (more rounded pin) for big wave boards.

 

seems like its good enough for john john...

 

I think switching out tail shapes on any given board is kinda bogus. To get the most out of any tail shape, you have to make adjustments in other areas. For example... taking the exact same template and cutting a swallow out of a square won't maximize the advantages of the swallow design. There will be a difference in how they ride, but it would take full advantage of the swallow. It all has to do with the rail line and planing area from the widepoint back...

Anyway... I prefer a round tail for good surf, meaning chest high and better. Just feels looser and smoother to me, with good hold in steep sections. Rode squashes for years, but now prefer round. In smaller surf, I like wider tails with straighter rail lines, so swallows, bats, etc. are better for me on boards for weaker or smaller surf. This excludes mini simmons-type boards, which are a whole other animal. On logs I like square tails.

 

Yeah, I still have a lot of squashes. I prefered them at one point, but my theory was wrong. I had assumed that with the squared off tail shape, during the hard turning of the board, I thought it would produce more "spray", more of a knife like effect than with a round tail. I found this not to be true. For whatever reason, at least for me, looking at photos of videos of my on the round tails on similar board, I find the lines left in the water from the tail to be more broad and powerful... Not sure if there is any technical truth to that. Maybe the round tail keep the tail engaged in the water a little long, where a squash pops out because of the acute angle. Dunno. Maybe its all in my head. But if you look at my quiver, you would probably be like, WTF? cause I have about 8 boards that are almost identical. Same shape, same dims, same shaper. All in the 5'11-6'1 range. The only differences are the tail shapes. A couple have glassed fins. Most of them are useless to me now, but for many years on the west coast, I had my board selection down to a science, where that 5'11 round tail just wasn't going to cut it, so I would move up to the 6'0 squash... Again, maybe it was all in my head, but it worked for me....

 

I like swallow tails for vertical surfing in good surf, and for making sections in mushy waves. They seem to hold good during quick sharp turns. They also make the tail a bit wider for speed and lift in mushy sections. On my new hplb I am shaping, the tail is a rounded pin more suited for down the line, flowing turns and big figure 8 cutbacks. I haven't tried the diamond tail yet but it seems like a versatile shape. And I like big butts and I can not lie.

 

i think it was matt biolos who said there are essentially 3 tails shapes-pin/rounded pin, swallow, & squash/square. anything else is a gimmick.

i've personally found myself gravitating more toward swallows over the last year b/c i think they combine the best attributes of squashes & rounded pins: the pivot well in a tight radius turn & hold in a steep face well also. that said, if it's properly hollow, i'll still take a rounded pin over anything else. never really jived too well w/ a squash tail.

 

Manny is an amazing shaper, totally underrated. Right up there with Lis, Christenson and Pavel. I wish I had one of his shapes.

 

HA! i don't claim understand his reasoning on that score.

oh yea! that was ****ing classic...the whole thing was ridiculous, but really jumped the shark when tomo went after manny...just, why drag him into it like that? he's on a whole different trip. & it's not like anything is truly original in surfboard design...everyone's borrowing from everyone else at this point. tomo might be a great surfer, but he seems like kind of a ****ty person.