Favorite tail shape?

my swallow tailed quad has shockingly good hold in (quite) vertical faces.

 

killer. shallow swallow or deep?
(jeeze...no gay code)

 

I've found swallow tails to have a great deal of hold in steep faces and it makes sense to me that they would: you essentially have one or two pin tails dragging in the face of the wave, the rail line near the tail isn't very curvy on a lot of swallow tails, and the planning area of a deep swallow tail is greatly reduced over a squash. It looks like it would bite into a steep face on the drop, and in my experience it does.

To me, the mushier and softer the wave is, the more the swallow tail seems to hinder your attempt to get the board up and planning. Everything else equal, a fat round or fat squash tail in small mushy waves over a swallow.

 

Austin Powers: "Who are you today, baby?"
Girl: "Ha ha. My name is Robin Swallows."
Austin Powers: "Swallows. That's an interesting name."
Girl: "Maiden name's Spitz."
Austin Powers: "Well, which is it, baby, Spitz or Swallows?"

Again, I apologize. I have contributed nothing of value to this thread.

 

I'm with this. High performance all the way.

 

the fish is fine but its not for me. i'll call it a deep non-fish type.

 

Ye breh, I give her a tain!!! A tain!!!!

 

Tail shape is all about the redistribution of volume, planing surface, and rail line leading into the tail. Swallow tails are able to reduce planing surface while maintaining tail width under your back foot, and maintaining a longer rail line. That is, IF you are trying to take full advantage of the swallow design. If you look at some swallowtail boards (not fish tails) they're basically a square/squash, or even round tail, with a notch cut out. The rail line does not change. All that does is reduce planing surface and volume behind your back foot. So the same amount of pressure you put on your back foot results in deeper penetration of the tail, and that feeling of better hold and "bite." Other swallowtail boards have wider tails and straighter rail lines, which conserves volume and promotes down the line speed, especially in smaller surf, but because wide tails are harder to put on a rail, the swallow's reduced planing surface minimizes that "skipping stone" effect that wide tails can give, allowing deeper penetration and forgiveness when going rail to rail.

I've played with all kinds of tail shapes, and the worst, by far, is the wide groveler type board, with tons of curve from the wide point back, and a mini swallow. Just bad design....

 

Seems that a lot of swallow tails and double wings go together often.

 

lmfao!!!!!

 

… another way to bump down planing surface… by creating a release point (people mistakenly call it a "pivot point") you can loosen up a wide tail.