what makes a board handle differently, why does a swallow tail vs a round tail handle differnently etc, rails nose concave, fin placement ???
Wow... that's a question and a half. Basically, different boards handle differently because of the way water interacts with the different design elements (rocker, template, rails, bottoms...) primarily in terms of planing area, drag, angle of attack, and release. Water comes into an element of design, say rocker or bottom contours, flows along it, then releases from it. Forces created by pressure, gravity, lift, etc. cause the board to interact with the movement of water, translating the energy of the wave into forward motion for the board and rider. Different design features do this differently. Get in touch with Greenlight, and see if he can turn you on to his design notes.
You should Google "surfboard design" and mull over the tons of info you get. If you get stuck on a very specific issue that you can't find, you may want to post that as a question. There's just enough art in the science of surfboard design to get a lot of conflicting, yet correct answers. Good luck!
