OUTLINE:
Square nose, clean more parallel outline, square tail. Obviously trying to squeeze in as much area as possible so it goes in mush. It has area to plane early along with generous tail area for cutting back and floating over really soft sections. If you go too straight in the outline like a door, it gets sticky and loses flow, like trying to fit a square into a round hole, it's a difficult fit, so the outline is the same as a magic surfboard we did with this same outline.
RAILS:
Step Rails. This gives the board autopilot and training wheels combined. It’s really common, that if your rails are too thin, you can bury them if you go too hard. It’s almost like you have to have a very acute sense to know when to hold back. But if your rails are too thick, you're fighting a chunky rail into the water, that gets harder and harder the faster you go. This rail is thin so it drops in instantly, but then it only goes as far in until it hits the thick part, so you get enough penetration in an instant to give you hold but it won't bury. it's like you just can't make a mistake.
ROCKER:
Flatter. It is quite flat, more so in the nose in comparison to other boards. This gives the board really good carry and allows you to have your weight more distributed and the board will still go. if you have too much rocker in a tiny board, then your weight must be placed in the exact location to make it go, if not it comes to a stop.
BOTTOM:
Super deep concave, more like an inverted V. One problem with really wide tails and boards, it's really hard to get them on the rail. With this one the concave is so deep you virtually have your rail engaged before you even start. The next issue with a wide tail is the slippery feeling on the rail to rail transition, this is where you can go into an uncontrollable drift when turning under the lip at speed, one rail is engaged, then there is a brief moment where the board is flat before you can get the other rail in. But with this concave style, almost inverted V, you have one rail engaged, then as you transition onto the other rail it bites and grabs instantly because it can't drift while on the flat.
DECK:
Concave deck. This gives you loads of leverage into a turn, combined with the deep bottom concave, the board responds like you are surfing really aggressively and hard. Imagine a rolled deck, when you lean into a turn and say your body is on a 45-degree angle, the board (bottom) will also be on a 45-degree angle relative to the water surface, maybe a little less with more roll in the deck. But with the combined bottom and deck concave, your body will be on a 45, but the bottom of the board and rail is engaged way deeper, like 52 or 53 degrees. So with the same effort, you get a radical and instant response like you're surfing way more aggressively than you actually are, and the board will go vert and virtually launch out of the water before you even realize what's happening. If you respond in time, it will hook back down with hold and bite.
FINS:
4 Fin Thruster. I don't have a name for this set up yet, we've done it in some wide tailed short surfboards and it offers way more direction and drive. A really common occurrence on wide tails, they get squirrely, slippery and spin out, once the tail fin lets go it's hard to recover. It's because the board sits flat on the water, so you are more reliant on the fins to keep hold. Having the 2 tail fins really close together acts the same as a Bi-Plane. They can handle massive angles of attack before the wings fail to function, when the angle of attack is so high with a single wing, the air/water can no longer stay attached to both sides and it stalls or lets go, but with 2 wings, one of them will always have water attached on both sides, due to the water being forced between them.
Fin Design. With really shortboards, it's hard to get a feeling of a carve and drawn out power turn, when you go to turn you get these short, tight, flicky powerless arcs. It's like you turn off the power and the board stops as well. So the raked fin keeps more power through the turn, especially when you want to do a roundhouse cutback. Vertical fins have an instant response, but also a turn and stop feel. The raked fin resists the turn and converts it to drive, hence the name of the fins (drivers) you can stay powered up with drive all the way through the entire turn.
FINAL STATEMENT:
If you already have a number of boards in your quiver and want to ride micro waves on a short performance board rather than the feel of glide and going straight on a longboard, then give it a go.
