Surfboard Design

• Types: Mostly this comes down to longboards, shortboards, fish, and guns.
• Physical Characteristics: The outline of the board is the general shape when looking down on the deck. The tail will have a pin, round, squash, square or swallow design. The rocker is the upturned curve at the nose and tail. The rails of the board are the sides and will be anywhere from "thin" to "full". Any surfboard design within a given type will tend to have similar physical characteristics.

• Materials: The traditional board since the fifties was constructed from polyurethane foam and covered in fiberglass cloth and polyester resing. epoxy boards have really taken off in the past decade. These boards have epoxy resin instead of polyester resin and styrofoam instead of polyurethane foam. There are a few other types of materials used such as foam boards and even wooden ones, but the vast majority will be traditional and epoxy.
• Fin Setup: Most boards are setup as a single fin, thruster, quads, or twin.

"Pop-Out" is the name given to mass manufactured boards. Surftech, BIC, and NSP are among the most popular of this class. These boards are usually cheaper than custom boards but lack the finishing touch and overall performance of hand shaped boards. Many surfers have a mix of hand shaped and pop-outs their quiver. For example a custom thruster and fish, along with a "pop-out" longboard for lazy days.

Some popular board brands include GSI, Al Merrick, Gordan and Smith, and CI. If you like ultra-technology, check out Aviso Surfboards and these travel surfboards.

For those who like to collect or who just want to feel what it's like to ride a board from the "early days", try a vintage board. If you need to save some bucks consider discount boards or used boards.

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