The Surfboard

The Surfboard is the essential piece of surfing equipment. Without it you ain't surfin'. The modern surfboard has come a long way in design and construction since the Hawaiians started surfing on wooden planks. The modern surfboard is hand shaped by professional shapers out of foam and finished with a fibreglass coat. They are light and strong, and the cutting edge of surfboard design changes as quickly as a cold surfer does on a windy day. Let's have a look at what the different bits of the surfboard are called so that you can sound knowledgeable when talking your mum into buying you a nice new board.

The first thing to note is that the Nose of the board is the bit that faces forwards. The Surfboard sits in the water deck site up, as you have probably already figured out by looking at the Surfing Lessons

Deck
The Deck is the top side of the surfboard and is where the surfer stands to surf and lays to paddle. Wax is applied to this top surface for grip. Often surfers will use deck grip for extra traction. If you look at the deck of a surfboard you will usually see a slight camber from the rail to the middle then back to the rail. This is know as a Domed Deck and helps promote easy rail to rail movements. The other tpe of deck is the Flat Deck - no prizes for guessing what this type looks like.

Nose
The nose of the surboard sits out of the water. On shortboards, fish and guns the Nose is normally pointed and on funboards / minimals and longboards the Nose is usually rounded. This is by no means set in stone. Some surfers use a surfboard nose guard which can protect the surfboard from dings and also protect the surfer from a good poke from a disgruntled board!

Tail
The tail is at the back of the board. There are quite a few different tail shapes with each shape providing different board performance. Check out surfboard tail shapes for more details. As pointed out in the above diagram, the tail will have a Leash Plug. This plug is where the leash is attached to the surfboards. The plug is set into the deck and the leash is looped through. Take a look at out handy attaching a surfboard leash guide.

Rails
The rails are the 'edge' of the surfboard and run from the tail to the nose and are where the deck and the bottom meet. Like the tail shapes, different rail rail shapes provide different surfboard performance. It may not be something you have thought about but take a look at the different shapes next time you are in a surf shop. More about Surfboard Rail Shapes here.

Stringer
The Stringer is a strip of strengthening material (typically wood) that runs the whole length of a foam surfboard. It is already present in the surfboard blank before it is shaped. Epoxy, Soft and Carbon Fibre (space age eh!) surfboards will not often have stringers.