Rails

Rails:

Soft Rails – Rails that are more rounded and forgiving. Typically found in the front half of the surfboard, where the board curves towards the nose. The soft rails keep the rails from catching in the water, making turning easier, without catching, or digging into the wave.

Hard Rails – Think speed, and drive. Typically found in the back half of the surfboard, giving the surfboard “bite” into the face of the wave. Rails will typically get progressively harder from just behind the midpoint of the board, and will be very sharp in the last foot or two of the board. High-performance surfboards, especially shortboards, will have very hard (sharp) rails, as they are designed to generate speed by “pumping,” doing a series of compressed turns. The rails, combined with the bottom contours, will create a variety of different performance effects.

Chined (Beveled) Rails – Bevel is a flat surface in between the natural curve of the rail, and the bottom of the board. It is a feature originally designed for flat-bottom speed boats, but it works surprisingly well in surfboards, and can commonly be seen on virtually every bodyboard. The first board I ever owned with a beveled rail was an Aipa Sting, in the late 1970’s. Ben Aipa was way ahead of his time with his progressive designs. Today, Steve Walden uses a wide, subtle bevel on all of his Magic Model surfboards. His Longboards, Mid-Lengths and Shortboards, all feature this unique rail to bottom design. He mates it with unique concaves and rocker, creating a truly “magic” series of boards. I highly recommend them. They are high-performance, yet forgiving in nature. The longboards ride incredibly well off the tail, and still noseride amazingly well.

50/50 Rails – These are traditional, “old school” longboard rails. The board gently curves down from the deck, and up from the bottom to meet with even curves in the middle, thus 50/50. This rail creates a slightly “domed” (curved from side to side) deck and creates a bottom with “belly” (bottom curve from side to side). This is ideal on longboards that are designed to “trim” and “glide” as well as noseride, because they create a “foil” which when coupled with ample tail rocker and a wide tail, develop a large amount of downforce, like an upside down airplane wing, allowing the surfer to stand on the front of the board, while the tail is being held down firmly to the face of the wave.

60/40 Rails – As you can assume, they offer a bit more curve to the deck, and a bit less curve to the bottom, creating a flatter bottom, and a more performance-oriented longboard. Now you understand 70/30, 80/20 and even 90/10 rails, which are also known as “Down Rails.”

Down Rails – As stated above, the idea is to create a flatter bottom, with a sharper rail. This is the most common rail on modern surfboards of any length. It will also be found on most boards as you move from up near the nose, through the mid-section and down to the tail, the rails will progressively become sharper.

Box (Squared) Rails – Boxy rails are the way to keep a flatter bottom, a flatter deck, and more volume in the board. However, they tend to be more difficult to bury into faster moving, steeper waves, so are typically found on grovelers, and other small and mushy wave models.

Knife (Sharp) Rails – “Knifey, Sharp, Pinched, or Foiled” rails (all different names for the same rail feature), are typically found in old school longboard models, that feature 50/50 rails, but even though the curve meets in the middle, the place where the curves meet is sharper, allowing for less curvature. This, by definition creates a thinner overall surfboard. Personally, I love this feature. The term “Sharp Rails” can also be applied to any surfboard, with any rail ratio, if the edge is, you guessed it, sharp.

Tucked Rails – “Tucked, or Rolled Rails” keep the outer edge of the rail “soft” and hiding the sharp, flat, or beveled rail underneath, providing greater forgiveness in turning.

Parallel Rails – This term describes the mid-section of a longboard, or the mid, to tail section of a Fish. Parallel rails create projection down the line on the wave. It is important for “trimming” on a longboard, across a steep and long wave face, or for generating speed on a Fish, or other wide-tailed shorter board. Wayne Rich refers to this parallel mid-section of his longboards as the “speed box.” I’ve always loved that term, as it fits perfectly. Do your bottom turn, and then cross-step up into the “speed box” and the board will take off down the line. But if you’re heading to the nose, you’ll have to go straight from the tail, to the nose, without stopping in the speed box, or you will outrun the section!

Rail Examples:

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On the left, 1. Is Wayne Rich’s “Checkmate” model, and 2. Is Steve Walden’s “Mega Magic Model,” that has much higher volume than his standard “Magic Models” thus the “Boxy” rails. And 3. Is an image I love, because it clearly shows the unique bottom contours of Steve’s “Magic Model,” especially the “Beveled Rail.” You can see the hard edge from the bottom concave extending out to the boxy, tucked rail. Amazing. 4. Me on a 9’6” Mega Magic Model. This is a surfboard that still surfs incredibly well, considering how big, thick and wide it is.