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The Trifle of Not a Trivial Meaning!
When a surfer decides between one or another surfboard, he or she usually takes into account such dimensions as length and width. But if you take two surfboards of the same length and width, they may still appear to be different.
This faint difference may be more obvious while watching at the surfboard sideways. It’s the third important dimension called thickness if we are talking about some certain part of a surfboard, or foil, at a bigger scale.
Simply said, it’s the relief of the surfboard or the way foam is spread throughout the board from its nose to the tail.
The foil thickness can influence the quality of surfing. Thus, much thickness can give your surfboard more stability and, at the same time, less maneuverability.
This is a common rule for this thickness dimension known among many surfers. But do you know that, being distributed in different parts of the surfboard, the thickness of the foam can influence your wave riding in different ways?
Hence, three parts should be mentioned for this dimension: the nose, middle, and tail.
Knowing all the dependencies on thickness, we are going to discuss whether you can find the best combination of your surfboard dimensions to have a board that will correspond to your experience and desires on the waves.
Nose Thickness or Stop Nose Diving!
A nose with bigger thickness can be supportive in easy and fast paddling and catching small waves. This dimension is also good at duck-diving.
At the same time, such thickness makes the surf stable enough and prevents digging into the water. These are all dimension qualities important for junior or intermediate riders.
Another advantage of a heavy-weight nose is that it allows the surfer the extra weight.
And, on the contrary, a thinner nose gives more maneuverability to the surfboard and ease of quick turns and stunts on the waves.
But surfboards with such dimensions as thin noses have a soft corner for nose-diving or its most severe variant known as pearling.
That’s why such board dimensions are good variants for advanced or experienced surfers.
Middle Thickness or Who is the Master: You or Your Surfboard?
Thickness in the middle of the surfboard is considered to be one of the three most significant dimensions usually scripted on the bottom part of the blank.
This thickness dimension is always measured at the widest part of the surfboard. Such dimensions can also be found in the surf match reviews for choosing an appropriate board according to the height and weight dimensions of the surfer.
Such thickness is a basic figure for a novice surfer and for those who are accustomed to one steady position on the deck.
These surfboards don’t like walking along the length of the board and changing poses.
At the same time, they allow a rather intensive paddling and easy catching waves (but no strong ones).
As to the thin boards in their middle part, they lack stability though allow catching large waves. These dimensions are good for learning how to change poses by walking from the nose to the tail.
Such dimensions are also common for longboards and mini-malibu, that’s why they are so popular among green bands or those who are eager to come to another stage, from intensive paddling to taking more control of the surfboard.
Tail Thickness to Be in Up Ahead!
Tail thickness is usually combined with its width. Such thickness allows the tail to be more massive and makes it possible to stand on it while surfing.
Standing on the tail, in its turn, allows the nose to lift slightly to prevent nose-diving and catch waves of even larger dimensions than you could dream about.
So, it would be unfair to say that such surfboard thickness is for junior surfers. Lots of advanced riders prefer such extreme and even aggressive (in some way) riding as it gives much speed and control to the surfboard alongside with stability.
And vice versa, light-tailed boards are not friendly to riding on their back part because of their dimensions.
Conclusion
The thickness in the three parts of a surfboard taken into consideration separately is a thing of the past. Today’s surfers prefer to balance this dimension according to the desired capabilities of their boards.
And remember that the choice depends only on your experience, the quality of waves you’re going to catch and your style or that you want to have.
