I was talking to a shaper about a certain board I am interested in getting and asked a few questions on the board.One specifically about the rails.He referred to them as"down rails".He seemed kinda of busy so I didn’t want to take to much of his time.Can someone explain to me what a down rail is?Thanks.
Maybe turned down all around the whole board, justl like the tail of your current board.
Works well, needs some compensation with increased rocker, narrower nose, WPoint back further, or a backfoot oriented surfer.
Very responsive.
dont be confused, most modern designs use some variation of a down rail…most shortboards use’m…its today’s standard
classic “hull” designs from the 60’s had rail apex’s midway between the bottom and deck…as designs progressed (thanks Mr.Brewer) the rail apex was pushed closer to the bottom of the board, resulting in what most of us ride today…near flat bottoms, crowned decks and down rails…its one of the major breakthroughs of the modern surfboard.
some of the main benefits of down rails, as compared to traditional hull designs, are lift, release and thus speed…there are more performance benefits as well but too long to list…i’ll let others take a crack at those…
regards