Vee Panel Tail Contour

I keep reading about “slight Vee panel” in the tail section. Can anyone explain the placement of a Vee panel in the bottom contour? Where does it begin, end, width, and length? Is it concave or convex? How does it effect the effect the ride? Thanks. D

If you were looking at a board on a rack, with the belly of the board up, and placed a straight edge on the board rail to rail, at a vee section you will notice that the area around the stringer is higher than the area going toward the rail. By that I mean there is a slant (for lack of a better term) from the stringer to the rail. Typicallly, there is no cocave or convex to it, although you can combine concave to vee, or slight concave in your vee. Like anything else, it has all been done before. Usually the degree of the slant increases and the distance from the stringer where the slant begins decreases as you get to the tail of the board. If you were to shade this area in with a pencil that is sloped it would look like a capital V. As far as how far up it goes and how severe the vee, it just depends on the board. The vee in a board helps with rail to rail (lateral) movement. I am probably making it sound confusing, but it is really a pretty basic concept. Think about a teiter totter on a playground the middle point or fulcrum allows the weight applied to the bar running across it to manipulated up and down. Same kind of thing. Forward vee on a short board is just vee but upside down, so the vee section closest to the stringer is at the tip of the board. It is supposed to act like the bow of a ship, where it breaks the plain of the water when your paddling in to a wave and is supposed to help with wave entry. I have done a few boards like this, and I don’t know if I am convinced that it is really functional or not. I hope this helps a little and has not confused you more. Take a yard stick down to your local board shop and run it down the boards rail to rail. You will notice all kinds of stuff. Thanks for the forum swaylock. see ya

If you were looking at a board on a rack, with the belly of the board up, and placed a straight edge on the board rail to rail, at a vee section you will notice that the area around the stringer is higher than the area going toward the rail. By that I mean there is a slant (for lack of a better term) from the stringer to the rail. Typicallly, there is no cocave or convex to it, although you can combine concave to vee, or slight concave in your vee. Like anything else, it has all been done before. Usually the degree of the slant increases and the distance from the stringer where the slant begins decreases as you get to the tail of the board. If you were to shade this area in with a pencil that is sloped it would look like a capital V. As far as how far up it goes and how severe the vee, it just depends on the board. The vee in a board helps with rail to rail (lateral) movement. I am probably making it sound confusing, but it is really a pretty basic concept. Think about a teiter totter on a playground the middle point or fulcrum allows the weight applied to the bar running across it to manipulated up and down. Same kind of thing. Forward vee on a short board is just vee but upside down, so the vee section closest to the stringer is at the tip of the board. It is supposed to act like the bow of a ship, where it breaks the plain of the water when your paddling in to a wave and is supposed to help with wave entry. I have done a few boards like this, and I don’t know if I am convinced that it is really functional or not. I hope this helps a little and has not confused you more. Take a yard stick down to your local board shop and run it down the boards rail to rail. You will notice all kinds of stuff. Thanks for the forum swaylock. see ya

There is really no defined spot on the board where you put the v. V in diffrent places will have different effects on the boards performance.When you’re speaking of tail v you’re usually talking about a wider board that needs to go to the rail a little easier. V does slow you down a little but a wide board that can’t go on the rail is REALLY slow. V can help any board stay in control when things get serious. Nose V (slight) really helps in hollow down the line surf as it causes drag so it keeps the board aiming for the pocket instead of trying to find the bottom. Panel v is generally refered to as V with no concave(guns). Spiral V (old guy term) is a concave tail V that goes flat off the tail. Hope this helps! aloha

There is really no defined spot on the board where you put the v. V in > diffrent places will have different effects on the boards performance.When > you’re speaking of tail v you’re usually talking about a wider board that > needs to go to the rail a little easier. V does slow you down a little but > a wide board that can’t go on the rail is REALLY slow. V can help any > board stay in control when things get serious. Nose V (slight) really > helps in hollow down the line surf as it causes drag so it keeps the board > aiming for the pocket instead of trying to find the bottom. Panel v is > generally refered to as V with no concave(guns). Spiral V (old guy term) > is a concave tail V that goes flat off the tail. Hope this helps! aloha I’m pretty much old school so I my bottoms work off flats and vees (although I have dabbled with concaves on occasion). I usually put vee in the last third of the board toward the tail. It starts off shallow, becomes deepest where I would put the fin on the board (in the case of a thruster, where the front fins would be) then tapers off to almost no vee at the tip of the tail. I use this type of bottom on most of my boards whether long or short. Its a very simple yet effective design. I measure vee by putting a straight edge on one side of the bottom and measuring how high off the rail the other end of the straight edge is. Most of my longboards have about 3/8 to 1/2 an inch, and my shortboards 3/16 to 1/4". I’ve noticed vee has decreased a bit on a lot of boards lately but for me I like a moderate vee.

Thanks for the info. Your description is crystal clear. D