what's up with down rails

Surffoils · January 27, 2010, 12:32am

All are Down Rails except III a.

To me a 'Down Rail' is where the apex is lower than 50% of the rail height.

Irrespective of the boards thickness, deck contour or tuck/edge/roll where it joins the bottom planing surface.

With the IV (Greek) one being the ultimate example of a DOWN rail.

cornelyus · January 27, 2010, 11:42am

humm..

yes.. seems like a good statement.. i was just trying to get a visual of the "hynson down-rail" on fishes that was the revolution.

http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/hynsonintrvu/index.html

sorry to be so picky.. but here i don't really have boards to see and understand!

surfiber · June 18, 2010, 6:36am

hey tony, got rail closeup pics of your 7’ down-rail egg? this was a great, informative thread btw

cheers,

$1:

In a recent Surfer mag, there was a picture from 1972 of a pro surfer sitting next to his fish surfboard with hard down rails from the tail to the nose and it got me to thinking that some of my favorite boards had down rails. In 1972 I also had a back yard made fish that was very light and had sharp down rails and in 1977 I had a bonzer that was very light with down rails. So I recently made a light 7’ egg down railer with 1/4" deep and I haven’t come to a conclusion as to whether I like it better than the conventional railed boards. It seems to be a little faster and the rails don’t hang up as much as a softer rail. It seems that a c rail hugs the wave more and you have a little more control. I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I remember when surfing the bonzer that I could wait to the last second to stand up and make a bottom tun and then hit the lip, oh, what a feeling!