Longboard Squaretails

If you can manage it, I find it useful to have a few different types of longboards. Having a “quiver” keeps your surfing well-rounded and gives you extra options as the waves scale and change from day to day. While I’m a huge fan of pintails, there are naturally days when the swell is smaller and mushier and I need to change equipment. Enter the squaretail.

Squaretails logs have most commonly taken the form of wide-nose, Nuuhiwa/Takayama/Tudor influenced longboards, which have been copied and reproduced exponentially since the rebirth of longboarding in the late 80s/early 90. Since then, they’ve become a sort of ubiquitous adoption for the concept of “noserider” and applied to a broad spectrum of wave types.

However, I tend to reserve my squaretails for smaller, mushier surf where the wider tail creates additional buoyancy and assists with entry momentum…often a big help when paddling into gutless waves. In addition, the extra width helps maintain momentum throughout the duration of a less powerful wave. Jones Shapes offers two squaretail models for such situations: the Ondine and the Ancient Future. The Ondine is a slender approach to a California squaretail which performs best in waist to shoulder high, mushy surf. The Ancient Future has a wider tail and was built for smaller, short period surf where the extra momentum and quick reflex are a big advantage.

When do I specifically avoid squaretails? When the waves get hollow, punchy, large or a combination of all of those, it’s time to switch to more suitable equipment…be it a pintail, something with more rocker, or just a shorter board.