Moon Arc Tail

I designed a board in Winter 21/22 for The Guild Surfboards called The Moon, which combines one of my favorite nose outlines (the Nuuhiwa noserider) with a tail shape I hadn't yet tried but which has now become a favorite feature of mine: the arc tail.

The idea behind this board was to create a noserider capable of earlier entry in small, gutless surf. One that would still have plenty of play for cutbacks and setting up noserides.

I wanted as wide of a tail as possible without straightening the outline too much. I chose an arc for its mass, as a tool for early entry & as a compromise between the longer line of the arc's curve and the reduction in mass that would otherwise be present with a square tail. The bottom contours feature a rail apexed at 1" and a subtle triplane (a flat bottom) that very softly breaks at a 3.5" tuck. Bottom contours also include a 36" blended concave.

The result was a 10'0"x23"x3" noserider with bladed out nose and tail foils, which I was able to thoroughly test at 2ft Bolsa throughout that winter. It became one of my favorite logs. One of the reasons I designed this outline and integrated the arc was to cater to smaller surf. The arc's width and extra mass help considerably with early entry as well as hold while noseriding. When I designed the outline, I was also taking into consideration the smaller surf I've experienced throughout Europe. Specifically in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay, which do tend to go through extended spells of small surf. There were even moments while surfing smaller Portugal the previous summer when I wished I had one with me. The extra early entry and hold of the tail amount to a small-wave-experience that I'm excited to share with other surfers at some of these spots.

The Moon draws some of its inspiration from Dane Perlee of Osprey Surfboards who has been applying the arc-tail to a broad range of waves…and ripping.