Much of what has been written about surfboard design in the past half century can be marshaled into two columns: vague or pseudo-technical articles, or manufacturer advertising and infomercials.

Either way, we are usually told that a certain board has a specific design feature or characteristic -- maybe its praises are sung or there will be a veiled sales pitch -- but we never come to learn exactly "why" a board has, say, a "slight panel vee," or "how" it works. We are merely informed that the board has this magical component, and, like the impenetrable foreign film that no one wants to admit they didn't understand, we nod sagely at the Fellini-esque use of single-to-double concaves or venturi effect.

But few of us seem to know the "whys" and "hows" of it all. As a custom surfboard shaper and designer, I constantly field questions that surfers pose about design. After realizing that many of the most experienced surfers in my clientele didn't really understand why their boards had the features they did, and why they worked, I decided to compile this resource.

The boards depicted here are meant to be generic examples of the most widely used surfboards of the day. Any mention of particular shapers or designers is not intended to assign sole credit for a design's development. That would be impossible, as the true history of surfboard design often deviates from the published versions. There are those who are credited with an innovation because they were the first to do it commercially, but with a little digging, you can usually find others who were on it earlier (or at the same time) but worked in obscurity out of crude backyard workshops with no ambition but to get a new board ready in time for the next swell.

Use the Surfboard Anatomy Guide to learn more about your surfboard. The sole purpose of the guide is to create a more informed surfing public. Many of us in the surfboard industry -- the only real "surf industry" -- believe that the more people understand the design and construction of surfboards, the less prone they'll be to pop-out charlatans or pitchmen squawking about "new breakthroughs."

The custom, hand-shaped surfboard has come under increasing pressure as the surf market expands and grows more complex. It is possible that an educated, informed customer base will ensure that the custom board industry remains healthy.

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