Surfing Waves

Hi there folks,

Very new to this site, and pretty new to surfing in general, so forgive me for my lack of knowledge. I recently purchased a 7'4 Takayama scorpion (tuflite) and was told it would be a great all around board. I wanted something for the mushy summer surf here on the east coast (US), but also something that could handle it when the waves were medium-ish, and was psyched to grab it. I've taken it out a fair amount and enjoy it, so I don't really have a problem here, I'm just a little confused about the reasoning behind its pin tail. After reading about tail shapes, I read over and over again that pin tails are best suited for big wave surfing, and they reduce maneuverability? If that is the case, why would Takayama shape the scorpion to have a pin tail, even though the board is nowhere near a board for huge waves? Am I missing a benefit of the pin tail here? Am I weighing importance of the tail shape too heavily? I'm just still a newbie here and want to make sure I'm maximizing my potential to improve on this board. Thanks.

There are a variety of pintails. How they perform depends on multiple factors but when I was young, I had a pintail that was good for riding small waves. The fin setup and placing makes a difference as well as does the width of the tail from the fins forward. If you enjoy the board, that is good, just use it and don't worry about it. surfboard design is complex. I currently use a pintail that rides small waves fairly well (but also big waves to an extent)

Type in to your preferred search engine " big wave guns ". Those are the tail shape most refer to as "Pin Tails" being built for speed and big waves.

The Takayama technically is a pin tail but different.


By the way, what do you think of this McCoy surfboard ( kind of an upside-down Scorpion ) ?

woo, McCoy nugget. I used to have one of them. Didnt quite gel with me.

The Lazer Zap is even more of a 'reverse scorpion'



Its an interesting question re the scorpion, as Old Man says surfboards are complex and I'm going to hazard a guess that the 'pin tail' is there to deal with the very wide nose/front half of the board. To provide a bit of extra hold and control over all the foam up front. But thats just a guess.

The McCoy nuggets required a different riding style to your regular boards, Geoff McCoy has interesting theories on rail,shapes, tail shapes .
He has quite a fan base for his designs!

Thank you guys! All of these points make sense to me. I won’t worry about it, it’s a fun board and it feels good, I guess that is all that matters. Cheers!

The HPD Scorpion isn't a new thing. Check out this Dewey Weber "feather fastback".



By the way, what fin(s) are you using as the Surftech HPD Scorpions came in a 4+1 setup ?

My bad waikikikichan! Just using it as a single fin for now, but am considering grabbing some side bites. Also intrigued in riding it as a quad in the future!