Hey guys, looking for some opinions here. I think my beloved fish is on its last legs so I'm doing some research into my next potential purchase for if it does break somehow. I'm wondering whether there's much of a difference in performance of wide squash tails (e.g. al's neckbeard) compared to fish tails of similar width (e.g. al's the whip)? i have a dhd jellyfish, but looking around for another second hand one is proving a challege. the two (al) types of board are somewhat similar in shape and designed for similar conditions, but would be there be much difference in performance due to the tail (would one be quicker than the other)? Keeping variables like fins setup the same; thruster (no point comparing thruster to quad).

Neck Beard would be your Perth Board, and the Whip is your go to board when it is juicier, outside of Perth.

If you're looking for the 1 board quiver, The Whip would come close. Variation on the old Flyer Swallow Tail...

Here's a board selector, beta version;
http://cisurfboards.com/suggested_boards.php

pretty cool link right there! but what i mean is more in general; would a board that is shaped for small wave conditions, with a wider squash tail be better (quicker, better ability to glide through fat sections) than a board that is shaped for small wave conditions that has a similarly wide fish tail? as far as i am aware, the ability to glide better in small wave situations is associated with a higher surface area in the width department, so im basically looking for some advice by the way of whether its necessary for me to start searching purely for fish tail surfboards again to get a board that'll maintain the attributes i find most useful in my current board, or whether i can broaden my scope and also include wide squash tails.

any advice is appreciated coz although iv been surfing a while, there hasnt been much board change over. there's still a lot to learn.

the wide fish tails have a much straighter plan shape the last 8 to 10 inches so they can carve a longer ark through the turn...the big cut out takes a lot of pressure off the tail also, and probably favours the surfer who surfs off his front foot compared to the wide squash tails that need to have more pressure aplied to the tail...I don't think you will find one faster than the other...thats more dependant on bottom contours and bottom rockers....I don't think you could call als neck beard a sqash tail though...it has a very severe square tail and is quite straight through the last few inches of its plan and would probably perform closer to your fish tail but with more pressure, hope this helps.

Thanks very much for that! just FYI, CI has introduced a version of the neckbeard with a somewhat squashed tail, except that there's only a tri-fin version.