When I search on "front rails", very little comes up. I understand that rails aft of wide point are more active, especially in the rear 18", and this the reason so much design is focused on them. So I thought I'd start the discussion. Is it safe to say that, besides noseriders, the front 12" rails in the nose section don't function very much at all on smaller and or mushy waves? More importantly, in those same waves, the rails between wide point and 12" back from nose are in contact with the water during trim and glide. I've always thought that for this reason they should generally be soft and either 50/50 or slightly down? This section does part the water, passing it down to the center and aft, so the more flat area the better, so it planes earlier and faster. So Im thinking down and soft if you're on waves that have a bit of energy and 50/50 soft for waves that dont? Ive tried boxy rails in this section and found them to me fast, but made the board feel harder to control.
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