If you’re looking for the best possible traction and control when surfing, your choice will be a pin tail. This type of tail has the narrowest width of all your basic surfboard tail shapes. Because the tail’s surface area is small, this allows the tail of the board to grab hold of the water, and maintain direction by tracking.?The pin tail shape is like an arrowhead, with two curved lines coming to a point. This design will give you good water flow over the tail of the board, allowing the tail to hold better, and avoiding any abrupt release that could knock you off your board.