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Hope this doesn't repeat anything. I've got a 7'2" point board with a reasonable amount of rocker. I surf on the North Coast of Ireland where you can get some moderate size, relatively steep waves in the winter, but in the summer the waves can be pretty small. I'll be keeping my old board, but want to buy something higher performance that will help with fast cut-backs. I'm about 11 stone.

I've been looking at swallow tails:

Swallow tailshape of a swallow tail board

but although short, these tend to be on quite chunky boards, and I'm worried that the performance will be poor. I've also heard they are weird to ride.

Also I've been looking at fat-boys, but again, I'm worried about the amount of body. Basically I want a board which will not be too difficult to catch mid size waves with, but will turn pretty quickly (for someone with 5/6 yrs experience). I'm coming around to the idea of keeping to a standard squash tail, going about 6'8 and pointy (little rocker) and a bit thinner. Any advice? Particularly does anyone rave about swallow tails?

Surf-rat

Noticing Pros on TV tend to

Noticing Pros on TV tend to have 3 main boards in the quiver when travelling all roughly same size and to the amatuer look the same, but one of these boards is usually a swallow tail, maybe one other pin and another flat.

From that I would look into getting something very similar to what you have but with swallow tail and small wave consessions. This would be different to a full on fish like most people including myself have.

Can't say much more as I suck, just something I noticed that the pros seem to do.

theoretically if you're

theoretically if you're looking to crank turns, you'd probably be better off looking aat a rounded pin..... they pivvot much better

check out this link for advice on tail shapes

http://www.jpsurfboards.co.uk/buyerinfo.htm#tails