I've always been pretty skeptical of people who discuss the finer details of board shapes with great confidence as to the impact of these features. E.g. fins, concaves, tails, channels, rocker etc.

Obviously these have an impact on how a board rides (some more easily understood than others), but I'm starting to think that in some cases a lot of feedback that the average surfer gives about minor design changes is crap.

For example, with a car a driver can drive the same track under almost identical conditions for hours at a time. I can see how this would allow a good driver to feel the effect of relatively subtle changes to the car set up.

But conditions generally change significantly from 1 surf to the next. Besides, the the average surfer might only actually surf for a few minutes in a 2 hour session. And this few minutes will be made up of numerous different waves. And in that time the tide, swell and wind are all likely to change.

So I find it very hard to believe that the average surfer can really isolate the effect of subtle differences in board shape/design over all the other variables involved in surfing.

What's everyone reckon?