Where the
Numbers Come From
A guide · 829 boards, 3428 sizes
A board page mixes three kinds of figure: what the brand lists, what the atlas read off a photo, and what it worked out. Each is labelled where it is printed. This page says what the labels mean, how the drawings and the 3D are made, and what the atlas never does.
Four Words
| On the page | What it means |
|---|---|
| listed | The brand lists it on its product page and its readings agree. Printed as the brand’s, with a link to the page. |
| medium confidence | Traced on the board’s own photo and checked against a listed number (the width of the outline, the thickness or the litres of the side); or a listed value with a minor flag, such as a retailer’s copy that differs by a few percent. |
| estimated | Worked out from the board’s own numbers or photo by a rule (a thickness solved from the litres), borrowed from a sibling of another year or line, or taken from a group of similar boards the board falls inside. |
| a guess | A typical figure for the kind of board (a twintip’s 14 mm), a group too small or too far to trust, or two listed readings that can’t be settled. Always labelled, never sorted or compared as if it were listed. |
A value “read off the outline” (wide point, planform area, length over width) is marked derived: it is the atlas’s own figure, computed the same way for every board, never something a brand said.
What the Brand Lists
The source
Every board comes from its brand’s own product page, read by a pipeline that keeps the page it read and the date. A retailer’s copy fills a field the brand left out, never replaces one. A board the brand no longer sells comes from an archived copy of its page, and the page says “archived”.
What that gives
Length, width and volume for nearly every size (2743 of 3428 sizes list litres; twintips, wakeboards and some stock surfboards don’t, and are named by their dimensions instead). Thickness for 2646 sizes. Weight when listed, as a range when the brand gives one. Where a page contradicts itself (inch and centimetre figures that disagree, a volume bigger than the box), both readings are kept, the field is flagged, and nothing is corrected by hand.
How a Board Is Drawn
The outline
The brand’s top-view photo is cut out and traced into one outline of 101 stations along the length: the half-width at each. That outline is scaled to each size’s listed length and width. A size the brand shows on its own photo gets its own trace; the others reuse the reference size’s shape at their own dimensions, which is how brands scale a range in practice.
The side
A side photo gives the rocker (the bottom curve) and the deck line. The thickness it shows is checked against the listed one, or the litres when no thickness is listed: pads, fins and the camera height all make a photo read thick, so a side that fails the check is not used. 553 boards have a measured side; 276 have one derived without a usable photo, 54 of them borrowed from a sibling in the same line.
The 3D
Outline, side and thickness make a hull. Where the brand lists a volume, the hull is checked to hold it: with no thickness listed, the thickness is solved until it does (368 sizes); with both, the section’s fullness is solved and the listed thickness is never changed. 308 sizes carry a typical thickness because the brand lists neither. 796 boards wear the brand’s own deck and bottom photos; the rest wear their discipline’s colour.
829 boards carry a full record of every value’s source, tier and the candidates that lost; the board page prints the weakest one under its 3D so the least sure figure is the first thing you read.
What the Atlas Never Does
Numbers
Never prints a worked-out or guessed value as the brand’s. Never corrects a brand’s page by hand. Never fills a missing volume with a guess: a size with no listed litres has none here.
Words and pictures
Never copies a review: the reviews, videos and threads on a board page are links, found once on request, nothing quoted. The brand images on the 3D and the photos belong to the brands and link to their pages.
Money
No prices, no stock, no affiliate links today. The “see it on” button goes to the brand’s own page; a shop link is marked as one.
Seen Something Wrong?
A size that isn’t on the brand’s page any more, a photo of the wrong board, a thickness that can’t be right: say which board and what you saw. The pipeline keeps a list of what each brand’s pages get wrong, and a person checks every change before it goes in.