The down side is that the boat's length makes it difficult to do 360's and tight cutbacks on smaller waves. Once the domain of squirt boats and Sabres, the group is now dominated by Surf Boots. A surf boot has a planing surf board bottom with a kayak deck. The average length is between 8 ft. The rails are soft in the bow and hard in the stern.
Some surf boots come with a channeled hull, or fins, to improve tracking.
This combination of surf board and kayak designs allows the paddler to perform many maneuvers that are virtually impossible with a displacement hull surf craft. Three sixties, off the lip re-entries, and floaters are common place among the advanced paddlers. The boot really shines on the paddle out to the line up due to the increased nose rocker, the planing hull, and the stable buoyancy. The soup ride can be very sticky due to the short and stubby buoyancy of the boot. The ultimate paddle craft for pure surfing expression is the wave ski.