The enhanced diffusion tail of implanted boron in Si was studied using conventional furnace annealing. Surface layer stripping was applied to remove part of the sample before annealing in order to distinguish the effect of the defect‐rich surface region from the tail region on the enhanced diffusion of boron. The boron concentration profiles were obtained with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Spreading resistance profiles were also measured to compare with the SIMS profiles. The results show that implantation‐induced damage in the surface region is responsible for the enhanced boron diffusion. Channeled boron in the tail of the implantation profile becomes activated during annealing and has little effect on the tail redistribution during annealing.