A head includes a transducer and a slider having an air bearing surface (ABS) and a trailing face. The slider has an overcoat layer that includes the trailing face and that overcoats the transducer. The ABS includes a trailing pad having a major surface adjacent the transducer, with the major surface lying in a primary plane. The ABS also includes a sub-ambient pressure cavity disposed upstream of the overcoat layer and being recessed from the primary plane by a cavity depth in the range 0.8 to 2 microns. The overcoat layer includes a trailing air flow dam being recessed from the primary plane by a step depth in the range 0.05 to 0.5 microns. The overcoat layer also includes a corner region recessed from the primary plane by at least the cavity depth.