my skewed tail project has shown a marked improvement in roundhouse cutbacks (where the arc carved extends towards the base of the wave). My non skewed original bogs down a lot in this move - it has bladey rails. I thought i’d improved things by putting chunkier rails in the tail.
this is great but i’ve noticed an equally big reduction in the skewed boards ability to do frontside off the lips 
it does not snap back down the wave easily
I have now found out the fins is probably whats causing it coz just yesterday i removed the stagger and found it had restored its ability to off the lip in small waves, i’ve yet to find out how it does them in the bigger stuff as i’m not great at off the lips and didn’t get a chance on the bigger ones so i need to test it more
where I was wrong:
a) i thought that by pushing heelside fin rearwards and closer to the centre fin it would loosen up the off the lip - it did the opposite.
b) i thought that the centre fin would need the distance from tail measure from tip Y - it doesn’t and was too loose - 1/4" makes a big difference. When set to my standard measurement from tip X it felt better with drive restored.
c) i thought that my foot would align over centre fin - it doesn’t and stays much the same place on board outline.
d) when i hit seaweed and knocked the toeside fin back towards rear fin board felt tracky and stiff
e) when i moved heelside fin up, overall board stiffened a little (i think, but i might be getting confused) but was looser on the frontside off the lip at least in small waves.
have i simply got too little toe in?
my original has 1/16" more toe in approx, or more relavantly the toeside fin points 4" ahead of the nose tip. The heelside fin has more toe in (accident i think) and points exactly to the nose - is this part of the secret?
what should my next fin movement trial be? try pushing heelside fin up even more in reverse stagger and maybe back fin up too if that stiffens it too much?
get a twisted heelside fin made coz my boxes don’t have adjustable toe in?
Some basics:
Tighter fin cluster will make the board rotate quicker around the cluster but feel tighter with a smaller sweet spot.
Move the fins apart and the reverse is true.
For tow in remember that when you turn up the face its the OUTSIDE fin tow that dictates how fast you can turn up the face. I like my fins pointed 2in off the nose and this seems to work best overall. Small adjustments in tow are a big deal. Asymetrical tow works well if you want to loosen up your turn in a specific direction. Example if you want more snap off the top or want a tighter cutback tow the inside fin slightly. hope that helps
thanks, thats the information i wanted, if i can’t achieve the improved off the lips with reduced or reversed stagger in the bigger waves then i’ll consider getting a skewed toeside fin made instead
I believe that you have your template reversed. Conventional wisdom with asymetric tails calls for the heel side to have the shorter, wider rail line. Conversely, a longer, more narrow shape compliments the ‘weaker’ forehand turn.
Check out old magazines for articles and pictures with the likes of Carl Eckstrom, Peter Townsend, Gary Elkerton, Al Merrick, Kelly Slater etc exploring the asymetric tail.
Hey
I’m with Paul
If it is indeed top view, regular foot surfer, you are backwards.
Heel side is always shorter and wider, with fin forward for a pivot point.
But that would really depend on which side you are trying to make sharper turns, and which side to draw out turns.
hello Paul and LeeD, i was well aware that i was flying in the face of conventional wisdom, about 20 yrs ago an eccentric surfing comrade in Wales called “stan the man” had a board built on the exact opposite principles of mine along the lines of your explanations.
However consider the following:
theory 1
its well understood that moving a fin cluster forward loosens the board, so if you take a look at the diagram then for carving a frontside bottom turn it could be suggested that the red side of the diagram is the significant side and that effective board length is from nose to pt Y. i originally set rear fin at 3 5/8" from Y - the same distance from the end of my convential pintail board.
for performing a frontside cutback or off the lip (a turn to the left) it could suggested that the black side of the board is the significant side. An therefore its efective length is more like nose to pt X. So this places the rear fin further up from the effective tail end 3 7/8" inches. So it could be argued that the cluster is further up from a heelside perspective than a toeside one. therefore the heelside will be looser.
Not an unreasonable theory as the opposite side of the board is not even in complete contact with the water as we bank into the turn
theory 2:
how many times have you heard the belief/myth/theory that a swallow tail is snappier and looser than a pintail? So using the significant side argument from above if you look at the left side of the board it is one half of a swallow tail, if you look at the right side of the board it is one half of a rounded pin. swallow looser than pin means left turns looser?
theory 3:
As J. Troy said tighter fin cluster allows for quicker rotation and on the left side we have the significant 2 fins tighter than on the right side.
I’ve yet to disprove theory 1 and 2 as for small waves at least, i restored the off the lip ability by aligning the front 2 fins. I’ve also been making some long sections of reef when travelling frontside and i don’t appear to have compromised my down the line frontside speed at all.
theory 3 has been blown out of the water though -well sort of, off the lips are a lot worse with the tighter left side, but, i can go hammering into the roundhouse and maintain speed better than before, but I’m not happy with this tradeoff. Also J Troy says that the outside fin is the significant one regarding toe in, i didn’t know that. another problem with theory 3 is that i pushes the fin further behind the foot and the further someone stands up on a board the stiffer it becomes.
another theory which hasn’t worked is my attempt to get my heel closer to the rail. my rear foot naturally sits nearer the toeside rail, making my toeside more poweful in terms of getting leverage over the fins when banking into a turn (ie the opposite of the toeside being weaker theory). i sometimes find myself sliding my heel back just prior to a cutback or compromising the amount i can dig my heel in. moving the centreline of the middle fin didn’t affect my foot placement
Hi MrJ
With all due respect, I think your theories are all askewed.
Especially in regards to #2. A long swallow tail is the stiffest shape you can get.
A long swallow tail that is stiff is made stiffer with decreased width.
A short curvy, wide outline is always loose provided it’s not overpowered.
I think you should ride your board upside down.
Just kidding, of course.
hello LeeD, yes I never believed #2, we’ve had a few “tail shape does it matter” online discussions on another forum and you would know that my theory is that the type of tail is not important its the overall curve and fin placement, and i’ve been arguing with others that a rounded pin can be loose. So this board was partly built to illustrate that,
i was sort of wondering whether #3 might work but it doesn’t
i also appear to be on my own on the theory that a rounded pin likes its fins further up from tail tip than swallow to achieve a similar effect, i once posted that belief here and no one agreed!
Hey MrJ
In my less than humble opinion, #3 works only if the tail is WIDER, and the fins are set forwards of the other side, and if you get rid of the sticky swallow. All 3 are going against you and your theory #3.
Of course, increased rocker on cutback side help too.
yes LeeD, what you are saying does seem to be the case. I got to use it in some overhead waves today and still got a bit of a sticky feel with the fins aligned - although some of that may be the low toe in. My lokboxes will allow me to try your belief about having the heelside fin forward, so that will be my next test.
I tried aligning the fins and then reversing the stagger to bring the heelside fin forward in an attempt to improve off the lips
I first made adjustment A to bring them level and it did produce a much better result.
I then made adjustment B pushing the toeside fin backwards. The result was too stiff.
I then compensated with adjustment C pushing the rear fin up. This produced a good result very similar to adjustment A on its own.
trouble is i’ve only tried it in small waves like this. My feeling is that it will still be sticky in the lip when it gets bigger. I’m suspecting lack of toe in (points 1 ft in front of nose). its not going to be easy to increase toe in with my lokboxes but i’m investigating a couple of ideas.
I think one of the reasons why it works reasonably at all with this little toe in is a couple of other compensators - increased cant and the fins are small too.
