Is anyone still playing with these? Other than what Ryan Burch was doing, I don’t see much happening.
My brother has 2 from George Gall at Plus One Surfboards, and they have so much tech in the shaping that I wouldn’t want to try something like that. One the other hand, I really like riding the smaller of his 2 boards and I think there’s a valid reason for making them.
Are there guys out there messing with asym boards, and what’s up?
I alway thought that the Asymmetrical Board was a really good idea. Rode one of Carl Ekstrom’s Board along time ago and loved it back hand. </p Seems that most won’t go there as it just too different. Many think of it like a one trick Pony. Haven’t seen much of Ryan Burch on one lately most of the more resent videos he seems to be on a fish or n Egg style Board. I Have given some thought to an Aysum Longboard to my thinking the Longer the board the bigger the advantage it would be for your back hand surfing.
Thanks Uncle, I checked out the site.
I wonder how much the front part of an asymetrical board affects the water flow in a negative way. It would seem to me that you would want a clean entry and even drag until you are up on a rail. If that is correct, then you’d want a fairly symetrical front half. The first six inches may not be as critical, but the part from there to about the first third going into the wide point. Then from the middle out through the back could be totally asymetrical including the bottom contours, rocker, etc.
We found that the way George Gall made his boards helped paddling some and in talking with George we think it has to do with fin drag and how the fins are positioned on his board, but it may be more than that. I do believe those boards have a fairly symetrical wide blunt nose.
Interestingly, he found lots of people liked the boards reversed, so my brother ended up with one of each, but one board is over a foot shorter than the other. I liked the smaller of the two, which is the original design about 6-8, but I think I would like it even more if it was four to six inches shorter.
I have two of George’s asymms and I have played around a bit with several boards of my own. George gave me permission to adapt one of his designs to a mini simmon-ish short wide one. It turned out great and I love riding it. I think it is 22 wide and 6-0 on the toe side and 5-8 on the heel side. I just squnched it down and tried to copy the bottom contours. Not easy as you say Shark. Here are a few pics before sanding and while building.
I have never made one, always wanted to.
great thread.
Nice Greg, I was thinking you. Pretty sure you were the one who got my brother interested in George’s asym.
I think with this design shorter is better, so you may it just right. For me 22" is too wide. I think I’d be going down to 21" or 20.5" for the width, but 6" and 5’8" for the length sounds like it would be just right.
Funny thing, when I ride his board, I think that the nose would make a nice tail outline for a short board.
haha. It actually makes a great handle for paddling out and pushing the nose under smaller waves instead of duck diving. I’m much older than you and need some extra width. I now see I could have gone with 21 ish but still loving it.
and yes, Bernie and I talked before he got his. Bernie saw my post about the board when I went to El Sal with it. but he and George bonded and it was all George and Bernie after that. Just a quick plug for George: he is a very very smart designer and materials guy. I bug him for advice often. He rolls his eyes, sighs, and then helps. I am not worthy. ha.
Hi Greg -
Nice one! I like the shape, the rail slots, the asymmetrical treatment and the graphics. If I may… what sort of paint and application are you using? Also, are you using the standard spackle routine on the blank? Any problems with tape pulling out beads?
I think I posted this one somewhere else but here goes again. The owner requested a single keel on the long side (goofy footer - left point waves) and 1/2 quad set on the short side. Curiously enough, he ended up putting another keel in the rear plug on the heel side and rides it on rights as well. In fact, rides it that way on a regular basis. Just goes to show, as George found out with the reversal thing, things don’t always turn out as planned.
My asymmetrical outline was fairly subtle compared to some… just a longer rail line with the arc tail. I kept the rocker on the long side as a normal continuation of the rocker curve. Nose was as symmetrical as I could get it. I vacuumed a recessed pre-fabbed cedar strip compsand inlay inside the parabolic stringers.
Yeah, we spent a couple of hours talking to him when we picked up Bernie’s 2nd board. Bernie gave him an Alexander Gemini to see what they looked like.
George is very smart and progressive in his board making. We saw some very interesting projects he had, some with Carl Ekstrom and others with other guys. All kinds of experiments with foams, and fabrics. He was just getting heavy into the Maurice Cole boards then. He had projects from very small kids boards to full on downwind paddle boards. The other thing was that he is such a nice guy, so willing to talk about all the design stuff. I wish him all the luck in the world. I even tried to get a couple of surf shops here to retail his asym boards, but I don’t think they were ready then.
Nice going on the telekinetic razor bade trick!
Wow nice John. I have a 6’ 5" Greg Griffin Modfish that we vacuum bagged with thin Zebra wood veneer. It has similar color to that deck wood. I call my board Tiger Woods.
John, I can’t tell you the razor blade trick. Trade secret. But I never cut myself that way.
Yes I spackle. May god have mercy on me. I spackle. On that one I did the flats twice knowing that I would be putting tempera paint on it. I used a small foamie to apply the tempera and penciled lightly the lines I needed. I did the black lines first. Then filled in. I’ve use tempera for years with no fading and with this board the light blue faded almost immediately. Threw that bottle out. Pissed me off. Everything I know about painting on EPS I learned from Atomized here on Sways. He used some white stuff the name of which I can’t recall to seal the area to be colored. starts with a “G”. Gessel? something like that. Here I just doubled up on spackle. As for tape, Atomized had a variety of tape to use depending on the application. I didn’t need to seal it that well to the edge of the tape because of the look of the art work, and used basic painters blue tape. As you prob know, when you seal with epoxy and micro balloons you can use the 3M green stuff and you won’t have plugs pulling out.
Here is a better pic from my Wattworks instagram account.
Love that wood look, John. One thing Greg Loehr told me and I took to heart was that when doing asymm outlines, you need to really go for it in order to feel it. No subtle outline tweaks. Go big. How does that one ride?
all the best
Interesting to see how these boards have progressed.
