I’m thinking about an asymmetrical fish. I understand that the basics of asym design is the heel side is pulled in at the tail. Would it make sense to pull in the heel side all the way through to the nose? I made a template and one of my friends commented that it was a one way board and the toe side would drag in the water when surfing backside, but honestly I don’t think he is very qualified. What do you guys think?
Check out the Wayne Rich interview on surf splendor.
Wayne gives a great talk at length about asym design. - what it does/doesn’t do and how it does surf / and what I found most interesting - how it doesn’t surf.
The original design intent was to have the longer side on the toe side, and the shorter curvier side on the heel side. The theory being that it made the backside cutback turn easier. This, as I heard it articulated in very late 1962, or early 1963. First one I ever saw and handled, was a Surfboards Australia, in Sept. 1963, at Sunset Beach.
I’ve made an asymmetrical board with conventional thinking behind the overall design. Ironically, a board specifically designed for a goofy footer on a left breaking wave was claimed to have been ridden equally, if not better, on right breaking waves. I think I’ve heard of similar experiences echoed by people right here on Swaylocks in the past(?)
Yeah the assyms made for one stance seemed to work just as well for the opposite stance. I prefer a longer straighter rail line on the frontside and a shorter rounder rail on the backside. My brother has 2 assyms made by George Gall of Plusone surfboards. They are very complicated designs with different outlines and bottom contours in the back half. One is a reverse design.
Read through this thread: http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/my-new-asym-george-gall-plusone
I’ve made hundreds of asymmetrical surfboards.
Unintentionally.
Putting aside the “conventional” theory behind most asymmetric designs and starting from scratch my reasoning is as follows.
Backhand turns seems to present a few challenges for many surfers. Poor technique and/or the less natural feeling body mechanics required (compared to the forehand turn) make it harder to master consistently. My backhand feels stronger, but stiffer and with less finesse. This maybe not the same for everyone though, as back foot versus front foot surfers may feel things differently. However the common consensus seems to be that the heel has more power, but less control. I feel like the ankle to toe leverage ends up being a more “fine motor control” movement which absorbs the applied weight shift of the legs and upper body rather than applying much extra force itself. Helping you compress into the turn and spring out again with more finesse and control than you can on your heel side. The heel side on the other hand however seems to me to rely on your legs alone to handle the compression into and spring out of the turns. You are missing one extra articulated joint to control the whole operation. The load path down through your body to the point of applied force on the board is more direct and efficient. Hence my feeling of more power but less control on the heel side. Heel side being more “digital” and toe side being more “analog” in terms of control.
If you were to follow this logic then then the toe side of the board should be designed to be more sensitive and requiring less strength to control and the heel side design to require more strength to control and be less sensitive (with more “on/off” design features). This would apply to the plan shape, tail shape, rocker, bottom contour, fin size/placement and rail shape.
That’s just my 2 cents worth anyway. Others here will/may have different/better/more experience in these matters than I though. I can hardly claim to be an expert in this matter as I have only built one board to test this hypothesis, so I could hardly claim this to be the gospel - buyer beware.
The toes and front of the foot have more leverage than the heel.
Fulcrum is closer to the heel.
Better balance leaning forward.
I think the beauty of the assym design is when you ride frontside and make a hard top turn or cutback. The rounder tail curve allows you to make quicker and sharper turns, which is what you want to do. I’m not sure the assym helps with backside surfing because you have a lot of leverage when you do a backside top turn or cutback.