The front of the human foot has more leverage than the rear of the foot.
So other than Sharkcountry, no one actually has one and other than some really old ones, no one has ridden one. But the consensus is they are a gimick and you can get the same thing by just switching up your fins. But don’t bother.
I’m not likely to change your mind here, but I’ve been riding them nearly exclusively for the last couple of years and my take is very different. A good one is made to go both front side and back side. It will likely have different rockers on either side of the board. The fins will likely be offset. The outline will look like a blend of two different boards. They go normal front side and offer enhanced turning on the back side where you don’t have the leverage of your toe working to drive the front side rail. Because the fins may be offset you don’t have the cavitation interference that most thrusters have and it will likely be a faster board. And there is more. I am unlikely go back to symmetrical. Just my take. I am pretty sure that riding one would get you thinking about the possibilities. Go see George Gall at PlusOne and have a chat. Or catch up with me and ride one of mine.
all the best
A few months back I received a dumpster bound Small Faces 8’2" single fin mini tanker. It had been bolted to a garage wall for many years as a shelf. I liked the overall shape despite the serious twist that gave the right rail additional rocker in the front third of the board. As I was just planning to try the shape then give the board away. I patched all the dings with silicone caulk not wanting to invest any time fixing it. Took it out and loved it, as a goofy foot the additional rocker on my backside made all turns off the heels smooth as silk while frontside was just plain fun. It got me to thinking why limit asymmetry to the back half of the board?
Now another project to do as I plan on pulling out the silicone and patching all the dings to keep the board around awhile longer.
Just thought id throw this out there, done a few asym designs but rather than mess with the board i think just tweaking the fin layout would have just as much merit. Thought about trying the layout below on my next board, idea being Quad fin feel off the bottom turn on the forehand ( definitely faster in my opinion) and hold in the face in steeper waves, then have the heel side as a thruster with the back fin set further back and on the stringer or just off it as below to get that “pivot” off the top which i miss on the quads for medium sized waves. Just a thought to try to maximise the benefits of both setups, Whats everyones thoughts on this, overthinking it probably:)
I reckon if they were any good then Kelly Slater would be riding them. He’s probably tried just about every shape known to man that bloke.
like GT says I hate it when people make up their mind with out trying things
surfing is so much more than pretty symmetrical outlines like a woman which is why there’s such dedication to the standard
surfing is also not about art but should be about function
I have two
a regular and a reverse both by George who works closely with Carl
its not just about the outline and fin placement but different rockers and bottom contours frontside versus backside.
pretty complex
but spot on in thinking.
another way to get around the limitation of standard surfboard design is to go ultra short which is what’s happening now
short, wide flat and chunky with fins on the rails
pro surfing is a joke as far as determining shape
they live in a different paradigm its just skateboarding on water these days
not wave riding
I thought modern surfing is a form of aerial gymnastics.
Waves and boards are needed for air time.
When it comes to assymetrical Carl Ekstrom is The Genuis. Carl told me this story one time of Pat Curren giving him a hard time about assymetricals, and if you know about Pat he really puts an emphasis on symetry and is one of the best shapers ever; Carl just smiled when he told me the story.
To the contrary of what pico and a lot of others are saying, I think there is zero gimmick whatsoever involved. I mean, why yould you creat a “gimmick” that requires you to spend twice as much money shaping twice as many boards just so you can have the same offerings for both regular and goofy footers? The people breaking it down have the idea, but they’re still making it too complicated. So to make it easier, let’s look at all the different aspects of tail shape and how they equate to performance with two basic shapes:
Swallow tails have a longer rail and a shorter release, so ideally you get more tracking surface on the wave by having a longer rail, but the quicker release at the stringer
Diamond tails have a shorter rail line and a longer release at the stringer, therefore turning becomes sharper and looser with the shorter rails, but drive is increased by the extra length down the center.
Now lets look at the body mechanics of turning: To initiate a turn you need to apply pressure to the rail that corresponds to the direction you’re turning: That said, it’s much easier to apply pressure to your toe-side as your foot naturally bends that way, while it’s a lot harder to apply pressure to your heels as you’re working against your own body-mechanics and balance.
That said, why wouldn’t it be a no-brainer to put the shorter rail on the heelside to accomodate the human body’s natural mechanics? If anything, I would say symetrical boards are actually the gimmic because you gain nothing from symetry (one of the rails will always be out of contact with the water so it being a different shape will not hinder anything) and lose performance, but you’re only making the boards symetrical so you can sell more of them because people think asyms look “weird” and may not buy them because of it.
as a side-note… this is also the same reason snowboard binding were switched from racing stance (both feet pointed at the nose) to modern stance (feet perpendicular to the board) - kinda hard to turn a board when you’re working against yourself
yeah totally. those double overhead sunset waves the other week and the barrels going on at pipeline right now during the pro contest are all about airs and stuff. i didn’t see any huge cutbacks or hacking turns or carves at all, just airs.
I scored this old beast a while back. It was buried under a pile of junk in someone’s back yard. I’d actually scored another board off them on EBay and saw the weird assym tail of this thing sticking out from under a pile of stuff that may have at some time been a shed. A bit of digging revealed this 7’ assym gun shaped by the late great aussie shaper Alan Byrne.
It’s pretty beat down but I have done a bit of work on it to clean it up and make it water tight but it’s been a back burner work in progress for a long time now. All this talk about Assym boards has actually made me want to try it out so I might have to finish it off before the next big run of swell.
Maybe one day you’ll see me taking on Queensie Bombie or Deadmans on her but don’t hold yer breath.
haha my mind is made up dont confuse me with facts
yup and that’s why guys like Sunny Garcia and Reef Macintosh aren’t in the contest any more and why Gabe Medina’s ride beat Bruce Irons.
The only Hawaiian I saw do an air today was Seabass
I prefer Pancho’s act to the new school air boys.
acrobatics belong in the circus which is what pro surfing has come to
I enjoyed watching Slater on his little board today seems like he understands the benfits of speed
Spot on. I gave up my fish because kelly doesn’t ride them. Gave up my single fin. Gave up Bonzer. Gave up my twinie. And gave up my LB and my mini sim. Wearing my “What would Kelly ride?” tee shirt proudly.
i was joking. sunset had nothing to do with airs. pipe has nothing to do with airs. fiji, tahiti etc. airs are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of being a professional surfer…it’s not just trestles or HB if you’re a pro. should most of us base our board choice off a pro? nope. are pro surfers just skateboarders on water? hardly.
It would be less of a gimmick if people could actually surf - there seems to be a symmetrical relationship between board and kook. People who can really surf typically have a baord HANDMADE by a local shaper and that board is pretty conservatively appropraite for the conditions at the spot in question. Next down the ladder comes the big name lemmings with those boards with the tractors or hexagons and pros names on them - they usually surf less well and think they are locals cos they moved here last year, then there are the overpriced handmade resin tint was-not-a-good-design-30-years-ago boards carried up and down the beach or floundering in the impact zone (not ridden) by super poser kooks with beards who search eBay for beavertailed wetsuit jackets and msitakenly call LONG-JOHNS ‘farmer johns’ - they spend too mcuh time watching Thomas Campbell movies and waxing poetic about pre-cord days to ever learn how to surf, then at the VERY BOTTOM of the scale are these knuckleheads who are reinventing the wheel (or rather paying someone else to) by buying these ridiculous boards that have the stupidest design ‘ideas’ - these guys can NEVER SURF at all - that seems to clarify the situation. Here is the simple test: go somewhere that the groms are killing it and look at the boards they ride - that is the answer to ‘whats going on’ DONE.
The guys at Plus One work closely with Carl Ekstrom. The science behind what they are trying is there, the testing has been done. An assym makes perfect sense if you think about it. You stand with your heel pointed towards one rail and your toes pointed towards the other rail. Your balance and power will be different pushing on your toes versus pushing on your heels. Whether you like the shorter rail/wider tail on the toe side or heel side is the only question. I think a short board assym ridden by Kelly Slater is just around the corner.
Before you can say something is good or bad, you need to try it yourself. Even then it may not be good or bad for you, yet your surfing mate will say the opposite. Just because something doesn’t work you you doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s just not good for you.
Check it out!
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t207/chippy61/surfboards/aslaterasymetrical.jpg?t=1306323429
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Sways …
You cannot make this stuff up.
Same game new players.
Gotta love it …