Camels`s board *PIC*

Of all the peculiar boards that receive discussion here, this one certainly deserves a first class evaluation by the Swaylocks crew. Its in the latest Surfers Journal- a board shaped by famous underground Indo surfer, Geoff Goulden, aka “Camel.” He calls it the “best tube-riding board ever.” He rode it exclusively at God’s Left, Supersuck, G Land, Padang, and One Palm Point. It`d be great to see more pics of this stick! Totally hardcore! Feedback and analysis, please?

Definitely made for a left hand tube - center fin closest to left rail and tip extended on left side. Placement of the ‘extra’ fin near the front on the right rail probably provides an ability to still get this up on the right rail (for a cutback). My boards have similar asymmetrical shapes (for the same reason - the spot by my home is a left reef). The left rails are longer and the left outline is narower in the rear (instead of moving the fin towards one side), The right rail is 1.5 inches shorter and 1/4 inch wider in the tail - makes a full speed mid-face cutback possible. I do place the side fins differently - left further back than the right by about 1/4 inch, but both side fins are the same distance from their adjoining rails. I use v-stringer blanks that have the stringers apart at the tail just enough to put a stringer in each of the ‘tails’ on the board - just to keep from cracking the tails all the time. Most of the times the tails are no more than 2 inches apart although I just made a severe variation with a fish tail on the long side and a oval pin on the short. Asymmetrical is worth thinking about (particularly for short boards) cuz’ most of us can’t surf (well) frontside both ways.