all boards, today’s younger set of designer/ shapers have left the track of symmetry as being utmost importance.
The rush to build Tomo style, asymms, Simmon’s, Alaia’s, finless, etc. are having them concentrate on bottoms rather than out line. Sure a pig style of any length board will affect the turning radiius, as will shoving the wide point forward, but in general, a badly designed rocker will be very difficult to remidy with fins and outline.
Kurt Wilson, Xtrak owner, APS rookie of the year rode for me through the 70’s and 80’s, he had me pull his wide point back to center in the later 70’s, while nearly every surfer on the planet was riding wide point forward. I then took on the challenge of rockers, Mike Daniel was working at my factory and was witness to us getting more than a leg up on the rest of the builders.
Only Greg Loehr was working with extreme bottom rockers with Bil Hartley, leading to Kelly’s flip tips, which Mike Daniel designed and built 2 plugs for Clark, the 6’7" D and the 7’2"D.
Since then, with boards getting below 6 feet the need for a lot of rocker is pointless, the surfer has complete control over his platform, a simple weight shift and the nose lifts up or down, so a lot of nose rocker is no ,longer critical on steep drops and being short, the rider can power the board through turns without the need for very much tail rocker. Many of the steep drops are controlled with a rail grab, tis has lead to the noses and tail getting wider also, on a 5’7" board there isn’t much room to be 19" at center and have an 11" nose, it can be done, but there just isn’t the need on a modern short board.
That is what is so bitchin about the continuing evolution of the surfboard, it does not stay static, it is in a steady flux, some “advancements” turn out to be evolutionary dead ends, nothing new about that, but we have ridden them all and ripped on dinosaur boards, if I live another 10 years, I’m looking to see where this journey will lead