http://www.cisurfboards.com/surfboards.asp
Go to this site and look under longboards, then look for the model H4000. Does anyone have an explanation as to the reason behind this tail design. Will the board work better going to the right ??? Please add your 2 cents… Thanx…
Al’s a-symetrical tail. Good question. I believe the theory is that people turn a board differently on their frontside than their back so this tail is supposed to compensate. I’ll be interested to see what comes up in this thread.
D
I shaped myself an asymetrical tail a year or so ago on a longboard. I put the long side rounded pin on my forehand side and a sort of squash tail on my backhand side.
The backhand side is 9" shorter than the forehand side. The board has a fair bit of V in the tail with a lot more V on the backhand side.
I used to shape a lot of these in the mini-gun era in the early 70’s.
My theory is that this tail helps on cutbacks and going backside especially if you are not really good on your backhand side. Experience with this board has proven that this is indeed true. The board cutsback like butter on a right and is nice and loose on a left.
Sure attracts a lot of attention walking down the beach with this board.
Of course in the windsurfing world asymetrical tails were very popular [still might be for all I know]. My experience is that they are very interesting to shape as you basically are shaping two boards in the tail, that is assuming you took the approach I did. I basically focused on each of the rails independently as the only place on my board where the dimensions were symetrical was in the nose. The width was different on both sides at both the wide point and in the tail, with the tail varying by 1/2".
The fins were also placed a little differently although on this board I did not offset the side bites which I have done in the past, where they were placed relative to their individual tails.
Interesting tails!
See photo of tail!
Handshaper. Do you surf regular or goofyfooted?
For most of us, right and left are very different. No matter what the equipment…
Most tails inc. pop-outs are asymmetrical.Herb
Hand-shaper, were there any negatives to this board at all? I’m thinking I just might go for it. I live at a beach break and can usually choose to go frontside whenever I want and so my backhand ability has always suffered: and then I travel to good point waves and they’re rights, which is my backhand side. So maybe I’d dig a shape like this.
Another potential plus: since about 75% of my surfing friends are regular foots and I’m goofy, it’ll give me a good excuse why I can’t loan them this board, ha! “sorry man, this one’s designed for a goofyfoot and it’ll mess you up. here, surf this old beat up longboard instead…”
I surf regular foot, sorry I didn’t clarify that!
I have not found any negatives to this design yet and I have surfed it in a variety of conditions. Including rights and lefts on both reef breaks and beachbreaks.
This board also had a lot of other things going on besides the tail so the combination might have helped to make it work. For instance it has a step deck in order to keep the nose lighter and easier to move around.
If I do it again which I know I will as I’m already planning it I will make it shorter. The tail helped with the length because it made the board feel shorter than its actual length. But I would prefer it to be shorter so that it could be more general purpose.
I think the biggest dilemma with this type of tail is deciding just how you are going to configure it as there are a number of different options of which I have tried two or three.
Asymmetricals were very popular in windsurfing in the 80’s. Craig Maisonville, who shaped (still shapes?) under the Hi-Tec label in Paia on Maui, was a major force in the movement. He very clearly demonstrated the qualities of the design (basically a gunny pintail on your bottom-turn side, much shorter squash on the other) by laying down Curren-esque bottom turns with beautiful flow and tons of drive.
Lost touch with the windsurf world decades ago, but I would be surprised if there isn’t a small core of riders who still swear by the design.
I’ve never tried it on a surfboard, but loved it for windsurfing.
Maz
Another plus for the asym. is you can use the other side to open your beer. Mike
al Byrne of byrning spears used to make asymetrical tails for pipe.