Asym | Left Brain / Right Brain
Product Specs
- Dimensions: can be customized
- Tail Shape: asym [regular or goofy]
- Construction: customizable
- Fins: can be customized
Regarding asymmetric surfboards:
In the past, I always thought the whole asym thing was weird. They just looked off to me, like the surfing world had run out of designs and had gone crazy and fallen off the deep end. I guess I viewed asym’s like a classical painter of realism might look at the stylings of abstract cubism, and I admit deep down I mocked and scorned…for years. But then a friend of mine who seemed genuinely, positively effected by these off-craft said to me, “You really should consider it’s a legit thing.” So, I ignored him for a long time.
Then, like pop, one day it hits me…it makes sense. It has to do with the body mechanics: A longer rail line on the toe side / frontside, and a shorter rail on the heel side. For example, if you’re regular foot you’ll have the longer rail on the right rail toe side and the shorter rail on the left heel side. And vice versa for goofyfoot. Since everyone lays over their rail differently on their frontside versus their backhand approach, then it could actually make sense to design each rail line accordingly to suit these varying approaches.
For example, no matter who you are, everyone compresses the frontside rail using both their toe side feet together at the same time; leaned over pushing off the toes. Yet everyone, on their backhand compresses the rail by the ball of their back foot heel. A more concentrated pressure forces the board into a more abrupt, steeper angle when re-directing off the heel side. These differing leverages vary drastically due to the body mechanics of the human body; how the bones and joints and muscles hinge themselves in motion.
And so that’s the approach I took with the asym when I finally decided to stop being a wallflower and join the crook-tailed dance party. And to my astonishment it works wonderfully. And it really seems to smooth out the speed, tempo and rhythm to match that of the wave’s pace.
Now, this is just the intro course. There’s a lot more to it like the outline, rocker, hull contours, rail type, *fin setup, etc. But I’m going to leave all that for an upcoming board breakdown in the shaping room coming soon. Here’s asym #5 for my friend Dooma. I love how he surfs this board with long drive speed out of the bottom turn and a crisp power speed hack rebound out of the top.
But most of all I dig the big smile paddling back out saying, “I’m just so stoked to be this excited to surf.”
And one other thing I’ve come to realize about this new design: you don’t need to think about how to adjust your surfing to ride this shape. It’s an organic flow that matches body mechanics to the natural arcs we wanna draw. More and more I’m believing that on a proper asym, you won’t even be thinking about the fact that it’s an asym. I’m calling this asym design the “Right Brain / Left Brain” because it combines both lobes working in unison together. 🧠
