#roystuartguns A new paradigm in asymmetrical surfboard design.

Here's the finished shape.

                                                                                                 

#roystuartguns

Asymmetry is a hot trend in surfboard design at present. There are two theories used: one is to make boards which are designed either for left or right breaking waves, the other   more popular way to go is to make boards based on the rider's stance i.e. for natural or goofy footed riders.

The natural or goofy footed 'asyms'  deal with, or attempt to deal with the difference between turning a surfboard forehand and turning it backhand. Backhand turns give the rider less control as the pressure is applied with the heels as opposed to the ball of the foot. It's easy to apply force with the heels but it's not so easy to exert subtle control or to release the force. The heel vs ball of the foot theory has been very well explained and utilised by Donald Brink:

Although I understood the reasons behind the asymmetrical forehand/backhand based designs, I was not attracted to them but didn't really know why. Something just didn't seem right. It wasn't until I watched the video above where Donald explains how he goes about designing them that the penny dropped: it wasn't that there's anything wrong with the Brink method, it's that it's based on a shortboard stance, which has the rider standing sideways, at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, with both feet, more or less, on the centreline of the surfboard.

With the longer and wider boards which I make, a line drawn between the feet doesn't run fore and aft and the rider is not standing absolutely sideways on the board. Instead he stands facing partly forward and the line between the feet runs across the centreline.

This partly forward facing stance is used in wider boards to allow more rail to rail force to be applied. Standing sideways on the centrline the riser's feet are far from the rails and it's hard to apply enough force to them to turn the board. By facing forwards there's a foot closer to each rail. As a consequence there's no need to use the solutions which are used for heel/toe rails on sideways stance shortboards... the surfer has plenty of control over rail to rail roll, simply by adjusting pressure from one foot to the other... a technique which would only give fore and aft pitch control on a shortboard.

So, is there any need for asymmetry in a longboard or gun which is ridden with a forward facing stance? Yes there is. Because the stance is not directly across the board ( it might be at 45 degrees for example) the rail pressure is  further forward when the lead foot is used and further back when the aft, or rearmost foot, is employed. So the turning pressure is always further forward when doing a backhand turn,

Thus the asymmetry used for the longer wider board is there to give a planshape curve which responds better to turning weight forward when turning backhand and further back when turning forehand.

Here's our 66-838 gun  for goofy footed riders in deck view showing just such a shape... there's a 'hip' further forward on the backhand side and a less pronounced hip further aft (with a more parallel rail line forward of the hip) on the forehand side. Unlike the shortboard 'asyms' the tail remains more or less symmetrical.

You read it here first :)

Next we'll discuss asymmetrical fin setups for single finned surfboards.

A new paradigm in asymmetrical surfboard design.