![]() ![]() Unlike many asyms floating around today, we reeled in the “shock and awe” effect. Precise surfing can become a casualty to wave catch-ability, and ease of speed generation… especially on heel turns (back side bottom turns or front side pocket turns are most effected), so I began to take surface area out of the heel rail on my wide Rocket tails, turning them into Round tails, and then slowly offsetting the centerline, as well as adding more rail rocker to the wider side of the tail, and other subtle adjustments to try and neutralize the difference between heel and toe body mechanics. With wide tails and high volume to body weight ratios on small wave boards, for average surfers, the big tails can easily start to get in the way. On a narrow / thin, low volume board, the surfer can easily control the tail on heel or toe edge, thus it’s very rare to see high level surfers using them on high performance short boards (although I believe there is room to develop and improve them in that genre). For me, asymmetries help most when applied to high volume boards. I worked on it periodically, for over 5 years, and feel that due to the work of guys like Ekstrom and young Ryan Burch, among others, to popularize asymmetric designs, the time is becoming right to actually offer these designs to the public. This specific board, the “MAYSYM”, is based around our “V2-StubRocket”, a small wave specific, spin off of the original “Rocket” (which was popular when I started developing this board). About ten years later, inspired by the resurgence of asym popularity, we made a few for Aaron “Gorkin” Cormican, with winged swallow on the toes and round pin on the heels. One of which was easily one of my all-time best boards to that point. ![]() Around the turn of theĬentury, after reading an asym article in Surfers Journal, in 1999, I re-visited them, making a few HPSBs, for an early Mentawais trip. It spurred my interest in the concept, but I only made a couple asym surfboards at the time, and soon lost interest. It was the first board I ever rode that I could properly carve a heel edge on. I was influenced by the best snowboard I had ever owned (up to that point) a NITRO “PYRO”(see photo of board), twin tip, asymmetric snowboard. My first foray into asymmetric designs was in the winter of ‘92. They’re almost always designed to be more forgiving on the heels (usually done by reducing surface area or shortening rail line) with more resistance on the toes (a wider, straighter, or longer rail and or rocker line). Contrary to common misconception, Asymmetrical boards are not for “going right or left”, or “backside or frontside” but are designed to work in symmetry with a natural or goofy footed surfer. Heel turns are more abrupt, without the ability to “feather” our rail pressure with supple ankles and toes. The general concept is we all surf with different leverage on our heels, vs our toes. ![]() The advent, and popularization, is mostly credited to gifted designer, Carl Ekstrom. Purposely asymmetric boards have been around for decades. The MAYSYM features anatomically corrected tail curves for more control on a high volume, small wave Stub Rocket. ![]()
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