I came across this wooden skinned bottom assymetric board in a shed in Adelaide. the fin box seemed massive.
anybody know the age and history of them , were they any good

As stated designed for a single tack. The general idea is sound. Let's be honest thrusters and quads are back, I see Assy boards coming back with floro wetsuits and wicked mullets

Wind Force were made at Cut Loose in Lonsdale until some time in the 90s when the name changed to Wind Energy. I don't remember seeing wood bottom boards in the 80s so this is probably one of the later boards made under the Wind Force name.

Windforce were shaped by Shane O'Callaghan. His boards were hit and miss... he loved to experiment with peoples orders which really sucked. I had 4 or 5 custom boards made up over the years, 2 were pretty good, 2 were pretty average, 1 sucked big time... weighed about 10 kg, took it into a shop on Maui and they thought it must have been full of water, but it was just a heavy dog!
The board in the pic would of been from the late 80's, I can't recall him making any asymetricals after that. In fact the only asymetricals I remember him making were under the Naish label in a short stint him done shaping in Hawaii.
His boards were really popular in SA, probably 90% of the wave boards were Wind Force before the production boards took over.

Here's an extract from the 1984 Windsurfing Funboard Handbook.
I particularly like the comment ".........assymetrical [boards]..........is still very much in its infancy, but there can be no doubt that they are here to stay, and will feature very strongly in the future"

50c to you Windy - read an article recently where Mark Angulo was talking up "Assymetrical Fin setups". Whatever will they re-think up next...?

AB...

I am thinking about it for a Sandy Point starboard tack speed board. Sh.t, that was a secret!!!!

annoying thing is its the best condition free board Ive come across yet, Im thinking it would make an awesome coffee table, so I might bring it home on my next trip.
glad to see some of the memory cells get some use there gentlemen

I've been following this for a year or so before quads became the 'new thing'. A surf shaper Carl Ekstrom is doing it for years and sparked my interest particularly the quad/twin fin config.



Whist this config allows you the bigger arc + driving bottom turn and the snappy top turn it is really a matter of individual style, this style was once popular. The popular contemporary style is a snappy square bottom turn to a snappy vertical in-the-pocket hack which needs a tight arc both bottom and up. This as the turns are pretty similar the rails and fin setup have been made similar also, hence the symmetry. Plus symmetrical boards are handy for winter NWers in WA!

I haven't sailed an assy yet and would love to try one based on the above.

Ultimately, it is a matter of compromise. Don't buy into a quad/twin/single/assy because its 'better'... its not. Its just different, with each having their own +/- characteristics. The best shape is the one that suits your own style.

Website:
http://surfboardsbyhydrodynamica.com/hulls/ekstrom

pierrec45 said...

Seriously, has anyone actually seen one of those boards on the water since, say, 1985 ??

Mark Angulo is still riding them - granted he took a numbers of years off from sailing. I am pretty sure he has a custom on he sells via his website. For some reason he seems to like their performance.