“Free your mind and your ass will follow.” 
George Clinton, P-Funk.

There are only two reactions when people lay eyes on my new board: attraction or repulsion. They either ask a question or screw their face. Indifference, it would seem, is impossible.

What sort of board would cause such a response? One that deviates from the norm of course. The board is a Chris Garrett asymmetrical 's-tail' quad. 5'8” on the heel side, 5'10” on the toe side.

The planshape is symmetrical from the nose to just before the tail where it pulls in two inches shorter on the heel side than on the toe. The fins are symmetrical across the stringer but, again, they're two inches forward on the heel side than the toe side.

A quick glance at the back end of the board and things appear skewif. The response I get is no surprise. “Our eyes are trained to search for symmetry,” says Chris. “Symmetry of the face, for instance. It's what defines beauty. And so boards that are symmetrical look good. We cant avoid that.”

While Chris can't alter people's reactions he can, and does, avoid being beholden to them. Working under his own label (Phantom surfboards) and also shaping for Deus ex Machina, Chris has made a name for himself with left field creations. He's the Johnathon Livingstone Seagull of the surfboard industry: avoiding the pack, following his own intuition, and challenging normative behaviour – such as symmetrical boards.

“We don't stand with our feet straight across the stringer,” says Chris bluntly, “they're at an angle.” And if you want another justification for asymmetry Chris says to simply look at your hoof, “One end has five little round things hanging off it, the other end a great round sole.” The pressure applied varies from one side of the board to the other.

And that is the key to asymmetrical thinking; a design that matches the physical peculiarities of the human body to those of the breaking wave. In this instance Chris shaped a board for a natural foot surfer to ride on a right hand point break.

I'd considered buying an asymmetrical board for at least three years, however my curiosity was always beaten down by rationality. Why risk $700 on an experiment? So when I finally got one I was as fixated as any car park rubberneck. Hours were lost pondering the flow of water over fibreglass, or how fin positioning changes a board's performance.

Early surfs were spent with my antennae twitching, keenly feeling for the board's nature. However, it wasn't nearly as dramatic as three years of wondering had built it up to be. Everything I'd spoken to Chris about, the board subsequently did: it drove off the toe side, turned sharp off the heels. The initial feeling was similar to swapping a longboard for a shortboard; the first few waves feel particularly loose - that was how heel side turns felt in relation to toe side - until you instinctively adjust and it feels normal.

Similarly, there was no weirdness swapping from heel side to toe side. When pumping down the line, for instance. Although the fins on the heel side were two inches forward, they were the same distance from the rail as the fins on the toe side - each fin cluster related to the rail in the same way. And this aspect is crucial in respect to, say, the anything-goes asymmetry of Ryan Burch where Burch might whack one fin on this side and two fins on the other, or any combination that takes his fancy.

“Surfing is all fin and edge,” says Chris. “So if you get that formula right [as you can with asymmetry] you get an instant advantage.” It takes a particular kind of surfer though. Not necessarily one blessed with talent but with curiosity. “If you open your mind to it you remove the mental stumbling block and anything is possible,” says Chris.

Carl Ekstrom is considered the grandfather of asymmetrical boards yet many shapers I spoke to had their own epiphany independent of the forward thinking San Diegan. For Garrett it was a trip to Gnaraloo six years ago. “It's an intense wave,” says Chris, “so I wanted to get the best out of my boards and that meant driving off the bottom and more sensitivity and sharper turning off the top. When I rode it I got that instant advantage.”

In the weeks following that first surf I had many more sessions, some in small beach breaks. And that led to a surprise I hadn't considered: the board also worked in small lefts. The words of Terry Fitzgerald were never more astute: “Everything works. Just some things work better than others.” But of course! The design objective was still apparent, the board wanted to turn tightly off the bottom, but it was of little hindrance – a heel side turn is a heel side turn.

On Swellnet the other day I was asked a question about the board: “Is it better or just different?” I'm still stuck for an answer. Like Phaedrus trying to define quality I can't make a clear distinction, though in the month since receiving it I'm yet to ride any other board. In an oblique way I think that answers the question.

If a more definite answer is required then Tom Carroll has it. While surfing Snapper recently he caught a few waves on one of Chris' 5'4”/5'9” asymmetricals. TC was surprised by the odd looking board but after a good workout gave it a positive assessment: “This board goes really, really good.”

“You've just got to open our mind to asymmetricals,” says Chris. “Tom did.”

Chris Garrett Shapes