By Jim Snyder - The Asylum series is a trio of short, round-hulled squirt boats that Jim Snyder calls “Nouveau-Retro”. They offer the smooth sink and screw abilities of classic squirt designs like the Bigfoot and Shred, while being short enough to throw fast vertical and past-vertical sequences like the newer short designs. Comfort was also addressed quite handilyduring the crafting of these boats, so they can be chopped considerably lower than other squirt designs while still being quite comfy to sit in for long periods of time. SPY
 The Spy is a slinky little wisp of a boat that excels at all the aspects of pure squirt boating. Designed to accommodate paddlers with a short inseam (28” and below), it is the perfect screwing, cartwheeling, and downtime machine for smaller squirtists. The boat is unique within the Asylum series in that it has considerably more “tool” area in front of the footbumps than either of it’s bigger siblings, allowing better mystery ability for it’s length. The Spy is super-smooth through below-vertical, vertical and past-vertical transitions and washouts, sinks smoothly and loops effortlessly. It is a competition-proven design, placing first at the 2002 US National Championships (Women’s Squirt) and taking the Silver Medal at the 2002 PreWorld Freestyle championships (Women’s Squirt).ASYLUM
 The first and central boat in this series, the Asylum was developed to provide maximum performance in a short, comfortable package for paddlers with a 28-32” inseam. Designed with smooth screws, mysteries and “loops” (underwater barrel rolls) in mind, the Asylum is about as well-balanced a package as you can get for pure squirt performance. Though it won’t flatspin on green waves, it surfs in typically dynamic squirt fashion and performs blasting transitions (or “blastwheels”) in holes with ease. The boat can be cut extremely low and still provide a high degree of comfort thanks to the large footbumps and raised knee pockets that are a hallmark of the Asylum series. Mystery moves are easy in this boat – not in the same submarine category as some other designs, but certainly very respectable given it’s short length. The Asylum is an exceptional boat for competition – the combination of rocker, round hull, short length and sinkability have made it the choice of some of the world’s top international competitors. Asylum paddlers took gold at the US National Championships (Men’s Squirt), and both the Gold and Bronze medals at the 2002 PreWorld Freestyle Championships (Men’s Squirt). SNEAKER
The Sneaker delivers Asylum-style performance to paddlers with longer inseams of 31-37”. Serving up the same combination of super-slinky, smooth screws and cartwheels and soft sinkability as the shorter boats in the series, it offers the added benefit of being long enough to gather large amounts of current and thus achieve downtime like the classic long boats! Plush, cushy deck features give superior comfort even in very low chops, and the boat carries enough speed thanks to it’s greater length to be a very good river-running squirt as well. The Sneaker has proven it’s downtime pedigree already, placing in the top three in both the expert and intermediate classes at the 2002 US Mystery Nationals alongside mystery machines like the Bigfoot, Shred and Angst.
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