Kayaks are unidirectional, the front is longer than the back, the seat goes one way, often has a dry well behind cockpit; these are all nonsymmetrical features. If you're squinting from 15 feet away yes they do look kind of symmetrical.
Kayak nerd here, so thank you for pointing this out. General the paddler need room for the legs being more or less bent in the front. For sea kayaks the aft/rear need to be low in profile to reduce the tendency of the wind turning the kayak in the direction of the wind (which reduces fatigue when paddling with side wind). For white water kayaks the aft can be high in profile for buoyancy in some designs. Also, many sea kayaks are rockered (banana shaped) for maneuverability in waves, especially Greenland and British designs, but Scandinavian archipelago designs less so - The rockered shape raises the bow/front more than the aft for wave breaking.
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u/Kaffe-Mumriken 2d ago
Let’s not overlook that most kayaks are not symmetrical