This is a Roystonea regia I saw. Looks very unhealthy. 

 

Can someone tell me whether or not this is normal? 

It just started to thrive much more. That's why the trunk is thicker. The crown looks healthy so it's most likely a very healthy palm.

@ne0ndrxft it looks like the think trunk section was probably just something like insufficient water or fertilizer.  That happens with a lot of palms.  They grow in all kinds of weird shapes.  It might also be Roystonea Borinquena, which in photos tends to have more weird trunk shapes.

2 hours ago, Merlyn said:

@ne0ndrxft it looks like the think trunk section was probably just something like insufficient water or fertilizer.

I think the thinner part of the trunk might be due to less water and the thicker part of the trunk indicating more water although it's kind of unusual that the adjacent palms aren't showing a similar bulging which I would expect if the palms are being irrigated the same.  Can't tell from the photo but maybe the palm in question is in a low spot compared to the others?  But yes, the palm looks healthy - they love their water!

Nice! I'm not the guy growing it, but is this avoidable? I want a slightly smaller budge. 

2 hours ago, ne0ndrxft said:

Nice! I'm not the guy growing it, but is this avoidable? I want a slightly smaller budge. 

If you are growing Roystonea, most have a consistently thick trunk.  As others mentioned, a skinny trunk section is sometimes an indicator that the palm wasn't getting enough water.  I read that in some other threads here on Royals too.  I have driven down streets lined with non-irrigated Royals, and I'd see maybe 5 or 10 in a row perfectly even, then a couple of severely scraggly ones, and trunk bulges seemingly at random.  But many skinny spots or bulges seemed to be at similar heights, so maybe it was a result of natural heavy rain years vs droughts.

I don't grow any myself.  I suppose if you *wanted* a narrow spot you could try growing one and restricting water for a while.  I'm not sure how to figure out if it would work...or how to go about doing it.  It would take many years to try it, but would be a neat experiment!

Cool! Some guys on Reddit claim that this is very normal and all that, but from the reliable sources I found and from this forum it's a watering issue. 

So yeah thanks