Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Has anyone out there seen, surfed, or shaped a hybrid fish/spoon? I glued up a balsa blank with half inch redwood stringers, and I figured it would be good for a spoon since I could thin it out without sacrificing strength. But, I have heard the traditional spoon needs epic conditions to turn on. the reefs around here do have the juice, but I was wondering if anyone has seen a hybrid with the planing speed of a fish, or maybe a more subtle displacement hull for the regular days.

Checkout Flex thread on KSUSA
viewtopic.php?t=704

or link to Swaylocks Spoonfish project posted here by Flexman
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=160028

or photo posted by Flexman
album_picm.php?pic_id=899

Uriah

The way I see it is that if spoons performed that well we would all be riding them today.....
Dont get me wrong as I have my eye out for one,,,,,,at the right price ....but only as a "wall hanger"....todays shapers move forward in a progressive direction because of their knowledge and experience....
by all means get one shaped for its past history but dont think of it as a new direction....from experience... they are too heavy and require extra effort for everyday surfing.....just a few thoughts...

Tony

What I want to achieve is that "in the board" feeling for powerful bottom turns. If the board is shaped as a regular fish, and then radically scooped out, can I backfill it with an extremely thick kneepad to get the same buoyancy while retaining the flex for a psuedospoon feeling? I have only been KBing for a few months, but I am finding the same limitations with my current KB as I have with all my other standup boards in speed off of the bottom, and they have all been Frye's, and my KB is from Toby. That is why I started looking at Greenough and his "untold gears" of Velo. The problem is, working with an extremely tempermental artist like Toby is difficult at best, even when you know him well, and I don't have a year to wait for Skip. So I glued the balsa myself. But everyone knows the difference between the master and the apprentices work. Does anyone know a shaper in the San Diego region that could accomplish something like this?

.

Thank you for the voice of reason. I should just trust my instincts on this one.

George Greenough's early eighties carbon fiber spoons are very , very light.Some of THE real reasons he and others don't ride them is they REALLY come into their own with high quality surf and the lack of crowds to compete(snake) with. You would be a sorry case in todays snake fest. They are a super advanced wave riding style also.It would be fun to unleash one of the carbon fiber spoons on a boat trip or some empty exotic surf you know?? Like GG was doing 25 yrs ago........

.

I agree about the crowds. However, my job allows me two weekdays off, which really reduces the crowd factor. Karma is really catching up with me though thanks to many misguided (immature) years as a VERY aggressive short and longboarder, and I have felt the sting of getting absolutely no respect, despite the fact that more often than not I could borrow their board and put them to shame. It's funny though, I was out the other day at a relatively crowded pointbreak and with the recent purchase of duck feet, I was able to start catching the wave out where the longboarders were taking off. And I was on a 5'4", which I have read is somewhat short for someone my size (six feet 170lbs). So my rationalization for the spoon is that if I was able to catch waves without fins on that board, a slightly larger and more bouyant spoon won't be as much of a hinderance as one might think. As for the shaping, I've come to the conclusion that it is worth the experience to shape it myself. Many thanks to Dr. Strange, John, and Flexman.

uriah

and what an experience (verb) that will be..

I have shaped since I was a teenager and still remember my first one..

But more to this thread, I would like to say this..

All that I shape, I shape with the sad reality of rigidity. It is sad, because it is self-induced by the parameters of modern professionalism.

I can truly imagine that total flex can equal total freedom.

And what a wonderful feeling to have



hart

I just posted 3 pics of my balsa flex spoon that is in the final stages of construction. Glassed with epoxy and S cloth. Fin is polycarbonate core with 1 layer of cloth running the entire length of fin, 2 layers about half length. Exhibits excellent flex characteristics. Spoon nose section and outer rails scarfed to 'deck'.

Board dimensions: length 5' 3". width 20 1/2", weighs about 9 pounds. Not quite finished so not yet 'baptized'. Obviously inspired by Greenough spoons but not an exact copy. In fact, I didn't even use a template, built entirely by 'eye'.

BTW, Uriah, I live in San Diego so if you're interested in getting together give me a PM.

This will be my second board, the last one being an experimental fish which was shaped by eye. I did use a Frye template for the general shape, but ended up carving well inside those lines to get the desired curve. I feel it is more like art when you go by feel, rather than measuring every five minutes and counting every pass. That feels way to clinical. Of course every good shaper has told me otherwise, and I see the reasoning for exactness, but the spoon seems to defy that with all the curves that you just have to feel. That to me is why shaping is such an intimate experience, especially with a little Iz in the background to remind me of the roots. Gives me goosebumps.

In the past when I glassed on a flex fin, I would build the base up even more. I would cut our various size ovals of glass so that, at the base there would be 4-5 layers, with the top half of the fin just one layer.

I would sand the fin to fine tune it after surfing it.

.

I had couple spoons in earlyl 70's, one by Ritchie West. Never thought they were hard to catch waves with and MUCH easier paddle out due to easy duck dive. Net, no more stamina needed