Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

OK, who among you have the info on belly boards? I've been asked to price a couple and, even though I was involved with the SC Surfing Museum, I'm not a collector.

I'm talking about the early-mid 60"s belly boards that were based on longboards with 50/50 rails....went straight really well but couldn't turn.

There are very few of us who actually rode those things when we were kids; the advent of kneeboards saved our souls.

Dan, Try calling the Lucadia surf shop, Lucadia CA. The owner is an avid collecter. G&S, Dewy's, Piapo's you name it He's Got it





StIlL a gRoM

Just met a guy at Seaside reef yesterday with a beautiful new Eaton bonzer paipo. I turned him on to this site and told him he ought to post some pics. Hope he does.

surfhorn wrote:OK, who among you have the info on belly boards? I've been asked to price a couple and, even though I was involved with the SC Surfing Museum, I'm not a collector.

I'm talking about the early-mid 60"s belly boards that were based on longboards with 50/50 rails....went straight really well but couldn't turn.

There are very few of us who actually rode those things when we were kids; the advent of kneeboards saved our souls.

Gawd, that last bit's the absolute truth.

The round-railed 'things', like the Jack's and so forth, it was like bowling for swimmers and you were the bowling ball. The later, thinner Newport Paipos were just so much better...

Rod Rodgers Paipo forum has more info -Plus photos, I think.
eBay has had a few go through in the last year or so, typical prices in the $100-150 US range.
is as good an example as you could find.

hope that's of use

doc...

Funny you should ask. I just traded a Challenger Paipo board [ mid 60's era] to the local surf shop for two wetsuits. I hated to part with it but now it will be on display where more people can see it.

This ringing a little bell relative to a Dextra paipo that was up on ebay. needed extensive repair it seemed to me for the minimum bid. emailed the guy a little and seemed nice enough, but I suspect wanted to cash in? Why, I keep wondering, are surf collectors so interested in the watercraft that the mainstream rejects? Why don't they collect old Haut boards like the one moldering on my back deck?

Thanx for the feedback. One of the belly boards is a Hansen in top shape.
The other is an Olsen from Santa Cruz - a no stringer, twin fin. The owner has found a collector who seems interested in buying them. I'm suggesting the Olsen be donated to the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum and we'll write him a nice high value donation reciept.

Hey Surfhorn. I just re-posted a pic of my 1st fiberglass board (boards section), a bellyboard. I remember it being faster then bodysurfing and my raft. Don't remember why I only had one flipper. I rode it at So Mission, Mission, LJ and Stone Steps in SD North Cnty. Joyce Hoffman cut me off at So Mission while I was riding it. I can still see a tube that I got at Stone Step on my 1st 'Surf Safari' with my sister's boyfriend, Lance. The thing turned pretty good too. I only rode it 'till the summer of '69. My mom bought me an El Paipo knee board that summer.

Doc - Great photo! LOL

Yogi - I rode a couple of those belly boards and mats but found plywood worked better for me. Of course, when I rode an El Paipo that changed my outlook totally. From then on it was 'glass kneeboards all the way.

Hey Surfhorn....

Then your tagline is true. Not much rocker in those plywood boards, I bet. Do you have a pic?

I rode my El Paipo for one year. I got my 1st Fish in 1971. If you search by my name there's a picture of it.

Dan - Since this is about plywood, who was the guy I saw kneeriding a short plywood board at Suicides around '68? Might have had two fins and I think he was from one of the houses up on the cliff, but I'm stretching my memory. He was the first kneerider I ever saw. He was limited in what he could do, but he was smooth and it looked so so cool. That you?

That may have been an older cat named Ed (I'll have to search my data banks for the last name.....). He had a house right there on top of the little cove at Suicides...he also rode a blue/yellow mat. I mostly rode Sewer Peak - which was called Outsides at that time - before the sewer outfall was closed permanently in 1972 and people started calling Outsides, 'Sewer Peak'.

I surfed that area off and on whenever I could get a ride there. After I got my drivers license in February 1969 I spent a lot of time along that stretch of coastline.