Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

How small have you guys gone with a fish? (both length and thickness)

right now i'm at 4'10x23x2.75 and feel like the board is too long and too thick. i'm thinking i can go down to 4'6 and 2" thick with a super heavy glass job.

thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

..

Seen "Super Size Me"? That'd be another way to bulk up. More variety than just the ice cream. Each path has its virtues though...

You must be small,I've never even heard of a person riding a board that short.

.

I'm not particularly small at 5'10 185#. I definitely don't want to bulk up, i just want longer arms. the reason that i want to go shorter is because i like to hang off the back of the board to bury my udt's for max power and i prefer to have one hand on the nose when doing this, rather than both hands on the rails. I don't really use my arms to paddle too much, so the shorter the better for using the fins.

thanks for the input Flex, and the rest of you as well, and as much as i like ice cream, i don't think it's the solution to my problem.

~~

Kidding about Micky-D. Here's couple quick ideas for experiment on existing board:

Move keels forward a bit (1/8 inch plenty enough each time to feel dif). Will make board ride shorter. Will also change other handling characteristics you may like or hate.

Take grinder to the deck and spoon it some or a lot . Then reglass. Could do knee wells like MOW's Verde. Either spoon or wells will give you more leverage hence making it ride as if shorter, easier to throw around. If spoon deep and take out stringer may want to reinforce a bit w/ strategic unidirectional glass...

NOT THE VERDE.....THE MOSTROCITY HAS KNEEWELLS.....

i felt the same way when i got into kneeboards this year...wanted shorter than my 5'8 so i could use the fins more like a bodyboarder would...but then i rode bigger boards and im tellin ya ,...bigger = faster paddling...
but i do plan on making knee/paipo hybrids around 50-60 inches.....if you can dropknee on a 42 inch bodyboard surely you can double knee on a 4'10 .....greenough used a 4'10 balsa and got that insane long ride at the sandspit in endless summer.....

the early fsh were on average about 4ft 10in...they had a full nose and tail and 2.5+ thick....the surfing done on them speaks for itself.Steve Lis in 1973 was callled the Best and Fastest SURFER ever seen by Warren Bolster at the time....so they do work

I've always wondered about extremely short boards and large riders. But its true, the longer the board the better it seems to paddle. With my admittedly very limited experience (two kneeboards total, whoo hoo!), the tiny fish I have (5'4" x 2" x 21") and Mark Wessling's stoker gift (6' x 2" x 24") are worlds apart in paddling. The 6'-er does slightly sink the tail and stick up a tiny bit off of the water when paddling it lazily with only the swimfins (hanging off the back a bit), but it paddles FASTER, regardless of the awkward factor. Now, paddling with arms and legs is another issue. I'm sure a shorter board would handle that better and would make me look at lot less like a duck waddling. But as far as all-around arm, and swim-fin paddling, I'm sure the longer-ish boards take the cake and are more mobile in general.

I can outpaddle the local kids wearing my Tech swimfins and riding the Blue Bottle (aka, the board I got from Mark). I mean, what more could you ask for? Sit deeper, outpaddle the little rascals, and get more waves than on a bodyboard. Goodtimes!

right now i'm at 4'10x23x2.75... i like to hang off the back of the board to bury my udt's for max power and i prefer to have one hand on the nose when doing this, rather than both hands on the rails

CL, so is this guy in the gallery you, or your soul mate, or what?

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.c ... 984#260439

Thread about volume vs paddling but also has ideas about lenght, width, rail shape, bottom etc.

Also, as has been mentioned elsewhere, "do you want to paddle or surf?"

My buddy Beeline may send of flack my way , but oh well... My smallest board is a 4'9. Not quite a fish though. My boards consist of a ...
1--- 4'9" X 21 1/4 X 2 1/4
2---4'10 X 17 1/4 X 2 (picklenose)
3---5' X 21 1/2 X 2
4---5'2" X 19.1/4 X 2
5---5'8" X 20 1/2 X 2 1/8
They just aren`t boards I have, I ride ALL my boards....I`ll be the first one to say there are draw backs to riding short boards. But there are pluses also. Long live the shortboarders !!!!

martinmurph wrote:What ever you choose, don't loose the stoke you have

For sure dude! I just went out yesterday on a sponge with a homie because I haven't bought racks yet for a the Blue Bottle...man, kneeboarding is so much more fun for me!

I love the concept of sponging.

I hate the fact that they don't build functional sponges in my size.

After riding the Blue Bottle a few times, and going back to my sponge, I noticed a huge difference in paddle speed. I miss laying down sometimes and taking laaaaaaate drops, but everything else about kneeboarding is better to me. Its just a different sensation. Rail work combined with work off of the skegs is more fun to me than just using your rails and a flat bottom.

VIVA KNEEBOARDING!