Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Not totally kneeboard related, but any of you guys who are interested in composite sandwich board building should have a look if you haven't already. As far as I can tell, I think I am the only kneeboard builder actively involved in the site and it would be great to have some more of you 'free thinkers' around to bounce some design ideas off.
I believe that compsand is a really great way of building a lively long lived kneeboard and as a lot of you guys build boards at home, I think you may find it as interesting as I do.

www.compsand.com

I've been trying to pin down Bert Burger, Sunova Surfboards here in Aust,
to build a kneeboard for me. The potential flex/rebound properties of composites is interesting....

thanks for the link

Hi Lowrider, from what I can gather, Bert is setting up a production facility in Thailand. He can probably be contacted through his website

www.sunovasurfboards.com

Don't know if he has done any kneeboards, would love to know if you can get him to do one.
Cheers
Mark

Thanks Mark,

I knew that the factory was re-locating, but Thailand??
I'll keep you posted; it'll be a quad....

Andy

Now I've got my board designs almost where I want them I'm moving to styrene/epoxy construction for my kneeboards. Looking at adding parabolic stringers in a variety of ways (carbon fibre cloth; wood rails, and other composits). Compsand/vac bagging is an option on the horizon. Aiming at super light, very strong boards that flex.

I'm taking a working conventional construction userthane/polyester (PUPE) design and converting it to EPS. This is letting me drop thickness to 2" and do some things with foiling I've been trying to achieve for years that I just can't manage in thicker boards without pushing volume forward, getting bizarre deck rolls and seeing wobbles in flow . I'll let you know how it goes.

Lowrider,
If you can convince Bert to do it, I'm cutting kneeboards in Geelong (near Torquay). I'd be happy to share information with you both if you and he think it might result in a better board for you.

Thanks Mark

That's an interesting site. Talked briefly to fellow with a Sunova thruster the other day. Apparently it was built a few years back in WA and it looked as good as new.

MarkyV has been lending me one of his compsands for the last few months. Haven't had great surf, but took it to France with me for a few weeks and scored some fairly solid surf around hossegor and biarritz... and I'm totally addicted. It's a wonderful wonderful thing

Just stepped on the bathroom scales with it, and the board (5'10" x 23"), four fins, leash and a parkes pad weigh in at about 2kg. Apparently this board is a few years old now, but there isn't a single ding or pressure dent in it anywhere (and I clubbed it into a few doors and bannisters over the last few months -sorry Mark!)

As Red says, because of the weight saving and buoyancy of the construction there's a lot of possibilities. Reducing thickness and controlling flex the most obvious, but mark's also put a heavily concave deck in this board and his explanation is that in turns, as the board flexes along it's length, the concave deck causes 'V' to form in the bottom. Mad stuff - appealing, I'm sure, to some of the board tinklers here

Tom

red wrote:Lowrider,
If you can convince Bert to do it, I'm cutting kneeboards in Geelong (near Torquay). I'd be happy to share information with you both if you and he think it might result in a better board for you.

Red,

Sunova have been responding promptly to my emails & have even given a rough quote...the new factory should be up and running in October.

Since they have probably never done a kneeboard and I have very little hands-on design knowledge, i was just going to get a tweaked copy done of a Kneeon quad that I already have.

This mightn't be the way to go in light of the possibility of reducing board thickness and all the other variables that you and Tomway have touched on. So your offer of sharing your knowledge is much appreciated.
I'll update you when I know more.

Anthony,
Longtime-no-see, will have to drop in to one of the club gatherings.

Andy

Hi Andy

The dialogue with Sunova sounds promising. Few waves lately!
From my perspective I'd love to get one built once Lowrider sorts out the pitfalls but I'm worried about forking out big $ for a kneeboard that is cutting edge in construction but a bit of an experiment shape wise.

Is there a protocol in the industry where the design input of an established kneeboard shaper could be acknowledged and perhaps a royalty paid or is it all too messy?

what is the cost in U.S. $$ for one of these boards?

Hi Guys, glad you like the site.
Lowrider
I am sure that Bert knows how to convert pu/pe measurements into compsand! If anyone does then it will be him. I would be very interesting to see what he comes up with. One thing is sure, it will be very light and very strong!
In very basic terms, thinner and less rocker curve. On footboards, normally go wider, but kneeboards are pretty wide anyway, so I have been keeping with conventional widths and holding tails pretty wide for smaller wave boards.

Mark,
hope you don't mind me posting this....lovely work.
How did it ride

Lowrider,
That is my original and in some ways my favourite, good in up to head high, very wide tail, fairly loose for a board with low tail rocker, but still holds well on a steep face. Had a few modifications since that photo, so has gained a bit of weight (still no heavier than a std board (new)). These boards have a very lively feel, that is hard to describe. Fairly stiff with a good fast flex return.

Just picked up the finished balsa compsand from mark. It's a beaut. Can't wait to try it out in some juice





Concave deck:



100% pure

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