Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

I'm a young newbie to kneeling (been standing 4 years) and am very stoked so far. I kind of came into it by accident after I made myself an old Lis type 5'8 twin fin to surf stand up. Greenough being a hero of mine, I got the urge to kneel one day in some hollow 2-3' surf and was hooked.

So being very new and uninformed, I'm wondering if anyone uses single fins anymore? I understand they would not be as high performance as mutiple fin setups, but for good reeling waves with not much time to cut back?

Thanks for any info- ryan

..

Thanks Beeline. A question on multi-fins; Aren't they meant to be surfed from rail to rail to gain speed ala a stand up surfboard? Tighter turning and better hold are a given, but how is speed gained on a multi-fin kneeboard.

Just trying to gain insight. Thanks again- ryan

when a standup goes for speed in the critical part of the wave he centers his weight over the board and gets down low usually in some grab rail stance to transfer weight off his back foot....duh! the kneelo is always poised for speed and accelerates off the rails cause the tail isnt being used to keep the board underneath him. this all translates into barrel time. i surf with standups and nothing blows their minds more than an ankle breaking air drop into a barrel rail set fins sliding till they grab then boom...where'd he go? 10 yds later they get a glimpse of a kneelo on his way to a smile.

..

Hey Beeline,

What is your stats (Height, weight , etc) and what do you ride in Ventura most of the time?

Stemple

Thanks a lot for the responses, especially Beeline. It makes more sense now. I'm sure I'll have more questions soon. Thanks again- ryan

stemple wrote:Hey Beeline,
What is your stats (Height, weight , etc) and what do you ride
Stemple

I read your posts about your Parkes and Blast Boards.

Like you I like surfing off the tail more, but I do so with a Split Stance,
one knee slightly ahead of the other.

I had a Blast Quad and a Blast Tri, and found the Blast Tri surfs better
for me and likes pressure being applied to the tail, whereas the Quad
had a sweet spot right dab in the middle of the board that wasnt always
amenable to tail pressure and would consequently mess me up at times.

I'm 6 ft 170 lbs of lean mean kneeboarding machine .

I'd like to try riding a single fin with one of those keel fins that Cheyne Horan still swears by to this day. Seems like it would give a kind of controlled loseness with drive and speed. With the right placement (within the box), board shape and rails this design may have a place for certain applications.

BEELINE,

I'm old school, but to me it's the feeling of banking, not rotating, that makes kneeriding so special. To me, a kneeboard is a bobsled, and a standup board is like skiis. Why use a fin system that will make a rotator out of a board that's gift is the bank? Instead, try a single, 9-10" flex fin about 8 or 9" from the tail (for a 6' board), and see what happens. In my book, there is nothing like the joy of pulling it over and holding it on a long turn, like a fly on a wall. Let the standup guys have the roof and the air--they've got legs. The kneeboard rules the trough, the shoulder, and even the pocket (no frontside or backside).

damn thats a beautiful fin!! bet that sled is a song for your soul. never could understand the obsession with air...i mean bodyboarders own the air...those guys launch huge barrel roll airs that actually serve some purpose in their riding. i really think that aspect of surfing is media driven...you've got skate and snow half pipe with tons of attention paid to aerial gymnastics and visually a surf moment frozen in air begs the question of what happened when he landed...its more about selling the moment and consequently all the product advertised on the board. the kids lap it up and spend their time trying to copy what the shutter sells.

BeeLine thankx for the informative post. Question, when you write of the Aussie style widths just how wide are they?

most aussie boards are between 22" and 24"1/2 wide, mine personally is 23" 1/2

..

Just for kicks, glassed a center fin box into a 5`7 Blast Quad, trimmed up an old molded (Waveset?) Greenough Stage 4 to fit in there, and went thirty years back in the time tunnel! Outcome; sold the board, but kept the fin....