Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Did the outline today and will work on foil and bottom contours Sunday. My first was flat with V in the tail. I think what I got caught in was thinking the volume would be the same as my stand ups. The shortest board I tried was a 6'6 simmons that I wasn't ready for at the time. Thinking of doing a single into double or maybe just some vee for this one. I think I judt really needed to add some foam to the board.

So board has ended up at 5'7 23 3 5/8. Was trying for 5'8 but I screwed up my rail band on one side so I cut an inch off and do some sort off diamond tail on it. Rail bands are done on the deck just have to do the bottom and finish sand. Question with this board being shorter would I move the fins back? My 6'0 was at 17 fronts 11 rears. Was thinking 16" and 10". Thanks for any help.

Board was finished up this week, getting glassed a little heavier with 6*4 bottom and 6*6 deck with 4 deck patch. Bottom contours are flat for first 12" going into single to double behind fins. Fins are set 16 and 10 quad with single fin box. Doing a glasser special on this which means I don't know what color resin they are doing on the bottom. Totally up to them and it's going to be free lapped. So if any of you guys see someone with a crazy resin tint say hi. I'm really happy how this board came out and my rails came out really good on this one. Well off to the Queen in the morning.

So I uploaded a couple pics of #2 tonight. I was supposed to see it until it was finished but I got a call that I needed to mark my fins again because they couldn't see the marks. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the color but it came out really good and I do like how it came out. Going with a straight quad no single fin box and the boxes are going to be all full future boxes.

Starting to figure this thing out. Was a little unstable for me while up and riding for a couple sessions no real waves to write home about. But I did some searching on where your knees should be and watched some video and concentrated on where riders were positioned. Went out today in weak slightly onshore crap and caught a handful of waves. I really focused on getting my knees more forward and the board was more stable being in the right position. Hopefully get out there tomorrow before this weather moves in.

A little update on my boards I shaped. First one has gone a little better but I felt like I needed to have a more thinned out rail, they are pretty full. Fin placement is really close to the rail and doesn't feel right. Second one has a pretty bad flat spot so that I'm pushing water when paddling into waves. And when I did get one it was late and then I would stall out. Anyway I ordered a board from James at K58 and looking forward to getting something from a pro that knows what he's doing. Dims will be 5'10 23" 3.25" EPS/epoxy and hope to get some pics during the shaping process to post up. Ordering from him was a breeze spent about an hour talking and looking at my first board and talking design.

I think you might be going for too much thickness in your boards - maybe some of the kneeboard shapers can chime in and help you out - they know way more than me... just seems like too much foam on a board. I'd like to see you get something that goes well, since you're going to the trouble of getting a custom board made.

Hope this might help

Walt

I'm a pretty big guy so foam is my friend. But I have seen big guys on boards that were thinner but they had more experience than I do. Also there's more to it than thickness you could go wider and thickness taken out. Plus I only have shaped 10 boards which 3 were really any good. I just feel that going to a shaper is a better way to go for me at this point considering that I only started knee boarding this year. I'm not sure why no shapers chimed on this thread.

I have to agree with Walt. Unless you're enormous, that's a lot of foam, particularly since you're going with EPS, which is much more buoyant than PU foam. The volume of your board my have something to do with it stalling out on you. You could easily go down to 2 3/4" (which is still pretty thick) and float just fine with EPS.

Well, based on your first board that I saw the new one from James won't feel too different from a flotation standpoint. And, since James is shaping for you everything else about the board will be spot on.

Let us now how it goes!

Yeah I don't think floatation would be an issue. There is so much that goes into boards that I don't have the shapers eye for yet. The foil rocker and bottom contours are differant than a stand up board. Picking the right blank for what your trying to do and that's just some of the things I can think of. Maybe I'm a little disappointed in that my boards haven't worked, I don't know. Bottom line for me is get one made see how it goes and then revisit the shaping of boards at some other time. For now I think I'll leave it to the pros.

So I got my first kneeboard on Friday afternoon and I'm really happy with it. Dims are 5'10 23.5" 3 3/8" with a single to double. Have had it out a few times this weekend and this board is fast. Caught a couple short waves nothing great as I try to figure this all out. Made a really late drop this morning and landed it just before it closed out on me. Board paddles well and even catches the weaker waves we had on Saturday. I will say that it feels good to get a board that feels right after a couple sessions. I can really tell that everything flows so much better than the ones I made but most of that is because I've only done 10 boards compared to however many James has made. Will try to post some pictures but it's saying the files to big, will try to figure that out. Think I'm going to go paddle out again.

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