Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Sorry i could not help it.
I would like a travel kneeboard , travelling with the family where you would only ride on the odd occasion versus a full blown surf trip.
Would a four foot board be feasible , chopped off tail and nose , add a lot of volume in the middle.
I would not mind a bit of a compromised ride rather than miss out all together.
Anybody tried this ?
Maybe Paipo style could lie on it and on occasion kneel.
Thought about surf mats but quite expensive with the conversion to rand i could probably have a short kneeboard shaped in South Africa for less.
I am about 85kg

Regards
Terence

How Short is Too Short.

Be a cool thing to have if you could fit it in a BodyBoard bag (no airline fees)

Sprocky made a few Blackball Beaters back in the 90's. 4'11" x 3" made out of BodyBoard material. We put those rubber tipped O'Fishal fins in and the Lifeguards gave us their blessing.
Didn't work in waves over 3' though. (too much flex)

Bruce has been making crazy cool paipo's
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Been dying to try one.

get a surfmat no chance of bag fees

or make a plywood paipo and be done with it

otherwise there is never to short as it all depends on the size of the waves

shortest kb I have ever had and it wasn't actually a kb was a bing speed square which was shaped like a bodyboard with knifey down rails, flat deck, big single concave about 1/2 way from the tail and set up as a twin. Worked in 1.5OH prone so it had range and had float. 4'6x23x2-7/8. You can check the bing site for dims on the various sizes. Bummed I sold it and if I had to do it again I would have put boxes in it so I could change out fins and make travel/storage with it easier.

Thats what this is a paipo with quad plugs for kneeling. Short enough to not be a pain in the arse when travelling. album_showpage.php?pic_id=32415&user_id=471
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Too short is too short when the rail in the front third of the board ceases to meet your requirements.
We can only kneel so far back due to fin placement.
If you have an upright style you are going to put less weight into the forward rail & can probably surf a slightly shorter board.
If you have a low driving style then you are going to need more rail to lean on...& we do bury quite a bit of that rail.
You can chop the nose to the point where the rail still meets your requirements & maintains flow...so I would say after that it gets too short.

I ride my 5'1" in everything I surf. Surfed it in 3x overhead slabby reef and it's okay. It paddled as well as my old 6'0 step up. It's based around a 5'8" but with 6" chopped off the nose and 1" chopped off the tail. Rail line is similar to a 6'0" fin placement was a bit of a guess as it was the first time Bro had done this. I've had it 2 years now and took a lot of influence from Tomo when designing it. You could easily make it shorter but I'd bevel the rails in the front third a bit like a spoon underside at the nose.

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guys round here ride Firewires - double ended paddlepop stick things - interestingly even the good surfers have trouble drawing out their turns in bigger waves because of lack usable of rail - but i think they get used to it

http://www.firewiresurfboards.com/surfb ... d=vanguard

I think turning arc relates to many things in board design. However when you're turning using your rails I think the distance of fins from wide point is important as is the length of the rail behind the fin. If you go short then these distances can be compromised. I think Bro managed to get it right on this one. The wide point is still in the same spot in relation to rider (me) as on my 5'8" and the fins are in a similar position so a similar amount of rail behind. I think I had to loose a little rail behind the fins ie the side fins are 1/4 closer to the tail than on my standard board.

good points Dunc, it's a good way to look at it.
I always think about fins in relation to my feet, but what you say makes a lot of sense.

I do too and used to think about it related to my feet should being centred over my fins and my knees being just behind the wide point. It was Bro who pointed all the above out to me and it makes sense because where your feet end up relates to knee position which is controlled by wide point. I think it all has to lined up in order to have a defined sweet spot for the rider to find.

I've just chopped down a 5'10" to a 5'2". Chopped the the very narrow nose (14") of a 22.5" wide, "fins back", epoxy board.. really shitty board.
Didnt take out much foam from the new nose so now its a pretty flat rockered board with a thick wide nose. swallow tail.. Rear fin maybe 5" from the tail. Didnt change anything other than the front third... Kinda hard to shape styroform. Did the lams and hot coated but the damn hot coat won't stop making fish eyes.
Made this board for small surf (1-3 foot surf we get in the "off" season). Hopefully will get to ride it soon. thinking of trying it with my usual side fins with a small stabilizer. Will tell you how it goes

I second the, "make it fit in a body board bag" or just take a bodyboard. It really sucks to pay board fees for something you might not even use.

My solution is that I'll often travel, especially if work travel, with a bodybaord as they offer some real benefits, no bag fees, don't get broken/damaged in transit and can be used in any size waves. Plus you can throw other surf goodies in the bag like a handplane, surfmat, flippers...a water toy box it becomes, and all flies free.

My .02