Kneeboarding......R.I.P

[Smokin Rock]

i see an underlying theme to many posts here, especially of late. basically it's perceived that our sport is dying out. not enough new groms to fill the shoes of the old futs who are getting older. i know this is nothing new but it seems to be the crux of a lot of posts. what do we do? do we do anything? some have ideas and some don't care.
if we are like dinasaurs and are bound for eventual demise will all the brainstorming in the world change that?
if the individuality and elusiveness of kneeboarding that attracted so many of us to it in the first place is deemed archaic and is no longer perceived as valid then what is? would anything we come up with in it's place not be a bit contrived and therefore not cool. if we are destined to die would it not be better to die a dignified death rather than eventually offering to hand out bowls of soup to any grom who'll give a kneeboard a go at a gathering?
natural selection.
what is destined to happen will happen no matter what we do.
200 years ago in hawaii nearly everyone surfed or played in the ocean. all manner of craft and both the sexes were equally part of the scene. it probably seemed as if this would go on forever to these people at the time. the missionaries came and a hundred years later the sport was nearly dead. only a few diehards remained to carry the sport forward. i wonder if these few ever cared whether or not it would someday reach it's former popularity or could they have ever imagined what surfing would one day become. or did they just surf in solitude loving every minute of it because it was just so much damn fun to do. the story is well known from that point on. perhaps this is where kneeboarding is. perhaps it's ready to explode or maybe it will lie dormant for many years and then catch on again or maybe it will die completely. maybe it will continue on just as it has since it's inception. a dedicated few who love it and don't care what others think. if it's bound to die, at what point do we stop kicking the dead dog, and allow some dignity?
i'm not sure if the dinasaurs or those few dedicated hawaiians had all got together and brainstormed how to avert their demise whether it would have made any difference in the long run.
is charging as hard as you can day to day the best you can do for the sport and all else a waste of time? can you force cool?
where do you stand?
what do you think?
do we do something?
should we do nothing?

[Headwax]

Consider the case of the lone kneelo out there - somewhere, probably, if the truth be told, in a lot of "wheres".

he's sitting out on that lonesome beach break by himself, watching the gulls and the gannetts fighting over a tiny morsel of what might have once been the cheek flap of a small whiting.

Occasionally a small right hander will come through and suck out on the slightly too shallow sandbank. Our kneelo, when he takes off, might tuck into the barrel, he might go over the falls, he might pull off a risky little reo and try not to nose dive straight into the sand.

Does this guy know his sport is dying?

I don't think so.

You see, we all forgot to tell him....

[KAVA]

its not dieing It's Exclusive for the Elite!

[lowrider]

So we inhabit a small corner of the surfing world (...universe?), does it matter??

There are not a lot of mat riders out there either, probably a lot less in number than us kneelos; are they wringing their hands in despair?; I doubt it. They're just in it for the stoke.

I don't know if they will tell us, but I'd be interested to know how many kneeboards Hart and Bud produce every year ( and are the numbers trending up or down?). Bruce did mention a number a couple of years back
when I was ordering.... and I remember being surprised...
Then there's Parkesy, Drift, Neil Luke etc...
Probably small numbers globally speaking, but they are still in business, no?

[ScottMac]

..

[Flexman]

.

[TC]

I don’t think that we can call ourselves exclusive or elite that would be taking ourselves way too seriously. If anything I would go with eccentric or quirky. We do what we do because we love it. When I am in the lineup and I’m the lone kneelo (which is the norm) other surfers often ask about the board and kneeboarding in general. If someone picks up the sport great, if not c’est la vie. I do not think some sort of marketing push will get anyone more interested than the gatherings, contests and the websites (thanks Don). If anything it could achieve the opposite effect. As the current population ages I am confident the there will always be a nitch for kneelos, maybe not as many as now maybe more who knows but lets live by example. Kneeboard and enjoy the waves. If you ride it they will come. Cheers TC

[WayneK]

I see both sides. First and foremost I kneeride for selfish reasons: it feels good, freedom, speed, almost like the sensation of flight, a release and escape from the grind of the day to day, for the pure joy and satisfaction! So, one side of me says I could care less what the general surfing population says about my choice in wave riding craft, but, I do respect all people in the water and would like it reciprocated
Because I respect others and have pride about kneeboarding I would like it to gain some recognition and occaisionally see it shown not as a dying sport, rather, a unique and viable expression of surfing.
Antagonizing kneelos to " ralley the troops" may be one way to motivate people but it's too inflamatory; although may be effective.
We can promote our sport by:1) surfing "progressively", ripping, and charging while having respect for others.
2) Surf contests definately will help promote us. Having taken up kneeboarding in the summer of 69, this is a change in attitude for me. We were "anti- establishment" and used to crash the contests. We were "soul surfers." I have surfed in all the Santa Cruz contests and enjoyed the experience.
3) Documentation: Photos, internet, videos( TANKYOU SIMON!) , and local newspapers(THANKYOU JASON) all help with exposure.
In the final analysis I have to agree with our Tyrant Lizard King you can't force it, but by charging, having a positive attitude in the line-up, respecting others, and keeping the contests going we may keep a small infusion of youth in our ranks. I don't think riding a kneeboard will ever be 'mainstream', it would be nice to get a little respect and keep it going, however.
Cheers Everyone Wayne

[crox]

Our view of it in the UK is that kneeboarding is more healthy now than it has been for the last 25 years - often now mentioned in the magazines in a positive way - & sought after as a refreshing alternative.

Here is one stand-up surfers view in Stranger magazine - http://www.stranger-mag.com/surf_underground.aspx

I guess running the website we are more aware of this pulse....& it's all good!

[fooj]

Kneeboarding is for kooks who can't stand. Because of this it will survive. I've never gone mach 3 standing up on a down the line smoker so don't know how that feels but...have done mach 3 (Ok mach 2.55 rounded up) kneeboarding on a down the line smoker and it rivals sex. If theres a way to bring the slightly interested kneenewby from trying to catch a wave and get to his/her knees to experiencing a mach 3 down the line ride the sport will live on. If not i don't know. We need motor geniuses to get involved, you know, guys who can visualize then do exactly as visualized. To show everyonel how its done. There are half men charging big scary surf and documentation of this could pique the interest of potential recuits and disprove at least part of the first sentence of this post (the kook part). It seems that the more serious the surf gets the less it matters what you're riding, and more it matters that you just turn around and go. Something that we could turn to our advantage.

[Beeline2.0]

..

[KAVA]

I don’t think that we can call ourselves exclusive or elite

maybe you cant but i do lol! i may suck as a kneelo but in my world im elite and exclusive rofl! so there!!

exclusive: only for those on their knee's

elite: steep and deep! when kelly slater drops in on a spitting barrell and its get so tight he has to squeeze down? then he folds down and one of his knee's rest on the top of the board in order to pull off the move. he is no longer a standup surfer but a kneeboarder heh heh what would you call it?

andy irons the kneeboarder lol

[W.G. Facenda]

Terminally uncool. That will eliminate 95% right there. The only thing even more uncool is mat riding and equally as fun. The surfing sub culture of misfits and freaks? Not so much anymore.
The rail grabbing is such an asset,to hold a rail ,or line, for ultra deep take offs and tube rides and rail buryng ,board buckeling bottom turns and high speed roundhouse cutbacks----maybe they are just equals now.........they even have our beloved fish....

[DarcyM]

I've been thinking a lot about this as well, in regards to how to keep the sport alive and how to inspire young blood. All the ideas about contests, gatherings, media, promotion, etc, are good ideas, but there is no guarantee that any of those efforts will really bring new disciples into the fold. I think they're great for building camaraderie, for inspiration and for pushing performance levels, and for our own self-gratification. We are recognized by the masses therefore we are. Which is cool. But if some young kid picks up kneeboarding because he/she wants to be recognized by the masses, that's the wrong reason and that kid probably won't stick with it because somewhere down the road that recognition/acknowledgement/celebration won't be there.

Why does the lone kneeboarder, at his isolated peak/point/beach break on a lonely stretch of coastline continue to paddle out, drop in, and feel the rush within? Not for a trophy, not for his/her mates, not for the magazines, videos, or movies. And there will always be those kneelos out there, who defy convention in all forms (including all of our efforts at organization and conformism) and continue to do what they do alone and unknown.

Looking further back, I ask myself, why did I start kneeboarding? It was simply because I saw a hot kneeboarder down at my local reef, ripping waves and getting respect. It wasn't because kneeboarders were charging huge death pits like Wedge and Big Rock and Dee Why and Third Reef ... for the most part I didn't really know about those places and didn't care about them. Really big waves for all their beauty were a bit intimidating to me as a new surfer -- I was happy to be able to ride my local break at 2 to 3 feet. I didn't take it up for media exposure or for contests. At the time I didn't even know there were kneeboarding contests. And certainly part of the allure was precisely because not everyone was doing it. Believe it or not, there are kids out there who don't bow to peer pressure, who will try or do something maybe not because no one else is doing it, but in spite of that. Later, if the contests and recognition are there, it helps to fire the stoke, but ultimately that's the icing, not the cake.

The internet and the gatherings and contests are great, don't get me wrong. I love what this site has done for us as a group and for kneeboarding worldwide, and I don't for one instant think that it doesn't have an impact. It totally does. But the real reason for kneeboarding is out there, not in here.

Out there, at your local break, at a distant shoreline, on another coast is where the waves are. And out there, some kid, maybe someone a lot like I was, might see a kneelo carve a wicked cutback into the pocket, or tuck themselves into a tight bowl, or throw there board off the top of a cascading lip and float back down and think, "DAMN that was HOT!" I can't count the times I've had some young kid say the same or something similar to me. Sometimes the kid is riding a boogie, sometimes he's struggling on his brother's too loose tri fin. Sometimes the kid is playing in the shorebreak. Either way, everytime I see that kid I hope that what I've done is enough to inspire them, though I suppose I will never know. It's enough for me to try, and to hope, I think.

And if we can do that, consistently, quietly, humbly, and answer with a smile when the kid asks us, "yeah, that was fun", then someday somewhere some kid is going to try to find a kneeboard (or somebody's discarded stand-up fish), and give it a try like I did.

[WillP]

I agree with Darcy's last paragraph.

I started kneeriding because I saw our very own Joel Mayer (the photog) shredding Haggertys like nobody else in the water. Taking off super deep and basically outdoing all the standups. Thanks Joel! Where i'm from kneeriders have there own place in the lineup. On the big days it's the kneeriders that are dominating the lineup and consistantly taking off deeper than anyone else. Ask Joel, he'll tell you the same.

I personally know of about 6 KBrs in my area that are my age (26) or younger and they do it because they're stoked on being different from the masses. They could care less if they ever see a kneeboarder in the mags. If you ask them why they don't stand up they will all say the same thing, "It's too mainstream".

Just this past saturday a grom on a sponge asked if he could try my board for one wave. After his first wave he asked me to sell him my board. So I did the best thing I could think of. i ran up to my car, got one of my old boards, and gave it to him. I've seen him out every day on it since. PRETTY COOL.

Kneeboarding isn't for everyone. If one grom on a sponge can be stoked on kneeriding then i feel that that's proof enough that kneeriding isn't ever going to die.

WILL

P.s. If anyone sees a little grom riding a beatup squaretail infinity, give him a wave or two. Who knows, he might be calling you off a wave in the near future.