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

[WayneK]

Crox- That was a spot on article

[HALFMANRIPS/MIKE GARRETT]

I STARTED KB"ING IN 1970 SOMTHING ????
MOSTLY BECAUSE YOU COULD NOT TAKE A BOARD OVER 6' ON THE BEACH BLVD BUS. PS. FOR A (QUARTER).

ALSO BY WATCHING THE REAL OLD DOG'S YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I WANTED TO ( KICK IT UP A KNOTCH ).

THE SPONGE REALLY TOOK THE STEAM OUT OF NEW KNEELOS GETTING INTO THE SPORT.

OLD KNEELOS NEVER DIE """"" WE JUST GET DEEPER

( JUST RIP IT AND THEY WILL COME )

[red]

Mike,
I think you hit on it. The surf companies poured money into promotion of spongers in the mid 80's (because they saw they could make a packet). A lot of the kids who may have considered kneeboarding were probably influenced into bodyboards by the hype, coolness, contest money, sponsorships, media coverage, peer pressure, etc. So we ended up with a bunch of commited kneeboarders in their 20's and 30's and little new blood.

Now that the bodyboarding craze has run its course (and the surf companies are promoting the hell out of women's surfing), it's possible that the natural flow of 2% of crazy, introspective, ornery beginners will once again consider kneeboarding as an option (and stuff the coolness factor!). Unless of course they get caught up in the media hype, sponsorship opportunities, contest money, etc. and take up women's surfing!

[Shelfbreak]

Anyone who bought a boogie board as a teenager before 1990 is now 35 plus. What I don’t see is many 35 + boogie board riders still at it. Maybe it’s too hard on their backs or losses it appeal as riders get older and have less flexibility to hit the breaks when the tide, wind etc suits an aggressive style of riding.

Kneeboarding in contrast seems to have a low attrition rate and that’s got to tell us something positive about our sport/pastime. For me it’s being able to get exciting rides even in mediocre conditions.

Maybe we had our 15 minutes of fame but like Red said we only need a small percentage to take an interest and I reckon enough of them will discover it’s a fundamentally good way to surf.

[KAVA]

I STARTED KB"ING IN 1970 SOMTHING ????
MOSTLY BECAUSE YOU COULD NOT TAKE A BOARD OVER 6' ON THE BEACH BLVD BUS. PS. FOR A (QUARTER).

WHOLEY CRAP! THATS WHY ME AND MY FRIENDS STARTED ( AND ABOUT THE SAME TIME TOO -1974) BUT WE TOOK THE HARBOR BUS (#41 AND 43) DROP OFF WAS BLACKIES/HANAFIN SURF SHOP
=========================================
FUTURE KNEEBOARD ECONOMICS

SPONGE = $100 OR LESS *NEW*

KNEEBOARD = $400 OR MORE *NEW*

[weirdo]

personally I think kneelo's are making a bit of a comeback. Last time I was in Mr Harts factory a few groms came in to get boards. I also see alot more these days locally than say 5 years ago.

I stood up originally and then got caught up in the 80's esky lid craze (did dropknee half the time anyway)...before a mates uncle gave me an old dinged up no name board and I was hooked.....

anyway would kneelo'ing be as cool if 5 million people did it??.. Theres nothing better than being the only kneelo out there sticking it to the standups...

[surfhorn]

Kneeboarding makes me happy: always did.....always will.

[Jerry]

What wise man said of kneeboarding ? " The inner-most limits of pure fun."

[Jack Beresford]

I agree with Crox, there’s never been a better time to be a Kneelo – this Web site is evidence of that.

In terms of our “junior development” program I totally support offering boards to groms and inviting them to gatherings to get them hooked. I don’t know if this will work but I do think it’s the right approach. Sure, we could all just ride off into the sunset…pulling in at our local break satisfied with an occasional hoot from the shoulder. But how much cooler would it be to share this stoke with someone else. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not interested in marketing the sport to the masses. And I doubt seriously that Kneeriding will ever become the next big thing.

Darcy has the right approach…ask ourselves why we started Kneeriding. Three things come to mind for me:

1. There was a “buzz” about it that was generated by guys like Rex Huffman doing crazy things at Big Rock and elsewhere. This was spread through the magazines, surf movies, contests and word-of-mouth accounts.

2. My friends all started doing it and there was a “community” down at Blacks to provide support.

3. There was relatively easy access to equipment. Just about every surf shop in town had a new and/or used kneeboard on the rack.

The challenge is to try to accomplish these three things. Plus all us dads need to keep selling it (give me another couple years on my girls)!

Jack

[ross]

i dont know about you guys but when i was a kid i'd go out of my way to avoid involving myself in any activity involving old fossils.
so if your keen to see it grow(i'm sitting on the fence with that one)thats gotta be the biggest hurdle.
on the subject of surfers borrowing the fish design from us,i was told in Sydney a few years back that kneeboard blanks were on the verge of being "fazed out" of production until the popularity of the fish reached fever pitch in our board factories.maybe our fish pioneers deserve even more kudos eh?
on a respect level,i actually think the stutus quo is best.
our respectometre would plunge to new depths if the lineup was overtaken by kneeboard riders.if you dont care for the respect of others,your surfspot must be very uncrowded.
ability=respect=wavecount.

oh yeah i always tell my wife if we ever have any kids i'll just act like i love em heaps more if they surf (only joking people..really)
dont say"you'll see when you have kids" or "you'll be old one day"
only old people say things like that

[albert]

i dont know about you guys but when i was a kid i'd go out of my way to avoid involving myself in any activity involving old fossils.
so if your keen to see it grow(i'm sitting on the fence with that one)thats gotta be the biggest hurdle.

I agree

[DarcyM]

i dont know about you guys but when i was a kid i'd go out of my way to avoid involving myself in any activity involving old fossils.

I can't disagree more, at least not where surfing is concerned. Lawn bowling, maybe, but don't look now because beach bocci is even more popular among the 20 somethings than it ever was in my day.

Surfing has and always will have a heirarchy that's predicated more on ability and experience than age. And it helps to keep people young! The old guys who rip, dominate the outside peak, and take off on the biggest set wave have my respect now as they did then. Yeah, there are young rippers out there who awe, but when you look to the outside it's the older guys you see taking off.

Is that cool? It is in my book. I even have to give a nod of respect to the old guys ... really old guys, like Dan's age (sorry ) ... who are out on the peak on the heavy days. Even if they don't "rip", the respect is there. They've earned it from years of experience. And who are you going to ask for advice on board shapes? Some punk kid? Or an experienced shaper with years of foam under his skin?

It was the same for me growing up. It was never how old these guys were. Face it, when you're 15 anyone over 30 seemed old. Except out in the water. There it was all about ability, and still is.

[TC]

Quote: I don’t think that we can call ourselves exclusive or elite
Kava wrote: 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?

Mate if you are going to use a quote in your response please us the entire quote: “I don’t think that we can call ourselves exclusive or elite that would be taking ourselves way too seriously”. Personally I’d rather go with eccentric or quirky but that’s just me. Were a bunch of kneelos having a good time not the delta force. The gust of my post was that we have a good thing going right now with the websites, contest, and gatherings. We don’t have to push it. There are enough groms out there who are looking for a different path in surfing and they just my discover kneeboarding despite all of us fossils. If you think about it, even when you see an old fart on a 10’ log get a great ride you still feel the joy. Maybe we just keep kneeboarding, having fun and let it happen. We just might be at the beginning of a renaissance in our sport. Time will tell. Just keep surfing and keep it light. Cheers Terry

[ross]

Darcy M wrote


[quote]Surfing has and always will have a heirarchy that's predicated more on ability and experience than age. And it helps to keep people young! The old guys who rip, dominate the outside peak, and take off on the biggest set wave have my respect now as they did then. Yeah, there are young rippers out there who awe, but when you look to the outside it's the older guys you see taking off.[/quote]

Not trying to sound to much like a smartarse here but i think it says alot about the calibre of the breaks your talking about if the old guys are still ruling the take off spot.in my local area the best set waves go to the 20-30 yr olds.we let the older fellas get a few because we've known em since we were young.
and todays grommets will do it to us
when i was a grommet these same old guys ran the area with an iron fist(before this era of political fairyness took hold) and we didnt get a look in.all we got was called in to impossible drops and closeouts.which built character.
we have a local guy here Dennis(one of my mates dads actually).some of my earliest memories are of Den dropping down the liquid staircase that is the takeoff of our local point.the guy has to be in his late 50's still ripping.he is often called into or given waves when its crowded.but jeez he was a prick when we where young.which is why we love him .what i dont enjoy is older guys sitting wide and dropping in because they have lost thier skills and/or ticker to sit on the takeoff.rather than causing dangerous situations they'd be wizer to surf less demanding waves elsewhere .

as far as i know its the same all along the our coastline.unless of course we're talking about the retirement villages of Scotts or Crescent head where we have alot of older surfers getting nostalgic about an era that alot of them weren't actually involved in.
as far as shaping is concerned (ooo,i tried to stay out of this thread now i'm losing it )
i haven't met any of the shapers on this site so they are excluded from my comments.so dont get your knickers in knots
i dont think that you could come across more paranoia and bitchy an industry than you get from boardbuilding as a whole.
it would be unfair and unprofessional to name names so i wont.[b]this is only my perspective[/b]
i swept floors,got lunches and generally hung about before and after school in the factory of a kneeboard/surfboard builders factory,hoping one day for a job,i was even sponsored by him for 3 years.being more mature now (i think) i see that he was not in the position to employ me but would have if the opportunity arose.thats ok i became a carpenter and made my own boards (and quite deliberatly,no-one elses)on the side.
Said shaper had sold me a specially configured gun kneeboard blank,which i had inturn shaped and prepared for glassing.not trusting myself to do a good job of glassing i took the shaped blank back to him to see if he would glass it.for what it cost,no mates rates here i expected him to make his cut.
the barrage of paranoia i was subjected to was without precedent!he claimed that by finishing the board he was providing me with all his hard earned years of knowledge(in some ways fair enough).he said that being a good kneeboarder and learning to shape was a direct threat to his business.if any of you have guessed who this was you can imagine his face when i thanked him for the compliment
to be honest any shaper worth his salt could pick up a board and see what its creator is intending.so no need for secrecy.
as a result i have shaped my own boards with no logo for 15 yrs and custom built 4 boards for other guys,using my own or my dads templates.
so my impact has been nil.
contribution to kneeboarding as a whole?minimal.could have been better,i find chest beating a little easier in writing than i do in real life
i can see and understand now what happens,you go out and gain these skills at your own expense.they are hard earned.no-one makes that much money out of it.as a result you do it all off your own back.
after all that ,who would silver spoon it into some young blokes mouth?
luckily these days i dont care enough to get all bitter and twisted about it
discouraging isnt it?but thats why there aren't many young shapers around[/quote]

[Smokin Rock]

man, there have been some great replys and a lot of good stuff comin in. a lot of stuff from people who don't post often. which is what i wanted. the lizard society to speak up.
to me kneeboarding is kinda like Bleu cheese. (pardon my food metaphor but i'm waiting for dinner after a good surf) most don't like it, some despise it, and a few just absolutely love it. way more people like velveeta than bleu cheese. but we all know velveeta sucks and is not really even cheese.
i'd hate to see kneeboarding turned into velveeta to appease the masses. lets keep the distinct flavor (and stink) of our sport intact so those few ornry kids (as Red put it) who don't like the mainstream and commercialism of the current standup world can have a pure place to go.
my .02 cents