Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

TimM wrote:I'll take some pics of the tails for you, they're pretty old school looking but they really go well..

Bit off topic but I swear by my pod.. 50% of my sessions I'm by myself and the pod gives me a sense of security.. When Denver was attacked last week his buddy had a pod on and paddled towards him when he was being attacked and the shark swam off pretty quick. He had been bitten 3 times by then so the fact that it left when so much blood was in the water was pretty incredible.. There are some naysayers when it comes to whether they work or not and everyone's entitled to their opinion but around here they are the go.. At one spot I surf in the Kei I've been in the water with five or six mates and everyone has a pod.. not worth taking the chance when you're 3 hours drive from a decent hospital..

Tim as you say a bit off topic , interesting thing about the pod is that it could spread everybody out a bit to different spots , at present most guys congregate at a few spots , safety in numbers i suppose.

a few years back a scientist accidently found that rare earth magnets do the same job as a pod check it out

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellane ... arkmagnets


You can get them from electronic shops and they are cheap. Put them in your legy and wety key pocket. Then sink to the bottom as you have to have about 10 - 20 pounds of magnets for it to work

TimM wrote:BTW I met a dude called Gus in the water at Kelso a month or 2 back who reckons he knows you.. there are so few of us in the water here these days the stand-up guys automatically assume we all know each other

When I was staying at Happy Wanderers every winter in the 70/80's and we were working at keeping the spot secret you could be shot for mentioning it so blithely. We even got Derek Hynd and his entourage of pro surfers (a young Banks?) sworn to secrecy. It ended up appearing in disguise in one of his writings.

On Topic: I had a few good ones from Glen D'Arcey, so he's certainly had experience over many years. Does Spider Murphy still shape? He may be out of practice but he did some decent boards back in the day.

OR

Just get to a gathering or the Worlds and buy up boards there. Probably a cost effective way to go and you get to drink beverages with a bunch of nice people.

Red I hear you big time on not naming spots, I'm all for it - you'll notice I haven't named the ones I surf regularly.. Unfortunately though the stable door is wide open with regards to Happy's I was there for the first time in many years this year and there were 30+ guys on a weekday! It is a fun wave though but is basically the town bicycle it seems.. didn't really have a good time.

I haven't seen a Spider kneeboard for many years. My first board was a Spider, bought it used from the old Safari shop in Somtseu Road in 1987.. Jeez just realised how old I am! Gigs, Roman and Lawrence Atkinson were my heroes.. And my one teacher at school Roger Island was a kneeboarder. Things sure have changed. Kneeboarding was part of the SA Champs and I even remember the one Kneelo champs was televised when it was at JBay, Gigs just pipped Roman in the final when it was absolutely cooking! Now days youngsters in SA have hardly even seen a kneeboarder, some haven't at all... still the best way to ride a wave though. No doubt

Terence I put a couple pics up of the boards for you..

album_showpage.php?pic_id=28336

&

album_showpage.php?pic_id=28335

Tim thanks for that.

T

Red Spider is shaping tons of Footboards but Kneeboards not so much , i think he last made one for Adam Shapiro fairly recently , but i hardly ever bump into Adam in the water.
Last time i was surfing with Spider he expressed interest in making a Kneeboard or two as he said "likes to do something different every so often"
he also said he made a few Spoons for somebody overseas.
He makes demo Footboards so i suggested he makes a demo kneeboard for us to try when looking for a kneeboard in the Durban area , he expressed some interest but we will see.
There are also Gigs boards made through Jason Ribbinks factory which suit some people ,they have a lot of experience now making all of Gigs boards.

Terence H

You make some very genuine comments about this topic..and mate, there are no 'backsteps' needed

Kneeboarders are as individual as surfers can get..at least we can be stoked that KSUSA offers us something that never existed before

hart

allan byrne shapes a mean channel bottom

Bruce, very well said!