Measuring Kneeboards.....?????

Panama · Post by **Panama** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 11:58 am

Hey folks, I have a few questions regarding measurment and design. Thanks in advance for you input...I'm a former stand up surfer with 40 years of stand up experience..Prior to that, mat riding, plywood bodyboarding, anything that floated me to shore was legit. Anyway to make a longer story shorter.... due to an injury I now am forced to kneeboard.. (with a smile by the way), I'm stoked to be in the water again and riding a beautiful Romanowsky I bought from Steve Michael. My questions relating to design would be how do you go about determining where the wide point is usually placed..? I know with surfboards you determine some widths by measuring a foot from the tail, nose ect..? Any info on how to compare the two measuring styles would be helpful so I can order a custom board in the future.. Thanks again...

stemple · Post by **stemple** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 4:34 pm

alot of boards are measured 12 inches from either end and then in the widest part. Where the shaper puts the widest part of the board seems to be an individual thing. I usually tell the shaper the length, general width and what type of waves I want the board for and then let them do their job.

Steeno · Post by **Steeno** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 9:41 pm

from what I believe to work for myself is this, if you lean forward and drive your board all the time the wide point should be just in front of where you kneel. if you sit up on on your board when you surf the wide point should be just behind where you you kneel. Hence its the weight point that will give you rail in the water from where you downward pressure comes from, forward or back. what do you guys think?

flat here aswell, Albert Munoz told me he missed home the other day, thing is he is in queensland at the moment, and he meant he missed living at my place lol, I think he is coming back to USA in December 2020 lol

Don · Post by **Don** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:32 am

Yep, I agree w/ Steeno 100%. It all depends on how you ride - up or over.

As for Albert.... Albert who? The bastard. You keep him. All we get are emails saying "surfed 6' kirra w/ no one out"...

A) I don't believe him anymore
B) He's lost the "Kneelo Sympathy" award to Tom Linn (read short stories)
C) When he wakes up from his dream does he think we'll LET him come back?

There's more to life than surfing... I think... Those words are echoing in my head from my childhood and it's caused me a slight twitch as I fight to maintain sanity during our NorCal summer doldrums... waves will be here soon!

Cheers and let Albert know he's going to miss a good winter over hear!

quadfin · Post by **quadfin** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 11:54 am

The board pictured was built after an in-the-water session with the shaper. My old board was marked with wax balls with our design ideas and template built in the shop. Has been my magic board for how and where I surf.

Steeno · Post by **Steeno** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 3:21 pm

I let you in on a secret Don, I have surfed Kirra about 40 times and I have never surfed it alone, maybe five or six guys (usually there five or six pro's) but not alone

scoop · Post by **scoop** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 1:26 am

quad
for myliking i'd like those rear fins alot more forward
for me it would seem too stif
but hey....we are arn't all the same
and for Kirra all alone....Albert must be surfing at midnight till 3am
but then again from the pics ive seen hes getting a bit.....but we have had some great winter swells rolling on by here in oz (only a week and im Vanuatu bound)....not hi qual surf but its a new playground to explore
will keep you all posted

tony

quadfin · Post by **quadfin** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 6:48 am

Scoop,

Actually had to make the stinger fins a little longer because the board was so loose.

The pic doesn't show well because of angle but wide point is way back, and I ride back on the board, that is why I pulled in nose. Really a fast and loose board but able to handle some size.

Panama · Post by **Panama** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:36 pm

Thanks to all who've replied...getting the hang of this, now all we need are some waves in New York, soon enough with the tropics coming alive. This is a great site by the way, keep up the great work...Mahalo.... Oh yeah anyone care to coment about wave entry, do you paddle in w/out kicking,use both or what's been working best for you guys. I like to get in early to set everything up, I want to feel like I'm catching a wave on a longboard, and as mine is a 5'10' it shouldn't be so hard to obtain that feeling right...???

quadfin · Post by **quadfin** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 1:06 pm

Panama, you will learn to love those fins. Use em to dig in and launch.

Remember to always take off deeper than stand ups, you can make it. You can tell the Tropics are quiet by all the time I have for the internet. I'm waiting for winter when you guys are freezing we get our waves.

doc · Post by **doc** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 3:58 am

Panama wrote:Hey folks, I have a few questions regarding measurment and design. Thanks in advance for you input...I'm a former stand up surfer with 40 years of stand up experience..Prior to that, mat riding, plywood bodyboarding, anything that floated me to shore was legit. Anyway to make a longer story shorter.... due to an injury I now am forced to kneeboard.. (with a smile by the way), I'm stoked to be in the water again and riding a beautiful Romanowsky I bought from Steve Michael. My questions relating to design would be how do you go about determining where the wide point is usually placed..? I know with surfboards you determine some widths by measuring a foot from the tail, nose ect..? Any info on how to compare the two measuring styles would be helpful so I can order a custom board in the future.. Thanks again...

While this may be counterproductive......

Maybe ten or fifteen years ago I was having a couple of cold ones with my friend Steve Mags, a quite skilled standup type who has always been sympatico with kneelos. And the conversation turned towards shaping and specifications;

"You know" he said, " Whenever I talk to the shaper, tell him exactly what outline shape, widths, rails, rocker, fin placement, thicknesses and everything else I think a board should have........ the board sucks, it doesn't work. And when I tell him I am such and such tall, so heavy, surfing this kind of break and in my kind of style....the board is great. "

"So", he went on, " I have concluded I know nothing about shaping and board design and should leave it to those who do".

I've had pretty much the same results, myself. Ordered a few boards to my specs and they barked, they were bloody miserable things. And when the shaper worked to what he thought was right for me, the boards worked great. If not, switch shapers.

Don't fall in love with numbers- X feet long, Y inches wide at the nose, Z wide at the tail and so on. It all has to work together with the rails and the rocker and everything else. Outline shape is nice, but it's way more complex than that.

If you like your Romanosky, then get another one. If there's some things you might like to change a bit, say so when ya talk to him. Don't beat your shaper to death with numbers and this and that - it may not work with his set of shapes and may not work period.

hope that's of some use

doc...............

surfhorn · Post by **surfhorn** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:50 am

Unless you have unlimited time, money and surf time, finding a skilled, experienced KB shaper is the way to go. A shaper has years of experience working with a lot of different KBers, hopefully from both the fish school and the single fin school into today's thrusters and quads.

But if you do want to get into shaping, always keep at least one good board to ride - a fall back KB - as you build experience with your own designs.

I worked in a shop that specilizes in KBs plus I started shaping KBs in 1968. But I found my true skill was in the actual design of the boards for specific customers then working with the shop's owner/shaper - himself a KBer. He had the hours and thousands of boards under his belt so that the boards came our great.

Just know that KB shapers are not going to get rich shaping boards - this is truly a labor of love. Whenever I have to pay for a KB, I do it willingly, knowing that I'm keeping KBing alive and allowing the KB maker to live the dream.

Beeline2.0 · Post by **Beeline2.0** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 8:42 am

hart · Post by **hart** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 5:23 pm

Panama,

I've come in late on this but Steeno is dead right about widepoint..the shaper should position this to repond to your style.

It is important though to also measure one foot down and one fut up of whatever your riding and tell your shaper this.....you see Steen for example would struggle with the quad fin pictured because he is so strong of his "front foot" and needs more area to compensate..

The shaper should recognise this from the dimensions you give him and the comments you make.

By the way the quad looks like a rocket..where are the handles?

Regards from OZ

quadfin · Post by **quadfin** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 7:43 pm

The board pictured is very fast.

The board is the 5th Generation of the design. We kept fin placement and rocker constant and started pulling in nose lines, widening tail, and thinning until it was right for my style, very much pumping down the line.

Generation 6 will be the same except for Future Fins forward and FCS for trailers.

A friend of mine in Florida has worked with similar design concepts on Stand Ups (Prime Surfboards) refered to as "Flying Triangles" in the area.

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Measuring Kneeboards.....?????

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