Kneeboarding At 3 G's

Man O' War · Post by **Man O' War** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:31 am

Here's the backup for my spoon. It's a rehab, and it's pretty indestructible. The spoon characteristics it incorporates is the flex fin and the lowered COG.
The rest is pure whatever.

More pics on
http://www.flexspoon.com/forum//viewtopic.php?p=450#450

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:21 pm

Mark, that is absolutely crazy! What is it like paddling the thing with those deep kneewells? Are the wells in the right place or do you have to move back a bit in them? You're not going to put in a seat belt, eh?

Love the dull gray paint with the black nose: looks like a bondo board from a car body shop. Do you ever use traditional colors like like blue, or yellow, or clear?!!

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:42 pm

You guys honed in on the inspiration for this. I was looking at a pic of an F-16. It was flat grey everywhere except the nose cone and vertical stabilizer, flat black. I tried to follow that pattern and went out of my way to keep it flat, including no 220 wet-dry at the end. If you want good shots of this in action, though, I better find another pilot. I'll have to hand it off to Eric Carson. Mike, lying on it is no problem. You don't notice it. When you're in the lineup, you can lay on it sideways, if you want. Straddling it is a trip

MOW, you answered all my questions in your responses to the pic you also posted at:
album_showpage.php?pic_id=5976&mode=next

All very cool! You innovative designs are becoming legendary. When will you start making your own jewelry?

SFKneelo · Post by **SFKneelo** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:27 pm

I'm but a peon when it comes to such things... but, as a rider, what about going more with Aussie dimensions? Something like two fists apart, with about 23.5" board length?

I'm trying to picture what the current board I'm riding would look like with the application of knee-wells. I'd imagine it would bring you closer to the wave, while allowing for more torque... the good kind of torque... not the kind I'm trying to re-hab out of...

Like I said, just a layman, and I've been amazed by the spoons you've been building.

Very cool!

Man O' War · Post by **Man O' War** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:04 am

Being dry-docked sure gives you time to think, doesn't it. As a fellow peon, I'd say try it but watch it. I'd be afraid to do this to a thinner board. The kneewells remove a lot of strength. I felt comfortable doing it to this board because it was almost 4" thick in parts. Also because it was already so weird looking I couldn't lose. Good luck with the rehab!

DrStrange · Post by **DrStrange** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:10 am

Could do it on thinner board, just need more glass for strength; either extra layers and/or unidirectional "bars" at strategic places like along rails and down stringer line.

red · Post by **red** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:46 pm

I had an epiphany today

I've been computer designing boards for a while now and trying to get my head around doing a spoon. I thought to do it the classic way of machine shaping a positive blank, glassing the bottom, then cutting away the excess blank and then laying up the top.

My new idea is that it's possible to cut a negative on a machine, lightly glass it, then use foil or other release mechanism and lay up in this as a mould

The benefit of doing this is that both the mould and the design exists. It's simple to adjust the original design by millimeters (or change all dimensions by inches) and cut a new plug in 20 minutes for 10's of dollars (blank cost plus machine time, which is cheap)

I know, I know, I'll have to be the one to do it before I can advocate it.

ScottMac · Post by **ScottMac** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:46 am

Man O' War · Post by **Man O' War** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:29 pm

Scotty, it just warms my heart to see this thread back up, whatever the reason. On April 14 it'll be a year. A lot's happened.

Man O' War · Post by **Man O' War** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:54 pm

My brother tells me to post pics of the deck. Twist my arm

It's always a pleasure to spread the stoke, especially on this great old thread.

ScottMac · Post by **ScottMac** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:03 pm

Man O' War · Post by **Man O' War** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:04 am

Scott, this amount of foam is good for this size and weight. When you sink it, the board pops up quickly and floats vertically
with about 9" of nose out of the water, so it's easy to spot. With Scott W's board, the black one from last year, the extra foam
worked out ok because the board weighed 11 lbs (poly). This one is epoxy/carbon and weighs 9.

Increasing the foam doesn't help with paddling, which is usually why people want to do it. You still can't paddle it under
your chest, you have to kickboard, and the extra foam just adds glass weight and takes away from the duckdiving ease. It does
increase strength if you need it, but in the case of this board with all the carbon on the rails, it wasn't a need.

I think epoxy/carbon was a good combo but it will take a year of riding to verify that. Or if I lived in Santa Cruz, one week

I like the appearance with less foam too. There's this little Surform tool that's probably been on the market forever but I just
discovered it this round. It made the decision to put more concave into it very easy.

Later...

PS. I just recently downloaded "Spoonman" (old Soundgarden) and am enjoying it. Remember your suggestion way back at the beginning of this thread?