Standup Kneeboarding

[Nov]

Every so often when im surfing I jump to my feet and surf standing up, my kneeboard seems to go fine standing up and it is a bit of fun but other than myself, my dad and a few guys off the world titles video I never see other kneeboarders stand on their kneeboards, is this because of flippers or that their board goes crap standing or is it something else?

[Scott]

Nov,

A good post topic! I've always been interested in standing up on my kneeboard, especially as a former footboarder. Sometimes I take out my 6'0'' Blast without fins in small surf, but it's just so hard to paddle into waves. My arms definitely aren't in that kind of shape (and at age 49 I probably won't ever get into that kind of paddling shape). I really miss the power of my swim fins. I always admire the Aussie crew because so many of you don't use fins and you can still take off on thick waves. Being able to both stand or kneel at will just furthers the different ways to experience a wave.

In my quest to find a way to have fins and stand up, I even ordered last summer a pair of shinfins (www.shinfins.com) from Australia because they advertise that you can wear this uniquely-designed fin up on your shin, and still stand up on your board. But the fins generated almost no real paddling power (too flimsy) and I had to return them.

Now I have acquired some extra Duckfeet that I plan to cut way down to about a 4" blade beyond my toes, and see if I can stand up while wearing those and yet have enough paddling power to catch waves.

When I do stand up, I find that a kneeboard surfs very different, even inferior, to a footboard. It slides around a lot on me and it's harder to get it up to speed. Great care has to be taken not to overdrive the wide tail with my back foot and spin it out.

I hope you continue on with what you, your dad and a few others have learned to do. You guys must have arms like treetrunks! I'm sure you blow people's minds when you switch back and forth from your knees to your feet--that really goes against conventional wave riding.

Anyone out there come up with a swim fin design modification or technique that facilitates standing up?

Scott

[Steeno]

hey Nov & Scott
every kneelo I surf with around here stands up, and usually has a standup in there quiver. non of us wear flippers, but we all wear booties ( so when you kneel you dont lose the skin of the top of your foot) I usually standup up, depending on the wave, almost every surf, as does Chayne & Troy Simpson, Simon Farrer, Albert Munoz and many more kneelos down here. Flippers are a very rare site here for a kneelo. I would usually only standup if the wave is not kneelo worthy or I ride my kneelo in the local standup comps in small waves to piss the standup guys off. it works lol

[Bryan Jackson]

Personally I don't go for mixing the two. If you're going to standup surf then standup. If you're going to kneeboard then kneeboard!

To me, when a kneeboarder stands up at some point on the ride it makes us look too much like wannabe surfers but of course others may have a different view of the matter!

As far as standing up with fins on, makes it a little more difficult but it can be done, BBers do something quite similar when they drop knee. The biggest difficulty is making a smooth transition from being down on your knees to a standing position.

But once again, I find this esthetically displeasing anyway so why bother

[doc]

why not just kneeride a surfboard?

[DavidW]

Jacks brother Chris used to surf standup contests on his kneeboard, often advancing pretty far. It used to piss off people that did not know him.
Scott, if you're surfing a four fin kneeboard like you would a standup thruster, that might be your problem. Ride it off of your front foot and use the rail. You should see a difference.

[Ler]

I have only worn my fins a couple time in the last two months. I think my favorite is a fullsuit, bootie, and no flippers. Once or twice a session I will try and stand up. Once in awhile I even have fun in the stand up position. One thing for sure is that I'll in a crash.

[Bryan Jackson]

Of course if you go way back when, Jeff Ching was the first to ride a Lis Fish standing up and the surfing world had a new phenomenon on its hands (BTW, the standup surfing world only considers it a true Fish if it has the double keel fins, anything else doesn't seem to qualify. Is the KB world, with the quad Fish design, out of step or ahead of the curve )

I have stood up on my Fish in small but quality fun 3-4 foot waves (without flippers on) and they are hard to turn. Felt something like riding a skateboard.

A standup friend of mine (who was a very good surfer) once rode my 5'6" Romo in some good head high waves. After about 15-20 minutes he gave it back to me saying that if he rode it any longer he might get hooked on it and want one for himself

While he was riding my board I babysat his thruster. It was something like a 6'6" and it felt really weird just sitting on it. Very narrow, felt tipsy and unbalanced. It had been a few years since I had been on a standup and even then I mostly rode hybrids which are a bit wider and more stable. Anyway I tried to ride a couple waves on it but all I could basically do was go in a straight line. Not much fun so I just patiently waited to get back my Romo !

[surfhorn]

The recent return by the standup community to the fish design can be directly attributed to kneeboards. Tom Curren rode a Freeline 5'6" KB fish a few years ago and that set everything in motion.

I've always footboarded (just a little bit) during my surfing career but I consider myself a KBer. I've also been able to stand on a KB (usually at the end of a wave) with my Duck Feet on but that takes a lot of effort to get your fins flat on the board.

But things change. I've been riding my 6'0" and am stoked. And then, yesterday, I watched "The Sparrow Has Landed" which features finless KBers.

I can see how KBers can ride w/out fins. With the increased length and forward fin placement forcing the rider to ride more towards the middle of the board, it leaves more foam in the tail to keep the KB from sinking on the shoulder or when the wave backs off.

But I just don't know. I'm using shorter blades but I still feel pretty naked w/out a good set of flippers.

[DarcyM]

The first kneeboarder I ever saw while growing up in Laguna Beach was a guy by the name of Mike Lapin. He was a really talented kb'er, and blew minds on a regular basis, getting lots of respect from the stand-up crowd. Then one summer I saw him standing up on his kneeboard, wearing fins (probably churchills, if I recall). He was goofy foot, and surfing the lefts at Brooks Street just sort of sliding around on his little fish. He was a little guy, so he rode it well in the smallish, junky waves.

But not quite as well as he did when kb'ing.

Never saw him much after that summer. Don't know whatever happened to him.

[Birdie]

I saw a guy stand-up surfing without fins, on a bodyboard, on OH waves at County Line a few weeks ago.

He caught every wave he wanted, I saw him catch maybe 8 in 30 minutes or so, and was just awesome to watch.....perfect balance and trim....and then, he'd flutter kick back out, do it all again.

He first popped up to his knees, then put his right foot on the deck and pulled the rest of himself up - hands free...no wiggling or waving of anything...it all looked effortless and precise and totally graceful.

He was perfect grace-in-motion.

Worth shooting in slo-mo.

[Steeno]

[quote="Bryan Jackson"]Personally I don't go for mixing the two. If you're going to standup surf then standup. If you're going to kneeboard then kneeboard!

To me, when a kneeboarder stands up at some point on the ride it makes us look too much like wannabe surfers but of course others may have a different view of the matter!quote]

I disagree, if you feel like standing up on your kneeboard, standup, who cares.
Mixing it up is good for your overall peripheral view of surfing.
I thought kneeboarders didn't care what people thought of them (wannabe surfers?) there are no rules.

[Beeline2.0]

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[ivandill]

Here in puerto rico summer come is time to surf the south coast.Small surf is the rule and trying to kneeboard those wave is not fun so i started standing on my blast round pin, and started to havelot of fun.I mean some of my friend started to notice and ask for a ride and they dont want to give my board back,Iam saying really small wave and they on their thruster are suffering like i the lack of power,So a kneeboard with all it foam make alot easier to cacth the wave and rip the s*&^ of the crap.
Ill be fun to catch a wave on your Knees get tube deep and then get spit out of the tube standing up.

[Flexman]

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