I’ve been tooling away at a 5’ spoon that i waited WAY too long to build for myself the past few days…it’s the most worthy project i’ve done in a long time that i thought i should share with anyone curious…templated off a pre-velo (pretty sure it was pre, based on the materials it was built with) greenough spoon, and changed a tad bit from there.
The bottom and rocker is a little more relaxed, and has a soft tri-plane just forward of the widepoint area. at the midpoint, the rail line is 1 1/2" deep.
bottom shaped;
rail line/foil shot;
then 5 layers nose to tail were glassed on the bottom, and the deck was ground out (after it cured);
the fin was foiled out of a 1/2" thick panel I got from Chuck at True Ames (a million thanks to him!!!)
5 Layers of glass on the deck, along with two hot-dog style patched along the midpoints of the rails;
fin glassed on, pre-sanding;
the fin/ending of the rail area tends to have a hinge in it, so a few layers were added to the deck just ahead of the fin to stiffen it a little bit;
hotcoated and sanded out, ready to ride/fine tune;
no churchies. they require a flutter kick like all the spongers use... but those speed bumps have lots of flotation, which you will not have with a spoon.
I had a home made spoon back in the day, and used another which was just a glass skin with a neoprene foam deck (man that one got heavy after an hour or two), but I went with, and stayed with, Shoe style displacement and deep knee wells for many later kneeboards.
I always used Duck Feet (size Super Large for my size 13 taro patch feets) because they, and the UDTs I used briefly (too heavy) give a kneeboarder POWER, RIGHT NOW. Yes the churchies are much softer and more comfy. Yes the DF chafed like crazy and I got staph craters full of pus which eventually required penicillin, but hey, my fault for stumbling around barefoot all the time with open sores. I was a little careless about those things then. wearing socks solved the chafe issue, but what a humbug.
But I digress... my point is that on a Velo style hull lacking significant flotation, you're gonna need power, and flutter kicking won't (to my way of thinking) provide that. Get some big fairly stiff blades. Nowadays the choices are many more than there used to be and you can probably find a pair which will be moderately comfy for you feet without sacrificing drive.
PS... I was riding Pipe, Gas Chambers, Rocky Rights, Vland, Makapuu and some Sandy's Left Point. These were waves with significant push. I hope you find yours.
Honolulu your right about the Duck Feet! They are stiff however you do get a lot of power. I used Churchills because they were softer and didn’t hurt my feet. You do get a crazy work out on a spoon. The ride is worth it. I have always been a prone surfer however knee riding is pretty cool in the right situation!
may get some photos of riding her this weekend, but will absolutely have a ride report after the maiden voyage (eagerly awaiting the coming south swell…).
Here’s a trick for actually catching waves with a spoon (rather than watchin’ waves pass you by…). Hold the board out in front of you like a kickboard when you are chasing one down. Try to get the board over the crest of the wave and on the face. It will drag you over the ledge and then you can pull yourself to your knees. If you try to paddle it in like a surfboard or a boogie you will be working extra hard with little reward…I used to use Churchills all the time to reduce crampage. They worked fine using this method. Take your time paddling back out or soon you will be in a little ball trying to message your calves and hamstrings whilst screaming like a little girl…
