That simple fin system was way cool Bill. I didn’t know you were the creator. I first saw it when we used it a Hobie’s. Do you have any of them left? Do you hold the patent on it? Or maybe it has run out by now?
I have often thought of that system and how quick and easy it was to install extra fins.
Bill,
Yes I still have some of the fins as well as the poly tools to set the boxes in. I’ll be over there end of next month, I can bring a few sets over for you. No, the patent has not run out! I never did patent it. It didn’t seem important at the time. Still doesn’t. If we hook up, I can show you a few variations on that concept. Aloha for now.
http://www.ksusa.org/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1529&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
…See, as a group, kneelos are terribly tech. The average standup might know how many fins there are on his board, the average kneelo tends to know the chemical composition of the foam in it and in many cases have tables of the shear modulus of said foam tucked away someplace. It is not a surprise ( to us) that every advance in surfboard design started as a kneeboard. It’s unrecognised by 99% of standups.
You will hear lots of bozos saying ‘why don’t ya stand up, duuh huh, duuuh huh’. Your options are several:
ignoring them
“Why fall further?”
a long, drawn-out dissertation on centers of gravity, planing areas vs skin friction, drag, weight transfer, boundary layers ( which really doesn’t matter much, but it confuses them ) , available power to a vehicle travelling across an inclined surface and more. It messes with their tiny conventional minds.
simply blowing them away in the water.
The latter two make converts.
But stop before ya wind up wearing a lot of black clothing on shore, quoting Sarte and smoking Nat Sherman’s.
doc…
Aloha Bill
Meeting up would be great! I am here most every day.
Yes I would like to get a few of those. Do you have assorted fins etc? Let me know what you have and the costs and I can tell you what to bring along.
While many neat things have come from Kneeboarders(cripples-to be Politically incorrect)
I rarely see kneeboarders here but there is one guy out a lot and he is in fact, a cripple (to be politically incorrect). It takes him several minutes to walk from car park to the water, with cane in one hand and board in other. I also wonder if I should offer to carry his board or if he’d take that as an insult or something. After all, he speaks with what I believe is a French accent! Anyway, he makes it out there and gets some waves and seems stoked. And comes back for more several times a week. Stoked! It’s great to see guys like that that surf no matter what life throws in their way.
Now, why anyone who can standup would simply choose not to is still a mystery to me. Maybe someday I’ll get clued in to it.
Quote:While many neat things have come from Kneeboarders(cripples-to be Politically incorrect)
I rarely see kneeboarders here but there is one guy out a lot and he is in fact, a cripple (to be politically incorrect). It takes him several minutes to walk from car park to the water, with cane in one hand and board in other. I also wonder if I should offer to carry his board or if he’d take that as an insult or something. After all, he speaks with what I believe is a French accent! Anyway, he makes it out there and gets some waves and seems stoked. And comes back for more several times a week. Stoked! It’s great to see guys like that that surf no matter what life throws in their way.
Now, why anyone who can standup would simply choose not to is still a mystery to me. Maybe someday I’ll get clued in to it.
mar , that’s awesome mate !!
the first boogie boarder I ever saw was also a cripple …his legs and feet had been fairly mangled in I think it was a car or motorbike accident from memory ?
cb- , you might know this guy ?
platty , too ?
…his name is ‘Devon’ , and he charged Lil av , d.y. point and the bower in the 1970s and 1980s …he may still . I think Simon [my brother] may even have done a thing in ‘Tracks’ rag on him at one stage …
My brother , stood up , then kneeboarded , then when he found kneeboarding took too much toll on his knees , switched back to standing up .
He made himself known unintentionally when he first arrived in the Phillip Island area by entering a surf contest in the standup [shortboard] , the longboard , and the kneeboard divisions …and winning all three !! [the grizzled locals said " geez mate , did ya bring any others with you from Sydney to win our contests , did ya ?"].
…He’s had the last laugh though , as he’s lived there 25 years now , does the surf coaching , sells the boards to the lifelong locals , and does 3 month long Indo trips each year , in the depth of Wonthaggi winters there …and his son , Eli , RIPS !!!
Want to be politically correct? The term is handicapped, and yes go ahead and offer to carry his board. I walk with a cane and seldom refuse help.
Rooster,
My comment of “Purest Form”, references the assertion in the original post ,re: 99%… or pure (dare I say it?) bullshit……
Alternative interpretation of “purest form”:
“Kneeboarders have always seemed to me to be the purest surfers of all.” --Nat Young
(in: The History of Surfing, Nat Young, Palm Beach Press, NSW, 1983)
Marabout - I think I know that guy too. Maybe 50, 5’8", thin, usually wears a hood? He surfs Bo a couple times a week.
He’s cool. In fact, he builds his own boards. Buys Clark blanks and throws the back half away. Chat him up, he’s a super guy.
MTB (whoever you are).
Did you post that because you think an opinion of Nat Young has some particular merit, value, or importance? If so, you’re playing to the wrong audience. The assertion that every advance in surfing came from kneeboarding, borders on unworthy of comment, it’s so damn SILLY. As to the PUREST form of surfing, I’d have to vote for BODYSURFING. After all, Seals do it, Sea Lions do it , and Dolphins do it. Seems pretty pure to me. Just the surfer and the wave.
You’re right.
George Greenough doesn’t believe that every advance in surfboard design started as a kneeboard… rather, most of it (as applied to any good surfcraft) can be traced back to nature.
Marabout - I think I know that guy too. Maybe 50, 5'8", thin, usually wears a hood? He surfs Bo a couple times a week.He’s cool. In fact, he builds his own boards. Buys Clark blanks and throws the back half away. Chat him up, he’s a super guy.
That could be him. He wears a spring suit in the “summer” (when the water is still like 55 degrees). I talked to him briefly one day, just usual surfer stuff about the waves and tide and whatnot and he did seem like a nice guy.
Bill, you know MTB already…he kneeboards a break in north SD county at night with a headlight on his dual hydrofoil kneeboard…dammit I’ve said too much.
“Now, why anyone who can standup would simply choose not to is still a mystery to me. Maybe someday I’ll get clued in to it.”
gota respond to this part-----today it’s onshore and got high tide sickness—so i took out a surf mat and fins and had a blast! there are many ways to ride waves and they are all great in their day and time… to use only one tool or style of surfing is to waste a whole spectrum of the surf experience.
while kneelos, are a bit nutty , they SURF! so do spongers, longboarders, shortboarders and bodydurfer and whatever else i forgot–BUT, they all have added to the spectrum of knowledge we al enjoy…
ok, enough preaching, i’ll go fix that ding now 