Flextail Kneelo/Hull update

Some may remember a few months back i posted some photos and a little info on a kneeboard i had worked up…its ben out a few times now and today was the first day its gotten some fun waves.

Chest high by surfing standards, overhead by kneelo standars…Im a bigger guy so i don’t fit into smal barrles well, but this morning alone I got more tubes than i got all last winter standing up…surreal.

The board takes a REALLY high line REALLY well, which i love; you can stay high and swoop down into the pocket, then bounce off the bottom turn and go pretty vertical into the lip…feels like you’re on a yo-yo with this tail on it.

so anyways, here are a few photos of this morning and of the board when it was completed…enjoy!

…and go make one!!!

this bottomturn got me slingshotted out in NO time :slight_smile:

deeeeeeeep and still going

last but certainly not least…my buddy Hiten I on a carbon speed dialer type quad we built last week

the kneeboard in question

That is SO cool.

Hey, (Josh?) every time you post pics, incl on your website, they look like you took them about 20 minutes after sunset–I always want to see max detail on your outstanding work–any idea why it looks like darkness already fell?

Love your stuff

maybe my screen is psycho-delic…looks perfect to me, some are a bit dark, i know alot of my action photos are cause they’re screenshots from video. I’ll see if i can get this straightened out as i’ve been told that a few times :frowning:

-Ryan

ps-this is an afternoon-built board…totally do-able in a day with UV resin…highly reccomended, ill put up more specs/pics if anyone want to have a go!

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maybe my screen is psycho-delic…

looks ultra-unsaturated to me?

well either way…kneeboarding may just turn into my ‘thing’…its too fun!

hey Surferguy, I agree with Janklow, your boards are tres awesome. I found it hard to get an idea of how that board was performing from those stills. You said you shot video, how about posting that up so we can see the entire ride. That would be much appreciated. You don’t know a guy from SB called Christian Enns do you ? Last I heard he was living up near San Luis obispo but I wonder if he has moved back to SB. Steve

i dont have video of that session, or any other kneelo stuff yet, will soon though…pretty good summary of every wave was this:

take off like in the photos, get slotted and wait for the lip to throw…or:

drop and trim WAY high on the wave, slip down into the pocket/wait for the bowl, then slingshot into the lip…those were my favorites!

dont know of anyone by that name down here though…

anyone is welcome to try this thing out if they want to come pick it up!

Hey Ryan,

If you ever get to the point where you are going to shelve the board…try sanding the tail behind the fin to about half the thickness you’ve got it now. I think you’ll find the board will work even better!

Emma wood state beach the inside part?

Rincon parkway?

Just south of hobsons?

The wave looks real familiar.

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Hey Ryan,

If you ever get to the point where you are going to shelve the board…try sanding the tail behind the fin to about half the thickness you’ve got it now. I think you’ll find the board will work even better!

ah…i would if i could :slight_smile:

the original idea was to build a glass spoon, but i decided to go foam instead, so what i did was shape it, glass the bottom, then grind out all the foam on the tail except about 1/16", then i kept glassing. I only have a few layers on the whole board, so there isnt really anything to foil out. I do agree that a progressive flex would be better, this tail amost flexes like a panel, instead of a smooth curve.

as for the location…check the distance to the oil rig…think further north!

Hmmmmmmm…if I had to guess, I would say that is in my neck of the woods…is that platform Holly? Glad you’re having fun on that board. I might have to take you up on your offer to take it for a spin. Do you ride it with fins, or no fins?

–Ben

yessir on the fins, and let me know when you want it!

OK, this isn’t a fair trade, but you can borrow my 8’ knee paddleable board if you like…now with twin keel fins! I’ll drop you a PM as the weekend approaches.

got it into some 6’ beachbreak this evening…everywhere was drained by the tide, so i checked my last spot and it was FIRING!

got some epic late drops…hanging in the lip until the wave hit the shelf then take a fun late drop and hit the bottom hard…got a few squirts into the lip; all in all…im going again tomorrow :slight_smile:

…with girlfriend and video camera in two!

great stuff , mate !

i LOVE these ‘making and riding report’ - type threads …it keeps it real , and gives us a look at your waves too !

…keep up the great work !

cheers !

ben

p.s. - …any shots of the "carbon fibre speed dialler " , too, by the way ? [ maybe you could post 'em on another thread , if you don’t want to do the ‘hijack my own thread’ thing , eh ?]

got to meet up with george of flexspoon.com fame today and check out his project velo board…some VERY different machines!

got a better feel for what the tru spoons feel and look like, for the most part what i had expected, but ill be happy to incorporate some of those curves into v.2 of this board in the future.

we tried to get some surf but it wasnt quite happening…his board needed alot more juice then we found, my board would have taken the waves on handidly, but all was not lost, got to meet a great person and check out a killer board!

my “velo” spoon is currently on display in the new wetsand surf shop in downtown ventucky (if anyboady would like to see what those type of spoons look like)

got my wave of the winter on it already today…stoked to get even more size this time…visions of that 8’ point within a 6-7’ beachie.

ive got my hands on flexspoon/george’s project velo board today for some modification; cool to have one of these to run my hands over for a week :slight_smile:

Just wanted to say that surferguy80’s Flextail Kneelo/Hull is an elegant way of incorporating flex into a foam kneeboard. Looked really good in person. He wanted me to try it in some waves but I would be lost on a buoyant board. I’m sure his next one will be all 'glass(carbon?) in the tail. And I’ll bet he’ll be making himself a full flexspoon soon!

may be going the natural way with my spoon when i build one…I got my hands on some paulownia this morning…VERY cool stuff…bouyant and flexible…VERY flexible at that…could be a fun project!

Im going to tear into your board tomorrow…that’ll be new!