where can i buy them online?-- i’m having a hard time finding on google.
I did find www.waveblades.com , but i want something smaller simpler.
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I did find www.waveblades.com , but i want something smaller simpler.
try this first… it works really good for me
the pin tail gives a good full rail contact for bigger surf, but I prefer the swallow tail for a “skatey-er” feel…
Then… once you have mastered the slippah… you may use the broadsword of all body surfing…
Go in peace…
or make your own off the nose of broken board. Anything to push up on a little works…`
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huh – i never thought about that before – i got old slaps lying around - perfect - thanks heads up on that. i’ve seen the tray thing before – funny i didn’t think of that. ( saw a youtube clip)
Mt buddy Blaize is a Sandy’s/Pipeline local and is going to school out here. We went for a surf one day and I was telling him about all my plans for a very elaborate handboard. He just laughed and rode circles around me with one of his old Scotts he never goes anywhere with out. You want to put your fingers through the straps and pull up on the front.
Scotts?
Slippers
Jack In The Box Kihei, Maui was missing quite a few trays for awhile do to a friend of mines kids. They surfed them down at Big Beach, Makena. I’ve got a collector friend who pulled out an item of interest once while I was visiting him. He asked me if I knew what it was? I said sure. “It’s a 'Hand Surfer”'. He said I was the only guy he had ran in to that knew what it was, so he gave it to me. It I was computer literate I post you a picture. Basically it is a molded piece of plastic with straps.
Growing up bodysurfing at the Wedge, I remember a handful of the guys using swimming training paddles as handplanes. They would allow you to generate a signifcant amount of speed and make sections that otherwise only the best bodysurfers could make. They hold an edge really well and allow you to get up out of the water onto a plane.
They’re just thin plastic rectangles, slighting longer and wider than your hand. Stay away fromt the round-ish ones with all the holes, just go for the plain old rectangle ones. Pull out the straps that come in the paddles, replace with surgical tubing from the hardware store and drill a couple extra holes to run the ends of the tubing back up through the paddle so the nubs stick up through the top of the paddle rather than through the bottom. This will create less drag and will help to keep the straps intact if and when you catch an edge. The surgical tubing holds up a lot better than the tubing that comes with the paddles.
A couple of the wedge crew guys took it to the next level and made custom handplanes that were generally the same shape and size as the swimming ones but made from a stiffer material like lexan or plexiglass. They looked like they could really fly on those!
I can post a pic of the handplanes with the tubing when I get home if anyone is interested.
yea yeah , nico – post pics.
Nels is on a road trip but he’d be a good person to p.m.
also check here http://www.rodndtube.com/paipo/forum/ It’s a paipo forum but they are mostly home builders and many are also into hand planes etc. Kind of an anything goes as long as it is a bit off the mainstream kinda group.
ebodyboarding.com has one model for sale by hydro fin check it out if you get the chance, i have ridden them and they are fun.
Back in the day (70s) I made quite a few and used them at Point Panic, Makapuu, Pipe, Gas Chambers…
Easiest way was to use a piece of leftover foam from a blank. Remember we didn’t have close tolerance blanks then, and foam was cheap too.
Sevaral variations…
Usually the HB would be about 12 inches long, heart-shaped with the point forward. Knifey rails. Two glass loops like we use for leashes, on either side of the deck, then whatever kind of webbing I could find to go between.
Another variation was to shape as usual, glass the two or three layers on the bottom only, no lap, then sand away all the foam except for a little mound on top that fit your palm. Glass loops and webbing as usual.
Each of these first two had a “keel” type fin at least 2/3 as long as the hb, and maybe 2 inches deep. Thin so it didn’t need to be foiled.
Third version was only about 8 inches long, 2" thick, with holes that you poked your fingers into. No need for webbing.
Another type I never used was 1/8 inch plexiglass, flat with slots cut to hold the webbing. These would be used two at a time. Didn’t float though so don’t drop or lose them.
It was neat fun cuz the materials were basically reclaimed scraps, and you could glass em all kinds of wild colors. Heck shaping was a matter of minutes; glassing with today’s UV cure wouldn’t be much longer. Nowadays you could Posca them or spray even more variations.
NOW FOR THE CAUTION NOTE. You had to have pretty damn good upper body strength to use a hb when it was fast and hollow. If you were going really fast and had to pull out of a closeout, or (as usually happened at Pipe) the wave passed you by, you were likely to ram your face into the hb or nearly tear out your shoulder when you dive out the bottom of the wave. Remember there were thin sharp rails and that keel fin… I never got really hurt but certainly recognized the chance, even then.
On a decent point wave at Makapuu, I could plane with only the hb and my legs from the knees down, in the water. Much faster than bodysurfing, slower than the plywood paipo boards. Duck dive-able to the max. But then came the friggen spongers and it was all over. End, largely, of the bodysurfing era except for a few standouts. I knew Mark Cunningham slightly and used to see him at Point Panic while he was still in Punahou…
Because of the safety issue, I didn’t often use the hb at Pipe. Even though it was faster, you still usually weren’t going to make the wave… Sandy Beach shorebreak of course had its own set of problems, but the hb could help there with the speed. Still almost never made a shorepound wave there either, just got a little farther down the line before the inevitable spin cycle.
So be careful about the pullouts if it’s fast and you have to use one.
There are also soft handboards that are made with sandal-style construction. Multi-layered and imbedded straps. Some of you have seen this first photo before. I think they were made in the eighties.
http://www.lamaroos.org/images/handsandal01.jpg
This next photo is a pair a hand sandals I bought for my brother as a Xmas present. It was the last pair at the shop…so none for me. Not yet.
http://www.lamaroos.org/images/handsandal02.jpg
I also took a photo of the packaging. The guy at the shop said they were new, but I don’t know how new. If you like to handboard in hollow waves and/or in shallow water, then you might dig the safety of these soft hand sandals…hand sponges? I paid $20 for the pair.
fletcher at point blanks makes some pretty neat handboards…