Knee boards.
After some general info on knee boards.
I’m looking to make one for myself as an experiment.
I guess I’d like to make something like the knee board equivalent of a mid length standup.
I’m 70kg and looking for something easy to paddle, looking to surf it in Sunshine Coast beach breaks and maybe some times at the Noosa points. I make boards from foam core veneer and cork rails.
Would love as many suggestions as possible. Rocker, dims, foil, fin placements.
I’ve made dozens of boards up to now. But never a knee board.
Just pasting some stuff hear I’ve been collecting from the hive mind. So I can refer back to them later when I get the other 4 boards finished that I’m in the middle of.
23.5 wide, 16-18" nose and tail, 2 3/4" thick. Side fins at 16-19; Rear (thruster) at 1/2 side distance. Quad rears on the curve to 1/2 way to 8-10". I do flat bottoms into spiral vee. Many do concave into vee inside the concave. Wide point centre to 2" forward. Rocker 4-5" nose, 2.5" tail, 1" lift at 12" fore and aft if you can hit those numbers. Typical short board rails. Swallow, round pin, squash all work. Depends on the wave and outcomes required.
I’ve shaped 2. I made one completely out of garbage. I even dug the boxes and leash plug out of a broken board. Shaped a low quality piece of construction foam, and used some free infusion epoxy left over from an aviation project.
Design wise II asked an Australian kneeboard builder and an American kneeler board rider. What found was the Aussies run their fins WAAAAAAY up. The Americans typically place fins more like a standup board but still a little further up. I built a quad fish. I was worries that despite solid diemension recommendations the board would be too wide. As soon as I rode it I understood. Kneeling, you can move your body from the waste up to places you never could standing. You can grab the rail and really torque into a turn.
If you want a sure thing for point surf I might shape a fish a few inches shorter than a stand up fish you’d ride but wider.
I’ve got a couple, just shape it as a wider (22"+) stand up fish shape with similar fish rocker, channel bottom seems popular and fins a little more forward than a stand up. If you surf a stand up fish at 5’10 try your kneelo at 5’6 and wider to accommodate. One of my old 70s one has a scoop deck and stepped rails
I have an ancient Bob Davies single fin knee board. I’ve only had it out about 3 times and struggled to catch waves without fins (swim fins). I’ve bought some fins now so I can have a better crack this summer. I’ll get some dims off it it if you like but its old like I said, I’m sure things have moved on from the late 60’s/70’s!!!
Go longish and slightly wideish and low rocker; 5’10" x 23" x thinish for paddling power. Thick bogs with shorter lengths, IMO. Fins forward. I kneeboarded solely for a decade because of a chronic shoulder injury, now fixed. Still have a Romo (5’5") and a Parkes (5’7"). Now I want to go back out on my kneeboard.
Depends if you want the board to surf 70’s style or not. Fish design is nice for retro lines. Modern kneeboard designs are tailored for top to bottom riding and deep tube riding.
The further the side fins from the stringer, the greater the drive, so trade off between fins back and narrow or fins forward and wide apart. 19" forward is about max.
Kneeboard rocker can be much lower than standup, but your best standup short board rocker will suffice.
