Prone Zone

After reading Rogelio’s and Matt’s posts about proning on midsized boards in the Show Your Hull topic, I thought it might warrant its own heading.  Surfing mats, boogies, and paipos are one thing but Roger (Proneman) and Matt Miller (Matt) are riding 7’+ surfboards specially designed for being ridden while lying down.  Having been forced to ride prone while rehabbing shoulder surgery I’m finding that last ride to the beach to be the most fun of the entire session.

The Surf

For me, waves under 2’ are best, either white water or wavelets with little shoulders, tubes and sections.  Smooth is the call as your stomach (well mine anyway) won’t absorb bounce or backwash like knees and ankles do.  Overhead waves (2’+) start getting a little bouncy and need quicker adjustments to trimlines than the smaller stuff.  Plus, at 3’, the surf is big enough to draw crowds of wankers that want to stand up!

Reefs and points are best but beachie reforms will do the trick especially if you can ride the white water from the outside bars as a jet assist into the inside fun zone.  I surf at a place where the waves break 100 to 300 yards off the beach.  With the right tide, that is a huge playground of untapped stoke.

The Board

The board has to be long enough to keep your feet from dragging.  A true alaia will do the same thing but there will be work involved since float is your friend in the under 2’ range.  Anything that will rob the board of trim speed is verboten.  Flat rocker and single fins are best.  A twin fin with straight ahead keels will also work.  Foil is surpisingly important since once you are in flight there won’t be much jockying about. If you stay in the under 2’ surf, the outline is not that important. Once you get in overhead or double overhead surf, you might want a little more width aft of your hips since that will be your pivot point.

My personal fave is a “hull” (surprise!).  A “hull’s” flat rocker, single fin, s-deck and knifey rails seem to work perfectly.  You haven’t lived until you set a highline trim on a burbling 18-incher!  The bottom roll will allow fairly easy turns but the key here is trim.

The Technique

You need to find the trim balance point.  That’s where it all starts.  It might not be the same at the paddle trim so you get one shot at scooting to the prime spot. After that you can adjust your weight distribution by raising a lowering your legs.  A minimalist approach to piloting is best. Sudden shifts are your enemy…smooth is the groove.

Why?

Well, everyone has to get back to the beach sometime, might as well enjoy it.  The perspective is really neat, you feel and see things happening you miss when you are standing up.  It’s a real challange to milk as much speed or distance as you can from such a little propulsion source.  Nice way to get some exercise when the surf gets dinky. Cool thing to do while you wait for your back/shoulder/hips/knees to heal.

But mostly…because it’s fun! 

Re: Paul Jensen

Nice account of that session. Thanks.

Nice board: sounds perfect for those conditions. Hollow balsa, cork rails, oh yeah.

Dang, were those pictures taken that day? Looks really clean. I used to complain about all of the onshore blown-out days, but having been inland so long, those images make me really miss WP.

My last two sessions were prone…Yesterday was super fun…5 to 8’ faces, offshore wind, beachbreak, no one else out, freezing cold…

I rode this...

 

Made it in March of '06 and haven't ridden it regularly, but I decided to take it out first, every session this spring and summer...I'm stricly arm paddling it, no fins..I like arm paddling better because it's such a good workout...Up here with the enlarged surf zone, you get a lot of padling in on the good days...Yesterday was a good day...

My first wave came fast, I dropped down, squared out a bottom turn and realized how fast the board goes through the gears...After that initial speed burn I angle the board over the top and got ready for the next one...

Subsequent waves were like this: Sit inside, wait for the wall, decide whether to go or not, then once I commit, I'm consiously telling myself "There are no late take-offs, their are only take-offs"...I say that the whole time I'm paddling for the wave...And going...

The paddle-in's, with the size, were committed, and as soon as I felt "engaged", I burried the inside rail at the top of the wave and became the Human Cannonball...The weight shift was always forward to keep going faster and on a few waves when I was going so fast it got bouncy, I pulled further forward still and that took care of the bounce,and revealed another gear...The goal is to go as far and as fast down the line before you get too far inside...No cutbacks today, just " burn, baby, burn"...

If I got behind a section, I race as fast and high as I could, then I'd drop to the bottom of the wave, add on some gravity enhanced speed, then lean hard into a never to be relased bottom turn...I'd release if I got back to the face, which happened more often than not, to my disbelief...I couldn't do that on my 13'5"...No way...The fins on the board aren't the ones in the picture...I made a pair of the old Lis style balsa keels...Lots of grab when you need it and frictionless when shooting straight...

The board is hollow balsa, with cork and ply rails, and it floats like a 7'egg..Good resonance with the balsa...The thing is s-decked with a domey deck / rail thing...Matt, you saw it at your place that day years ago...The rails have no hard spots...It being so short,I still can duck dive it and I'm sure that arm padlling is faster than kicking...Did I mention it floats like a 7' something...???...

I stood on it once but I did not dig it...Too twitchy of this old boy...But I got to thinking about it, and for flat out speed, laying down, legs out of the wave, has got to be the fastest....Significant waves, high line trim speed, little wind drag, and it feels like your going 120 MPH...

You can believe any or all of that or not...I know the truth...Prone, in good size waves is mind blowing...

 Been surfing since the 60's but have been a full time resident of the prone zone for several years.

I'm 60% disabled vet with neck and shoulder issues that over time, have destroyed my overarm paddling ability (and also make duck diving difficult). 

 I struggled for months and almost gave up wave riding.......... until I built my first alaia style paipo.

Now I have a quiver of wood paipos and am as stoked as I was as a kid.  

For 90% of the waves I ride, the longer alaia style boards are the hot ticket; allowing long, FAST rides, with minimal flotation for easy duck diving.  

 

 

 

 

Paipo surfer in repose,
Nose on the nose,
No grunting he-man pose.
See how fast he goes!
What is it he knows?

 

 

top two Mex

next two Malibu

bottom Micronesia

mixing it up opens up new opportunities!!

Rogelio

i got my "tunnel rat" prone board a couple weeks ago. since that time i have been in the water almost everyday, having the most fun i have had in a long time-merely by riding prone!

surf has been low tide point waves anywhere from knee to shoulder high. late take offs( full air drops) and down the line speed runs have been a blast. the most bitchin' thing is i have been making it around some long white water sections i normally would not have standing up. just bury the rail into the fall line of the white water and hang on as it hooks up and hits high gear , eventually blasting me out onto the clean wave face.. in addition, when the wave gets twisted and hollow you are able to really get up high and tight and make it out unmolested..

Hah!  You washed up old SOB’s!  Can you prone with the same soul as Roger?  With the Condor Spread?  I’ve seen it and beleive it. A belly wave is a great thing!  Fun, fun, fun.  Mike

For those who like to ride long prone boards have a look at these interviews with Robert Moynier and Richard Safady:

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/RobertMoynier/RobertMoynier_2010-0705.shtml

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/RichardSafady/RSaf.shtml

On Rod’s site is a second interview with Robert Moynier, who has become addicted to riding shorter bonzer paipo

And for  a guy who has made a few of these boards - here is an interview with Paul Gross

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/PaulGross/PGross_Interview.shtml

One development in paipo, has been the super wide boards such as those of Jeff Chamberlain:

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/JeffChamberlain/JeffChamberlain_2012-0602.shtml

Bob

My board is a Paul Gross design.i ride his boards and liddle’s. went to pg for this one because of his long time involvement with paipo/prone type boards.chambo’s boards are around 6’4" and around 25"wide.very bitchin boards but made to be kicked, not paddled. With my back issues, kicking is currently not an option, so I went to 7’ in order to have something I can paddle out.

"chambo's boards are around 6'4" and around 25"wide."

Hi Matt - The last 4 or 5 bellyboards (by various shapers) have all been 6'3" X 29" - the new "Holy Grail" for him.  Bellyboards that long are indeed difficult to balance for kicking but with a deep arc tail, weight can be shifted far enough forward to help that situation.  Boards that size can easily be arm paddled although your arms have to be capable of reaching around all the width. 

I was told that on his latest computer design, the overall volume of his bellyboard exceeded that of a standard 9' high performance longboard.

Here is an example of a deep cutaway arc tail design being made in Hawaii by Gus Acosta... you can shift pretty far forward and still get your legs in the water. 

PS.. Jeff typically 'swims' his board - he isn't on top of it when maneuvering around the lineup.

 

 

I’ve seen the pics of chambo’s boards on land and in action.i really like his newest one, as does he!

Hi Matt -

It doesn't hurt that he constantly has his finger on the ocean's pulse - he knows where to be and when to be there.  His boat gets more use than that of anybody I know.

I'm sure he would agree that when you score good waves at the right place and time, a lot of different board designs work A-OK.

That said, he's worked long and hard and has spent a lot of coin developing his very own designs that work very well for him.  It takes balls to go that far out on a limb with an unconventional board design for an unconventional riding style. 

Very few people 'get it' when it comes to bellyboarding.  One of the first things most shortboarders say when they see one of his boards is "Oh hell yeah... I could ride that thing standing up!"

The type of design he has worked out is for anything but small junky surf. 

John, I’m in contact with Jeff just about daily. I have followed his journey in the development of his boards.it’s been fun to be along, watching the constant evolution of his prone machines. I know he is super stoked on his latest. Not sure if he can top it, but I’m sure you two may take it to next level!

prone yeah!?

friend Jay sent me this of johnny clark

first 27  seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_eU3USGVP8

ambrose_1a.JPGwaikoko_s_mat.JPG

next letter he sent me this

http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/BuzzyKneubuhl/BuzzyKneubuhl_2011-0416.shtml

prone is the core of the cloth that is surfing

the begining and the end,you may call it the warp

as in weaving fabric where the weft or woof

is drawn across and through

aka in and out of the warp.

dont leave out extra long proning vehicles

nothing like and endo on a 12’8 backwards over the falls

poking it and going balistic on the recoil  

getting spit out in front of the white water

on a plane with spilt second for repositioning

’ back silding from the nose’

to keep from pearling(oh yeah a bigger wave)

{Ist time a beneficent accident

subsequently performed from air drop

lip launch on 9’ board}

 

prone often used when giving lessons on 12 foot boards

to rendesvous with begining surfer way inside.

stretching as in cat stretch yoga or childs pose

great for first waves before pulling an aged cold musscle.

in the use it or lose it ,lets not forget loose it.

prone trim is as fine an execution of trim

as you can percieve.The perfect place to bridge

unbroken reforming sections of waves 

where contemporaries choose to get their HOP -on.

 

note to Jay: after recieving the buzzy link

 

yeah daddio

thats the connection...

caught three tonite at the sands 

took out the russian lady and schooled her paddling.

caught the last  and proned it all the way and ruminated

on the ability to catch and ride a wave unbroken ,i.e. 

never makes white water,talk about challenge to skill and experience

changing the game to fit the players aka makule generation prone riding

small to smallest waves,long rides...

ohhhh yeah...

...ambrose...

 

what happened to the old guys?

they take longer to paddle back out 

because they ride so far inside

every time,every time,every time.

how many waves is enough to satisfy

if you only ride the first 1/10th of the wave?

ten times as many. simple math.

riding green unbroken waves in clear water over 

kaliedescopic colored reefs isun encumbered flight.

what higher oursuit?Certainly carving a

high risk/jeopardy turn has a special facination

for exhuberant youth yet the mature sensibilities

can do quite well without the confrontational competetive

nature of the contemporary contentious crowd.

{wow five 'C'words}

The only drag about a twelve foot board

is waiting for sherpas to carry it for you

so you dont wear out the gloss

dragging it to the water.

Carrying a 40' board on your head

makes you considerably shorter,

making stretching

all the more important.

then again getting a girl to help carry

is cool and then she can stand up forward

while you ride prone and body drag off the tail

dampening the tippy nature of her first rides.

...prone is the first and the last...

...ambrose...

I too find myself pancake riding my 8’7" Liddle Beefy Super Smoothie more often then not inside 1st Point at Malibu on a lower tide. I then go to my car and surf my 1984 8’0". 

Hi Matt -

I've no clue about the 'next level' in bellyboards.... Roger Kelly and Paul Gross seem to have that figured out.  I thought 'El Paipo Grande' was cutting edge at the time and still do - this many years later.

Jeff has been working with Gary Niblock who has the 'Srfnff' blog site and developed the 'Simsup' design.  Kirk McGinty at L-41 Surfboards does the finish shaping of the computer cuts and coordinates the glassing.  Gary shrunk the basic design down to Jeff's 'bellyboard' size and that's what he's been riding lately as far as I know. 

Read all about it HERE and HERE.  

yeah, that’s it.mini/modified version of the simsup. quad set up with some cool stuff going on with the bottom.

Interesting blurb. The bit about not anyone before seeing a bottom contour like their, hull into deep double into v out through the fins, sounds a rare feat in the surfing world.

Hasn’t everything been done before in either the US or Australia?

:-) 

I would love to see some video of this size board just to see what lines it draws, seems like the sup/longboard of the paipo world to me, when i get to where i want on a wave on mt 3’8" 21"1/2 bellyboard, i can only see these being over volumous.

would love to try one though as the proof is in the pudding.

Sure!  George Greenough did (does?) that on his edge kneeboards and sail boards.  He just put a hard stepped edge between the bottom and the rails.