Yes the nails are to keep the board in place, not part of the board haha. The marks on the board are two arrows that a friend burned into the wood. And yes there is nose lift (though very slight).
I am keen to do some belly boards, or just about anything people are keen on, I actually really enjoy working with customers on their different craft, its refreshing and get to be a bit MORE creative…have done a few belyboards over the years and want to do some more…I am on the Sunny Coast in QLD, but can deliver if interested…
as a kid in Tahiti,we couldn’t get modern surfboards,we had homemade planks,pieces of broken canoe hull,and banana trunks.What fun we had,just lying down,I can still feel it.My dear friend Buzzy Kneubuhl( http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/BuzzyKneubuhl/BuzzyKneubuhl_2011-0416.shtml ) was always tinkering with his boards.Before passing,he shaped a 5.10 mini simmons for us,we surfed it so hard we broke it. I gotta tell you though, paddling around with fins and with my whole lower body in the water these days spookes me now,fins feel too much like a hurt fish or turtle,and I have been seeing too many Tigers the last few years. Then again,when it’s your turn…
Buzzy posted under Alamoana.Aloha e ke hoa,a hui hou.
Hello Kava,
Buzzy was stoked to tell his story but also acknowledge others. I only recently got permission to include the photo of Donald Takayama that Buzzy wanted to include - he said the photo really captured his memories of the time.
I'm always interested in stories like "homemade planks,pieces of broken canoe hull,and banana trunks". Did anyone take photos of these days? Was surfing in those days mostly kids riding shorebreaks or were there people surfing outside waves prone on wood craft etc?
Aloha,
Bob
Just curious - are mini-simmons good prone boards?
Huck,
There are quite a few twin-finned wider tailed, parallel railed, low rocker bellyboards. Some were intended as mini-Simmons, I was sent an AKU shaper drawing of one of Simmons own 9' boards. Malaroo was going to scale it down to 4'5" to see what it would look like. The idea was to compare it to current designs.
Photos of Simmons own boards show relatively low fins, so this might be one area that might need modification (though there are guys who ride prone who like bigger fins)
Bob
I’ve ridden a 5’6" mini-simmons I had prone and it was a lot of fun and prompted me to have Pridmore shape me a scaled down 4’2".
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Hello Cuttlefish,
How wide and thick is this board? One area many of the Mini-Simmoms seem to differ is where the wide point is located and the degree of hip vs parallel rails you see.
Are the 3 fins slots so you can move the fins further forward/back? I was thinking a board I recently tried needed something similar.
Bob
Aloha Bob
yes,that was Buzzy’s style,low profile,not trying to draw attention to himself,but to others,but he ripped and had such a beautiful style,that he was always a standout.He did ride that minisimmons prone and knee surfed it also,although it was not intended for that,and it worked very well.It was 5.8x22x3.
As for pictures of that era,in Tahiti,riding whatever we could find,no pictures,sadly.We only caught the shore waves…I wish I had a picture to prove that we were windsurfing before we knew it existed somewhere else too,although we were not surfing at all,just cruising from my grandparents place to my parents place, about 10 kms,2 of us kids, on this big australian longboard that my Dad found somewhere,a Shane or Quane,or something like that,and we would hold a couple of coconut palms,and downwind it.Most of the time,the wind would turn on us,and we ended up paddling the thing.We finally cut it in two and made two boards out of it.My Dad was pissed.Like Buzzy used to say,serving a life sentence of fun and adventures on the ocean.
sorry to change the topic of this thread,but after my last post I got curious and googled both Shane and Quane,and they are both surfboard shapers ,and it was actually a Quane,I recognized the logo,some 50 or so years later,what a trip,it was from New Zealand,South Island.Ended up in Tahiti,early 60’s.
Aloha Kava,
Kicking back this afternoon I came across this: http://mypaipoboards.org/pubs/BookSummaries.shtml
if you scroll down to 'Finney, Ben R. and James D. Houston. Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1996' you'll see a photo of a Tahitian paipo rider.
There is certainly some 19th century records of Tahitian surfing.
I imagine your dad wasn't stoked.
Bob
Hi Bob,
22 &1/2" wide X 3".
Fin plugs are for tuneability.
First prone board so wanted to be able to tweak.
Difficult to get waves amongst any sort of crowd due to being out paddled but when its not crowded I have a lot of fun on it.
A shame as I really wanted to see how it goes at tea tree but trying to get waves amongst the frothing hordes is a bitch.
I’ve ridden it at first point back at Christmas time and had a ball except for all the drop ins.
Hello Cuttlefish,
Thanks. Crowds & paipo don't get on so well. Guerilla tactics are in order - try it when it is onshore or too windy. Otherwise if the board duckdives ok sit inside a bit. I surfed Snapper on Boxing day - not my usual choice of time or wave. After waiting and waiitng, a bigger set came through and the crowd paddled outside I paddled back into the impact zone, went under a few then a frothy insder came through and everyone was too far out so off I went all the way into Greenmount. On a 3-4' day with a concentrated takeoff zone it would be a bit hopeless,
bob