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About a week ag I met Nobby ay Noosa and we surfed soem very samll waves at Ti-Tree, He'll be adding to hissite soon, when he returns to Japan. Seems like there is all sorts of interesting stuff. Yusuke Motohashi, a friend of John Clark's has found information about early stand-up paddling boards & hollow wood boards. There was apparently a link between Hawaii & Kamakura boat builders.
No actual measurements yet on the vintage boards in the photos. The painted rectangular boards with the nose handles, appear to have a length to width ratio of approximately 3.75 to 1. Plus the handle slot is about half the width of the board. If we let the material drive the width, like say a 1x2 sandwiched between two 1x6's, then we net 12.5 inches...still narrow enough to run through a table planer. The 3.75 L to W ratio would then give us a board about 47 inches long. So those colored boards on Nobby's site look to have proportions very similar to traditional British bellyboards.
I'm thinking a surface block on the nose for a handle, rather than a hole. Maybe a routed handle at the tail. And possibly high rails along two edges, one long and one short edge. That way the board could be ridden long or short.
I'm also curious about the rental boards with the rounded noses. Nobby...do they really have that dramatic taper, or did the photo angle distort the shape?
My wife the nurse just informed me that the Itago looks like a modern day "slide board" for wheelchair transfers. They also come with one or two handles. Here's a two handled slider with sanded nose kick on each end.
Info Nobby sent me. He's done a great job with the modern version. The taller board is clearly "flared"as Nobby describes it. Click on the middle photo to see the full shot.
Bob
Attachments
Nobby's Itago (600 x 337).jpg (30.56 KiB) Viewed 34314 times
70's Itagos (337 x 600).jpg (52.43 KiB) Viewed 34314 times
