Nomas

[soulglider]

as to not mess up a conversation, errrrrr thread,
"'i'm looking for a ride experience more similar to kneeboarding than body surfing. Back to the drawing board..."

nomas, thats exactly why im on the journey im on. at least it started that way, 40years as a kneeboarder. the bellyboards i had made for me by shapers here in S.D. just werent filling the bill. and i had top shapers giving it a go. it wasnt til i hooked up with jeff mccallum, brian hilbers, klaus jones and ned mcmahan that i started getting close but, they still didnt get me where i wanted to be. then i met mr. mike and that little crazy board he made and he hated and i bought (because it looked so cool) and it gave me the confidence to just get my own blanks and tear up my own boards. funny thing is though the culmination of all these things, in search of a bellyboard (5' long i found is optimum for me) that would take me into the realm of kneeriding. the hulls i make now have actually lead me getting bored with surfing. they will do anything i ask and have the speed, turning ability etc. i had nowhere to go. i messed with plan shapes, fin configurations. i kept the hull (convex) bottoms and super tight pinched hull rails though. then i rediscovered my copy of mr. mike board (i snapped his 4 years ago and was bummed that no one i could find could fix it) while on bob greens thread. now its off to....thats the bitchin thing, i'm always off to something else. but i found my constant, single flex fins, if any! we should get together for a cerveza next time youre in town and discuss....

[krusher74]

[soulglider]

kusher, yeah...errr thanks. you can talk about anything you want here. but, if you have kneeboard riding/building experience that would be even more helpful. ive made a couple of parabolic's, esthetically trippy, but no worky. too slow, maybe cuz waves and as static as mountains and the prone boards arent long enough ( i made mine up to 5'4" long).

[nomastomas]

Yes, feedback from other kneelo guys turned prone riders. What's worked for you and what's not worked? I'm very interested in optimum length, and length relative to rider height. There's a magic formula there somewhere...shorter than a kneeboard, but longer than a bodyboard.

[flojo]

I am a former kneelo and have ridden my 5-10 kneeboard prone and had some fun but found it to feel too long and way too floaty. I think it also has too much rocker to be ridden prone. As a kneeboarder, your weight is centered in a small area of the board usually near the center of the board . the kneeboards I have gotten from blast hawaii have more rocker in the tail than I feel is good for prone riding. I even took one of the older blast boards and chopped a few inches off the tail and nose (see frankenboard) and rode it. it still felt too floaty and not quite what I was looking for. I recently got a t-belly board from Thomas and really like it,--I think it is 45 inches- it is fast and very positive. I really enjoy it, but I also feel the drag of my legs/fins and when I try to lift my legs out of the water, I cant quite pull it off so i think a little longer would have been better.
The kneeboard I hacked to a shorter length is 54 inches and I think that is closer to optimum length for me (I am 6 ft tall with long legs/short torso)

maybe this issue is what motivates the megaplatter dude

[SJB]

My TBG2 is 7 inches shorter than my standard 50 inch Austin....but 2 inches wider with the pivot point further back than the Austin. I find that with the TBG2 a most significant difference I perceive is less leg drag. Apparently I am one of those guys nomastomas calls out as riding and pivoting further back on the board. I am very conscious of leg drag on the Austin but not on the TBG2. Very nimble and fast. I am 5'9" tall and 166-169 pound depending on my party schedule the night(s) before.
I have had the TBG2 for several months now and have not taken the Austin out since. Sorry Austin.
No question the Mega Platter presents less leg drag but still looks like an ocean line to me in terms of maneuverability. Sorry Skiff.

[bgreen]

0.6 - 0.7 of body height for length seems a general rule for foam boards. The HPD being a notable exception.

I can verify Skiff can turn his boards. All is possible in the search for that particular feeling.

Thomas - is TB4 just around the corner? Maybe Rod should hold 5, but then again, you were pretty stoked until recently.

Body placement is a whole realm to explore. A well respected Hawaiian paipo rider is said to balance on his stomach and not hold the rail much. As much experimentation in the body realm as the board.

Bob

[nomastomas]

Personal ride experience is what's most important. If a shorter board "feels" best to you, than it is the "best" for you. At least until you decide otherwise...for me, personally, I want to try a bit longer.
I'm leaning towards the .7 factor, at least to start. I have some ideas on how to incorporate a comfortable kick-paddling position at board lengths that would normally require holding the rail instead of the nose.

bg...I'm still stoked on the G3, but I still like the G2 as well (hated to sell both of the G2s I had). The G4 is in the planning stages, but I want to experiment with a finless TB as well (G5?)...not better, just different. I get more design ideas every time I go out, and/or read something on this forum. And, like SG, when that happens, I gotta shape it and ride it! For me, the stoke comes from the process more than the product.

[flojo]

OK, I thought about the drag issue a lot last night because I had noticed it quite a bit during my last few go outs. Today, in some pretty clean 2-3 ft surf, i decided to change out my fins (swim fins) and see if that made a difference. I have been using DaFins and found them to be very comfortable. Today I switched back to my old duckfeet and
holy SheeeeIIIIItttttt!-what a difference! There was no sense of drag at all and my t-belly 3 felt faster than ever. so, on my case it was the type of fin I was wearing on my feet that was causing the drag I did not like. Something about the design of the DaFin caused too much drag for me. I am now updating my opinion of my t-belly 3 from a good board to a great board. I had a blast. Thanks Thomas!

[rodndtube]

I am a 70-percenter guy... well, my boards are actually around 71 percent, but rounding is easier. I could go down to 68 percent. I am 5'10" (70 inches) and have been riding a 50-inch board forever. A 48-inch would be manageable if mitigated by some additional width (+1/4 to 1/2 inch depending upon the board).

Regarding the DaFin (my go-to fin these days). Easily mitigated by slightly tweaking the leg position. The Pod version of DaFIn might be a better option but I have never used a pair so... maybe some day. I still like to alternate between my DaFins and V5 Yellow Dots but at some breaks prefer the DaFIn.
http://mypaipoboards.org/flippers/flipp ... vs._DaFins