A classic kneeboard, handmade
Photo credit: James Duck
On my annual November birthday San Onofre surfing safari on which I'm always lucky enough to be accompanied by a crew of great surfers and campers from up and down California, Pierre Smith this year brought along a short board crafted 40 years ago by his dad, Caltech English professor and Master of Student Houses David Smith.
You know Pierre from his guitar work in El Vez and Human Hands . His late father, more than a mere Conrad scholar, was a classic gray-bearded longboarder I grew up watching surf at Sano in the '60s. We never got this beauty wet during the three-day weekend, so it served as more of a mascot for the trip -- but Pierre rode it at Point Dume this summer and it reportedly works great.
Comments
I was there for part of the making of that knee board, and rode it lots of times. It does, in fact, work very well considering it was the first and only one Dad ever made — he being more of a long board specialist.
As I recall though, it did have a flaw in the design. We made it from the sawed-off nose of a very long surfboard blank, and it was a bit thicker toward the rear than it should have been. Consequently, it was more buoyant than other belly/knee boards of the era, and more surfboard-like in that regard.
It always rode a little high in the water for such a short board because of its buoyancy, which made it a bit more difficult, for me anyway, to get it moving forward in the wave.
Dad made some memorable boards, including an 11 or 12 footer of semi-gun design which he made for a family friend. It was called "The Hot Pink Penetrator" because Dad had grafted the nose of a pink foam blank onto the white foam blank from which he had removed the nose section for the making of the knee board in the picture. It was easily the most phallic thing surfing the California coast.
Dad called his creations "Zodiac Boards" because he would use his artistic skills, which were considerable, to make a drawing of the owner's zodiac sign in colored india inks on translucent rice paper. He would then laminate the rice paper into the deck of the board he was making for them. The rice paper would disappear into the resin substrate, leaving this brilliantly colored design floating in the gel.
Posted by: Chris Smith | November 20, 2009 5:51 AM
I never would have thought how much information there was online on this! Thank you for making this easy to take in
Posted by: removing adware | January 15, 2010 8:46 AM
Hey
Posted by: guitar lessons | January 31, 2010 11:32 AM