You Like The Wide Point Up On Your Hull, Bro?


During the embryonic shortboard transition era, wide points were set far forward on the really short surfboards and kneeboards. The idea was to get more drive with the long tail length afforded by the wide point well ahead of center.

Two examples are the El Paipo and G&S knee machines.

The shapes were very interesting. The rails were dropped...but the bottom had a distinct roll under the nose. Much to my surprise when I rode one...it worked! The seemingly odd combination of a big nose, tiny tail, rolled bottom, low rails, and a molded plastic flex single fin flourished in some kind of cosmic collusion.

I was working at G&S at the time, and the way they made their kneeboards was interesting. They were blowing their own foam, and had a blank mold that was the finished shape of the board. They would remove the blank from the mold while it was still hot and curing, and a shaper would go over the super soft foam with a big sponge covered with sanding screen. Since the bank's crust hadn't formed yet, all he had to do was scrub the blank with the screen, and in about 10 minutes it was done!

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