Looks like a single massive fin. What are its dimensions? My big sister's boyfriends had balsa surfboards(50s), which because they were so heavy, us smaller kids either rode canvas rafts or body surfed. It is why when living at the beach with non-surfing parents, I chose to make my own bellyboard out of plywood then moved up to kneeboards and never left until recently returning to bellyboarding. If this was the 60s, then this board probably started life as a balsa surfboard that broke in half and someone used the front to make a very thick bellyboard. You will not be doing much dunk diving with this mother but the float will be easy for you to catch waves with it. Speaking from experience at our age, just attach a tether to the front with your left wrist and when paddling out through large sets just drop under the wave like an anchor without the board and reel this in like a marlin, letting the cable out by hand and then precede padding out or else you might find yourself inside or worse (hurt) if you try and paddle through the large white water. Have fun
Glad you said that because I have different boards for different surf spots, size and break type. I have old boards which I no longer ride but have very old boards which are my favorites. I was seeing board quivers which looked like collections which is cool but I want to help have a resurgence of the neglected surf forms like bellyboarding and kneeboarding which going back to the Paipo origins to original surfing was the most popular unless you were a Royal. I also believe using some modern designs, ideas or using boards meant for a different purpose can be adapted to do a way of surfing that few experiment with.
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The center box is a 10.5 slider. There are 5" and 3.5" base boards available and I even have an adaptor for even more fin options. Even the Future Side fins have full, shallow and half options. I may even cut down a full 8" base fiberglass fin to create a low profile center keel fin. I prefer fiberglass fins over plastic. This is a board to do research on what you can do prone, depending on the type of reef, wave size and type, etc. I did kneeboard a House of Paipo in late 60s early 70s with the side fins just slightly behind the center fin and it was amazing. Hopefully, I live long enough to find out what works best for my aging body.
I liked his long term down to earth experience in what worked and not worked for people and incorporated the differences I wanted to explore because prone surfing had not been explored as much. Plus, as an artist he does not produce ugly boards. Plus, Stevie from Pendoflex although totally different guy brings long term shaping experience and collaborated with me and confirmed many ideas and suggested new ideas confirmed with Barry even though neither has met each other.
5' long X 22" X 3'
Here is Side View. Middle fin is adjustable forward and back. I already have a number of different size and shape fins to play with once I get some waves.
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April 8, 2024
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Some of these boards have only foam cores wrapped with the exterior material. Many people have boards that are thin fiberglass boards and have Stevie add the exterior material to increase flotation, have no wax and soft comfortable exterior that gives on turns. The real Pendoflex is a shaped board specifically to have a fiberglass core designed to work with the material added. Stevie has been perfecting this in parallel for years with discussions with his friend George Greenough. This board has features in its fiberglass core which at this smaller size and location of my fin boxes is pretty much a one of a kind and is exciting since bellyboard research with the materials we have today is wide open and far more stimulating than surfboards and kneeboards where innovation has leveled off.
Sorry for the confusion. Pendoflex is his major branding where he uses all types of materials to improve flex. On boards that are glassed he still has a brand logo. What I am talking about are the boards with the black soft material only around the whole core. He has painted but it cracks and wears off. These are the boards he is not supporting logos. Like applying the black material it takes time and labor to apply. That is why I put on my own logos because I did them at home in my garage.
The way it flexes is not like a bodyboard. It will not flex at the center. The flexing is more side to side but not visible to the naked eye. I don't have a lab with sensors, simulators and cameras like NASA to measure these things. Bob Green is right that it is hard to know all the different variables of flex and their interaction. Greenough shells had fiberglass flex, This black material has totally different flex characteristics. Part of the fun of experiments is having a theory to test out, see the result, adjust and try again. Throw in different waves and breaks, skill or style of rider, different board fins and their interaction so you have lots of time to indulge your curiosity.
Damian Coase
agreed, flex is very much the unknown factor in surfing. There is no doubt that bodyboards take it to the next level.
Stephen Newbegin
Unless you are using bodyboards as synonymous with bellyboardering, I obviously do not agree. For speed, my ability and responsiveness to the waves I like, I determined my focus would be on Hybrid Bellyboards 5ft and under. This is where I stated my belief that this is the home of the most unknowns. I respect custom bodyboarders, classic wood Paipos and especially foil innovators. Its just not my current thing for my innovation experiments. I am not interested in large company production products designed for the larger market even though I consider them the way to get beginners into surfing or still keep surfing.
The question on materials I would defer to Stevie since its his business. See his web link. I have been pretty clear about what I am focused on for flex in bellyboards. It is not one theory. What I am excited about is visualizing a very complex system in my head in my quiet time and thinking I want to try this out. I have been riding waves for 65 years. Riding lots of different craft over time must have had an impact on what I think will work as well as all my surf nerd friends who all have impacted the deeper significance of surfing.. Right now I just want to keep the high going before I surf my last wave. My only disappointment is not having someone film me using these newest boards.
First Status Update. I first took it out at Grandview Sunday morning for some high tide action in 1-3 mushy surf. Good duck diving and used outside break to get into inside break with fewer surfers. Board was fast but felt stiff in weaker waves. It definitely could drive across white water better than the loaner Pendoflex I used. Went out today at my favorite La Jolla reef break to test it in steep high energy surf. It was 1-2 feet mostly but when two swells met up I caught a 2.5ft and a 3ft. The two big waves I got my first tubes with this board. On these higher energy reef waves the board and its flex came alive and I could carve without losing speed anyway and anywhere I wanted. Of the seven waves I caught, I made 100% with no wipe outs or use of lease and could carve the waves and actually pick up energy while turning. Since my Halloween board has more float and more speed being longer, it will still be my go to board for reef breaks with channels but this Black Lagoon Pendoflex will be my board at breaks you have to paddle out directly through the surf. For now I do not have to change the fin configuration while I see what happens in more different surf breaks and wave conditions.
All the reading of these discussions on flex reinforce all my assumptions that I am on the right track for my own purposes. It is too much to explain all my influences or professional background here. I am a forest kind of guy professionally rather than focused on a single tree. Most of my surf friends do not know my last title was CTO. I found scientists serving their function can be very narrow minded and focused. Most engineers are more practical but lack vision. My favorite surfing philosopher friend was Tom Morey who did not realize he taught me that filing patents in surfing was a waste of time. Not interested in trying to make a buck off surfing which only cages innovation by appealing to the larger mass market. I have neither the time or money to dream big anymore. Surfing is the ultimate complex system sport. Even with large resources, complex systems make a laughing stock of professionals. I surf not only waves but the internet, economy and life in general. I have little respect for titles since the biggest insight is the realization of how much experts and leaders are so unaware of how little they know. Since knees and shoulders have a limited life span currently in humans, I know prone is all I got left. I want my surf craft to be flexible as much as I want to stay flexible in my key body parts. The human body is a combination of skeleton and flesh. My current board uses fiberglass for its bones and soft plastics for the flesh. So I look at myself as an organic parasite controlling an inorganic animal allowing an aging human to be doing something like being inside a tube of a major powerful destructive force of nature. When I cannot surf anymore I still want to go back into the ocean regularly from which all life on our planet sprung from. I wish you well on your path.
I think I was still kneeboarding in 2009. My orange recent board shaped by Barry Snyder may have pictures at his web site of the deep sternum pit I had put in before using Stevie Pendarvis black material to fill it in flat with board top. This would have saved injury for you and friends like Bird Huffman. I chose to do this because soft decks are not enough and vests are fine for big wave surfers but too restrictive for belly riding. Wish you good luck with your patent in spite of my attitude against them. Creativity has many levels so if my comments don't apply to you don't take it personally. I was one of the people in the shaping room when Morey and Doyle shaped the first soft surfboard so I am glad you enjoyed. Tom Morey realized he had to sacrifice performance to make these all foam boards including boogie boards to reach the mass market. However, I was one of the judges at the first boogie board contest so its not like I don't understand bodyboards. However, the only thing I tried at his factory there was in the mid/late 70s was filling up a shell with boogie foam and skin. This board originally I had added two outside glassed side fins to the existing glassed single fin. This was the first tri-fin on a sub 5ft board I know of. Technology has always been a blessing and curse at the same time. What is ironic to me is Nikola Tesla who was ripped off by Westinghouse is that Elon Musk is using the blessing and love of innovation of Tesla with the crony capitalism of Westinghouse. He does patents so he can trade with other big players with patents in his way. Cars and Rockets are easy compared to complex systems in nature like surfing. Again, good luck to you.
The top skin is not slippery just like bodybords but far more comfortable and with increased capability of displacing energy.
First day report for my new one of kind hybrid bellyboard only experimental prone surf craft. I reunited with an old Kneeboard comrade who lives in Point Loma while I live in north coast San Diego. We met half way at the last place we surfed together 50 years ago. I let this fellow who is a big heavy man ride the black PendoFlex bellyboard which is one of only two in the world that exist while I rode my new board. He got two really good tubes and I got five amazing tubes. Only regret is we did not have someone doing video or taking pictures. My board was configured with standard three black fiberglass fins made by Fins Unlimited with middle full foil fin in center of the box and two fiberglass future fins by same company as a match side set all exceeded my expectations. Kind of hard calibrating fin set ups when you are flying down a vertical face and turning under the tube and able to cut back with ease. I will retire the rest of my quiver for now because this board is no dud. Mitch told me the black board was the best board he has ever ridden prone. We took these photos after surfing and the surf had started to shrink from the earlier sets.
Never heard of Greg Griffin tri-fin Hovercraft SB. To answer your question. Yes, It offers more stability and hold for prone surfing on this 5' board in larger waves. At my age for tube riding this is not what I want anymore since I am trying to extend my thrill seeking surf life. I liked it with only slightly forward of side fins for the majority of surf under 5' size surf to have more radical responsive turning. Before fin boxes I used the same fin configuration in 1969 when three fin boards did not exist in any surf shops. I have seen somebody recently on Paipo group in Australia recently putting a Bahne Fin Channel 10.5" box like this in a quad setup prone board using Future fins to test center fin placement but never used it in the tri-fin placement I came up with. Remember as a Kneeboarder I was limited to around 4'6" but prone allowed my current board. I am still experimenting with different types of fins and position which I will be sharing this spring.
Bill Wurts
This is the late Griffin’s Hovercraft model. Not the same — but your board made me think of it…
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What I had an older shaper Barry build was a collaboration with me to my own specifications knowing my rep and knowing I was going to be integrating Pendo material later for a ribcage shock absorber. His skill is in building good looking boards for individual custom boards. Many of the boxes we used were made by local manufacturers he had experience with. I took the board to another older shaper to finish the total board. What he did on my bellyboard was new, exciting and different. It exceeded my expectations.
Good to know about that board but was anything I said about designs for surfboards incorrect in regards to using short prone boards? Much of what is discovered in the future about bellyboards will not carry forward for many surfboard shapers.
Bill Wurts
Other than grom designs, sub 5’ boards are different creatures. Your board says Barry Snyder of BSD. Can’t imagine there is more than one in CA. I noticed over the last few years he had delved into custom kneeboards. He posted a fe… See more
Bill Wurts
BTW the fins pictured were custom designed by Griffin for that tri-fin setup.
Stephen Newbegin
It would be easy to assume this was his complete design instead of a collaboration. Barry is a marketing type and puts his name on everything which I do not have a problem with. He did create for me free his own custom logo for free with my nickname "creature" all over the board. His experience with kneeboards and surfboards was the reason I went to him so I could tell him what would be different with a small prone board. The other shaper Stevie who had done bellyboards agreed with our finished collaboration when he finished the board. He however is not a big marketing person and is kept busy by word of mouth and thus never spends on logos and swag. Him and his wife talk to their friend George Greenough every week.
Stephen Newbegin
At the end of December I put an order with this second shaper with this same fin configuration for a shorter Pendoflex with neutral float so I will not get exhausted at my age going out at breaks that do not have a channel. Even though design is set up on paper and material acquired, I am still waiting on his backlog to clear. I cannot wait to try different fins with this board due to its different properties.
April 16
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No wonder you liked my board. Except for my board being an inch wider, they are the same size. I did not copy anything from these older paipo boards because I was still a Kneelo. I am finding the most exciting part of this is the use of very low drag and flexible bamboo side fins which were stolen from one of my Bonzer boards. These are not side bits. For this recent Pendoflex, I chose to go away from a center keel fin with the soft flexing sides and use a couple smaller fiberglass fins to hold steady but release when cranking on hard flexing on steep waves. I have never been a Fish guy and Bonzers were like an extension of this. Wanted to return to my original roots.I love being centered when catching air on late take offs so I would not have to go all the way down for a bottom turn but turn into the wave already tubing. My 60 inch orange fiberglass board with the sternum pit using the same material, I still like the big center fin since it still has the float and paddling speed to get into some serious tubes and is very fast. I dropped 50 pounds from my later kneelo years so I can maintain flexibility in my body to match the flexing of the board. Thanks for the informative post on your checkered Paipo.