surfresearch.com.au    the catalogue : prone and knee boards

Prone	Boards	Knee	Boards
	1920 Risby Bros. Solid wood Belly Board 3ft  6''		1963 Barry Bennett Belly-Knee board Twin fin 5ft 1"
	1930 Solid Wood Belly Board  4ft   5 1/2"		1963 Barry Bennett, Belly-Knee board Twin fin 5ft 1"
	1930 Solid Wood Belly Board  4ft 3 "		1963 Bill Wallace, Kneeboard 5ft 3"
	1933 Surf-o-plane Dr Ernest Smithers		1964 McDonagh Twin Fin Kneeboard 4 ft 9''
			1964 McDonagh Twin Fin Kneeboard with off-set stringer 4 ft 9''
	1950 Lamaroo 5ft 1''		1966 Bay Area Belly/Knee Board  5 ft 5"
	1950 Lamaroo 5ft 6''		1967 Barry Bennett  Kneeboard 5 ft 7''
	1953 Plywood Bellyboard 2ft 11''		1970 Bing Auga Board Tom Warren and Steve Barger, 4ft 10''
	1956 Bellyboard Balsa  3ft 8"		1970 The Shoe by Shane.  Spoon decked Knee Board  4 ft 11"
	1958 Balsawood Bellyboard 4ft Ridden by Leigh Tingle		1973 Jackson Greenough Spoon 5 ft 10"
	1958 Surf-o-plane 2 ft 9 "		1973 Ron Wade Spoon 4ft 8''
	1960 Bellyboard Twin-fin 2 ft 8''		1973 Farrelly Spoon 4ft 8''
	1960 Plywood Bellyboard Rocket Twin fin 3 ft 2''		1973 Barry Taylor Flextail Kneeboard 5 ft 6"  Hand made fin box
	1960 Paipo by Farfor 3 ft 5''  Tapa cloth laminated bottom		1975 Backyard, Spoon deck Kneeboard 5ft 6"
	1960 Bill Wallace Balsa Bellyboard 4 ft		1975 Ron Wade Moulded Spoon 4ft 10''
	1963 Skimboard by Blue Pacific 24'' (Diameter)		1975 Rod Ball Design Ski tail Kneeboard 5ft 8''
			1976 Ashley Surcrafts 17 Anderson Street, Torquay, Victoria. Spoon with tension panels
	1969 Surf-o-plane Marlin model surfer Nick Carroll		1976 Crozier Kneeboard  Slab 5 ft 4" Tri-fin boxes
	1970 Hodgman Surf Mat 4 ft.		1978 Sky Kneeboard 5 ft 8 1/2" George Greenough Design Shaped by Chris Brock
	1972 Midget Farrelly Coolite 4 ft 10" Rubber fin		1978 Friar Tuck Twin-fin Slab Kneeboard  5 ft 6.5" Shaped by Craig McDonald
	Zippy Boards 1970 Small Hunters Toyline 16'' 1973 Large Super Surfer   3ft		1979 George Greenough Design Kneeboard 5 ft 6 1/2" Shaped by Chris Brock
	1975 Belly Bogger 3ft 7''		1980 Crozier Tri fin Kneeboard, 5ft 7'',  Shaped by Peter Crawford.
	1976 Moulded plastic handboard 15.5''		1985 Friar Tuck Four fin Kneeboard, 5ft 7'',  Shaped by Dale Ponsford.
	1976 Wave Tight: Capri 4ft 10''		1985  Express Four fin Kneeboard 5 ft 7'
	1976 Merrin Air mat twin fin  5 ft 4"
	1980 Coolite Twin fin adaptation
	1980 Morey-Boogie  Mach 7
	1980 Shane Epoxy Belly Board 4 ft 9"
	1989 The Pod - Moulded Handboard 12''
	1990 Zero Utra Light (Thruster Coolite) 5 ft

Before bodyboards there was plywood. Paipo rider Sean Ross, Pipeline, Hawaii.  Photo: Alan (Bud) McCray. Photo courtesy Rod Rogers. David Swanson and his and Val Valentine's Paipo Collection, Haleiwa, 2000. Photo and article by David Pu'u The Surfer's Journal, Vol 9 No 3, 2000 pages 122-123

It does not appear to be a traditional Hawaiian surboard term and critically, it is not included in the Appendix of Hawaiian Surfing Terms of Dr. Ben Finney's groundbreaking The Ancient Sport of Surfing (1966, pages 94-96 in the 1996 edition).
Nor is paipo mentioned in the body of the text, with the term bodyboard preferred.

 In addition, there is no entry for the word in:
Pukui, Mary Kawena and Elbert, Samuel H.: Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian.
Revised and Enlarged Edition.
University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1986.

Paipo appears in print  in a number of surfing books published in 1965 by Farrelly, Dixon, Severson, Klein and John Kelly's excellent Surf and Sea (1965).
He glossary entry for paipo, includes a possible derivation for the term and indicates it "is from popular usage":
There is no entry for bellyboard.

"paipo: A small surfboard from approximately one to three feet long held in front with the hands or beneath the chest; a belly board.
Some riders can stand on paipo boards.
The term is from popular usage but may stem from pae, to ride a wave to shore, and pu, the sea at midtide (Hawaiian)."
Kelly: Surf and Sea (1965) page 290.

Kelly's claim that "Some riders can stand on paipo boards" is confrirmed by a photograph by Val Valentine, facing page 192.

Puki's Hawaiian Dictionary (1986) confirms Kelly's interpretation of pae and pu:

pae.
2. vi. To land, disembark, come ashore; to mount or catch a wave, as of a surf rider; washed or drifted ashore.
... Pae i ka nalu, to ride a wave into the shore." (page 298).
pu.
11.  ... Kai pu,  a sea without animation, sea at midtide."
also
6. n. canoe end-piece, both for and aft." (page 344).

It is difficult to see how this transcription of pu as "the sea at midtide" is an applicable to a prone board.
Perhaps the sixth definition, the fore or end piece of a canoe, is more relevant.
The earliest European report of surf riding by Banks (1769) is on "the stern of an old canoe."
In the Ellice Islands, there are two methods of te seke (surf riding) - faka-tua-fonu (body surfing) or using the puke.
The puke is the, often used, bow-covering of a canoe, and the same name is applied to any board so used for surf riding.

- Kennedy, Donald Gilbert: Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands.
The Journal of Polynesian Society , Volume 39 Number 1, No. 153, March 1930, page 111.

In a report of surfboard riding in Somoa in 1866, W. T. Pritchard noted that, alternatively.  they would "take to their paopao, or little canoes, and pass the rest of the morning in them at the same sport."

- Pritchard, W. T.: Polynesian Reminiscences, Chapman and Hall, London, 1866, page 186.

Note also that the entry for pu has an alternate derivation, that may be applicable to the dished nose design:
Similarly, but far less likely, the term "pa ipu" (the a has an overmark) meaning "Calabash, wooden dish in general cooking utensil, bowl" [Puki: Hawaiian Dictionary (1986) page 303], also could have been adpted to describe  the dished nose design.

Kelly makes special mention of the wide-tailed dished nose design, however he identifies it as a "Skim or skitter board".

This is not to be confused with the 1960s Skimboard, a flat plywood, often circular, board that is not (normally) a wave riding craft. The rider would carry the board and run at full speed before lauching the it in the shallows and jumping onboard for a fast but brief ride. See #237, image right.

The glossary entry for the "Skim or skitter board" reads:

"A fast finless belly or paipo board about board 42 inches long and 30 inches wide and around three-eighths of an inch thick with a flat bottom-one of the fastest wave-riding devices."

Skim board; side, front, and bottom views.  Approximate dimensions:  length 42", width 30'" thickness 3/8", bow scoop 3". Kelly: Surf and Sea (1965) page 63.

"A Hawiian surfer cuts a fast right slide  in standing crouch on the zippy skim or  belly board at Kuhio pier, Waikiki. Photo by Val Valentine." Kelly: Surf and Sea (1965), facing page 192. Not a "Skim board", as described by Kelly.

At this point (June 2009), one early commercial use of the term is a decal for a prone timber board, possibly produced between 1935 and 1955. The decal reads: Hawaiian  PAI  PO BOARD  Mgf. By  FROISETH. The image was listed at stanleys surfcrazy logo library and is reproduced with permission, right.

Froiseth was probably Wally Froiseth, born in Los Angles in 1919 and who moved to Honolulu in 1925.
He began surfing at age eight and was active as a surfer, contest director and judge until the1970s- a forty year surfing career.
The brief biographical notes (see Appendix C, below) are mainly based on Wally Froiseth's entry in Matt Warshaw's essential Surfing Encyclopedia and, needless to say, there is no mention of the decal or board under discussion.
With such an extensive resume  and out specific contemporary documentation or first person annecdotes, it is impossible to suggest a date for the Froiseth decal.
It could easily be anywhere between 1937 and 1970.
At a guess 1956 (???).

Note that John Kelly (quoted above) and Wally Froiseth were close surfing compatriots.
In 1936-1937, Froiseth, Kelly and Fran Heath developed the tapered-tailed Hot Curl design, setting the precedent for the templates of Gun or Speed boards for the next 50 years.
See Source Documents George Obelian : Give It  the Axe- Early Development of the Modern Gun
Ancients - Hot Curls - Simmons - Downing., from...
Surfer Magazine Vol 30 No. 10  1989, pages 104 - 105.

In the early 1960s, Val Valentine was observed building the dished-nose Paipo boards in Hawaii:

" I watched Val Valentine as he made a Paipo for me in Hawaii, and could see that there would be a better  way of doing it.
He used a moulding surface to shape the bottom of the board.
This was formed in earth outside his house, and lined with cement mortar.
 He laid vaneers (sic) of timber in this with glue between, then pressed the whole thing with sandbags on top.
When the glue had set, he trimmed and finished the board.

 Concave tails to boards were all the rage that season, and Val was spending much of his time trying to build a concave Paipo that would work.
 I could see that this was not working out at all, and returned to Australia with one of his regular (non concave) Paipo boards.
-emailed by Jamie Farfor 16 February 2005.

Jamie Farfor returned to Australia and began manufacturing his own model:
"... I built a press that had a concrete base mould at table height, and was loaded with a hydraulic powered airbag.
 This makeshift thing ran off mains water pressure and put over 20 ton pressure on the boards while the
 glue set.
 Looking back on it, I was lucky that the thing never exploded.

 I started using timber vaneer, but was unable to get suitable quality of material.
 I then tried using layers of eighth inch thick hoop pine plywood, and found that with the extreme pressure
 that I could form the two way curve (shallow dome) at the nose of the board.
 By putting plastic sheet between, I was able to form 3 boards in the press at a time.

 With the stresses in the plywood, the curvature at the nose was less than with the timber vaneer."

Left: Paipo board by Jamie Farfor. Deck and bottom. 3ft 5'' x 29 1/2". Varnished plywood with branded decal and fabric laminated bottom. Right:  Branded Paipo by Farfor decal. Dimensions and photographs  Sydney Surf Auction, September 2003.  Catalogue No. 82 " PAIPO BOARD 1960's  All time rarity, plywood:  great condition." Thanks to Mick Mock.

Newport Paipo Boards Newport Beach

El Paipo Newport Beach.

Hawaiian Paipo Boards Newport Beach

House of Paipo Huntington Beach

Jack's Huntington Paipo Huntington Beach

The skim board is very simple in design having a perfectly flat planing surface with sharp breakaway trailing edges. It has no skeg. The size of the skim board is important in relation to the weight of the rider that its lift surface must support. Average dimensions are approximately 3 1/2 to 4 feet in length. The aft end is usually less than 3 feet wide, and it tapers somewhat to a narrower front end which is cambered to prevent digging. Most of them are made of 3/8 inch plywood, surfaced with the usual fiber-glass and resin. The curved front edge may have an elevated rim for gripping.

The riding technique consist of railing the extended aft side-edge of the skim board into the wall for the beginning of the fast slide.
This enables ascent to a high position for the drop. On the drop, the board'is levelled with the water and tucked beneath the rider's chest, his head and shoulders extending over the front end and legs over the back end but not touching the water. The arm on the side of the slide (left arm on a left slide) extends forward to get it out of the way of any water coming over the side. The board then assumes a highly efficient planing position and achieves great speed.
On large waves, say twelve to fifteen feet or more, the skim board riders skid down the slopes hitting only the high spots, board and rider being airborne for a good part of the time. Without a skeg and drag produced by side pressure thereon, the skim board follows more closely the path of its own inertial flight and thus achieves the highest speed thus far of any wave-riding device."

APPENDIX C.
Wally Froiseth
In 1936-1937, Froiseth with John Kelly and Fran Heath, developed the tapered-tailed Hot Curl design, setting the precedent for the templates of Gun or Speed boards for the next 50 years.
See Source Documents George Obelian : Give It  the Axe- Early Development of the Modern Gun
Ancients - Hot Curls - Simmons - Downing., from...
Surfer Vol 30 No. 10  1989, pages 104 - 105.

The ultimate testing ground for the Hot Curls was Makhaka Beach, although the crew did make some attempts at riding the powerful breaks of the North Shore.
Froiseth and his step-son, George Downing, were the first to ride Lankiakea (1946) and Maui's Honolula Bay (1947), before testing the Hot Curl's in Southern California during 1948 .
He won the prestigious Makaha contest in 1959 (aged 39) and next year became the contest director until it ceased in 1971.
He was a respected and valued judge at wide range of surfing contests.
"...Froiseth built, sailed, and paddled all manner of canoes and catamarans."

Newport Paipo was conceived nearly a decade ago (circa 1967) to explore new avenues of wave involvement.   The testing began at the Wedge. It had the energy and power needed to test our bellyboard and Paipo Board theories. This experimentation fed to the first commercially built Paipo and bellyboards in the surfing industry in the late 60's. The Stub Vector, the Wedge Vector and the Concave Vector were air vehicles built and ridden during this trme. We began working with kneeboards -in the late 60'S. Our experimenting resulted in a radical two-in-one board called the Shoe. It was designed to be ridden like a kneeboard or a surfboard, depending upon your wave position. Our past ideas have evolved into a classic kneeboard design called the Knee Vector. It's built especially for kneeboarding by people who have been involved in finding new approaches to wave involvement for ten years. The Knee Vector is the culmination of those years of experience. All Newport Paipo Boards have countersunk leash attachments, use the Single box FU fin system, are constructed of Clark Foam, and are available up to 5' 6 " in length. (Flexible nylon rope handles are optional)

Dealers direct your inquires to: Newport Paipo Boards Box 5685 Santa Monica. Ca. 90405.

In November 2019, Bill Yoggerst contributed the photograph and noted: My First Fiberglass Bellyboard Purchased new at Hamel's Surfboards (Surf Shop), 704 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA, USA in August, 1968. Manufacture: U/K - Hawaiian? (Someone will likely recognize the logo). In response to an email, Rod noted that it: looks like one of the Al Hertz mass produced series of bellyboard/paipo boards. Attached is an advert from Surfer, April-May,1968, Volume 9 Number 2, page115 . Subsequently, Rod mailed two other Al Hertz advertisements: Surfer June-July, 1968, Volume 9 Number 3 page 44. Surfer August-September,1968, Volume 9 Number 4 page 99. This ad also featured  three custom paipo boards, see below. Many thanks to Rod at My Paipo Boards and ...More Hawaiian (Paipo) decal courtesy of Stanley's Logo Library http://www.surfcrazy.com/stanleys/html/surflogoh.html

P4.  $44.95

Surfer April-May,1968, Volume 9 Number 2, page115. Al Hertz Enterprises: Hawaiian Paipo Boards, 1968. Hawaiian Paipo Boards: P1 - P2 $39.95             P3 - P6 and P7 - P10  $44.95 P6 (Display stand, Dealers only) $12.95 Tee Shirts: $2.75 plus $2.25 shipping Surfboard Racks: 36" (1-2 boards) $7.95     48" (2-4 boards) $10.95 Beach Towels (Budweiser, Coors) $3.95 plus $0.50 shipping. 2032 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa, California. Illustrated below: Custom Paipo Boards: C1 Vector. C2 Sub-Vector. C3 Rick Newcombe model. Surfer August-September,1968, Volume 9 Number 4 page 99.   Hawaiian Paipo Boards, Newport Beach, California.

Al Hertz Enterprises: Tee-shirts, Stock and Custom Hawaiian Paipo Boards: C1 Vector. C2 Sub-Vector. C3 Rick Newcombe model, August 1968.
Many thanks to Rod at My Paipo Boards and ...More

---

Al Hertz Enterprises Surfer April-May,1968, Volume 9 Number 2, page115.

Al Hertz Enterprises Surfer June-July, 1968, Volume 9 Number 3 page 44.

Al Hertz Enterprises Surfer August-September,1968, Volume 9 Number 4 page 99.

---

Hamel's later relocated to:
Hamel's Surf Shop in Mission Beach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pVzSvf_sw
Hamel's Surf Shop is one of the most famous surf shops in Southern California.
Hamel's is located right on the boardwalk in Mission Beach on Ventura Place
 - right next to the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster and Belmont Park.

The Hamel Brothers
https://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/August-1999/The-Hamel Brothers/

---

catalogue menu

---

1769
Joseph Banks and James Cook observe body and prone board surfing on the west coast of Tahiti.
1779
James King and David Samwell report prone board surfing by both genders in the Hawaiian Islands.
1788
William Bligh and James Morrison report prone surfing in Tahiti in extreme swell conditions.
Morrison also provides the first account of standup surfing and identifies Iddeah, the wife of a local chief, as the most skilled.
1821
Captain Raine observes descendants of Bounty mutineers riding prone boards with “a ridge like a keel” on the bottom at Pitcairn Island.
1840, and following
Illustrations of Hawaiian surfing show a variety of riding positions including prone, sitting, kneeling, drop-knee and standing.
Circa 1860
Percy Smith notes the use of prone boards by New Zealand’s Maoris.
1860 (?)
Prone boards first used in England.
1907
Small hand boards in use at Manly Beach, Australia.
1915
After visiting Hawaii, Jackson and Goldie ride prone boards at Point Lonsdale, Victoria, and introduce local girl Grace Smith-Wooton to the art.
1920s
Production prone boards built by Risby Bros. in Tasmania.
1930s
Square nosed timber boards with parallel rails, later known as Lamaroos (or Looma-Roo), used in Victoria.
The design is also common in New Zealand, South Africa and UK.
1932
Dr. Ernest introduces his inflated rubber mat, the Surfoplane, in Australia.
1934
Ronald Funnell extols the virtues and dangers of prone surf-riding on narrow solid wood boards to English readers in The Art of Surf-riding.
1934, July
Plans for a solid wood bellyboard published in Popular Mechanics magazine.
1935, August
Plans for a laminated redwood-pine prone board printed in Popular Science magazine.
1940-1945
Owen Churchill's moulded rubber swim-fin design adopted by the US Navy and issued to their Underwater Demolition Teams in the early 1940s.
1946?
Vernont Bartlet’s You and Your Surfboard, an introduction to prone board surfing, published in Great Britain.
1953
Curved prone boards in ash or chestnut and the Solarbo, an “extra buoyant flat” balsa board, available in Newquay, England.
1955, December
Wally Froiseth builds his first Hawaiian Pai Po Board, re-designed in early 1956 and followed by a patent application on May 9, 1956.
1958
In Sydney, Leigh Tingle has a twin fin fibreglassed bellyboard built from balsa off-cuts.
1959
George Greenough builds his first balsa wood kneeboard.
Originally with a conventional D fin, the following year he replaces it with his first flexible high-aspect ratio fin.
1960
Bellyboards and kneeboards manufactured in foam and fibreglass.
early 1960s
Jamie Farfor observes Val Valentine building the dished-nose Paipo boards with a wide-tailed plectrum-like template in Hawaii.
Farfor purchases one of Valentine’s boards and, on returning to Australia, manufactures his own model.
1962
George Greenough builds his first balsa wood kneeboard with spooned deck, initially with twin fins.
1964 (1965?)
Greenough builds his first flexible Spoon and makes his first visit to Australia.
1965
John Kelly details the Skim board, a plectrum-shaped plywood finless board accredited to John
Waidelich and Jim Growney.
1965
Val Valentine commercially produces Paipo Nui boards.
1966
“Still others like a short bellyboard (sic) and a long ride like George Greenough at Santa Barbara, California” – Bruce Brown in the introduction to his The Endless Summer.
1966
Converse (USA) release their rubberised canvas Hodgman model surfmat.
1967
San Diego’s Steve Lis builds his first split-tail twin fin Fish kneeboard.
1967
The Coolite, a molded polystyrene foam board, and the hollow molded plastic Zippyboard introduced in Australia.
1967
Barracuda Bellyboards - a twin fin plywood board designed by Sydney’s Leigh Tingle.
1969
 “Far-Out flexible Surfboard - the wave of the future?” article on Greenough’s Spoon printed in Popular Science magazine.
1969
Peter Crawford shapes his first Slab (the name is credited to Midget Farrelly), a wide bodied kneeboard at Wallace Surfboards as an alternative to the low floatation Greenough Spoon.
1970
George Greenough releases The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun.
1970
Shane Surfboards (Australia) produce a foam kneeboard with a Greenough influenced spooned deck, known as The Shoe.
1971
George Greenough releases his short film on mat surfing, Rubber Duck Riders.
1972
Tom Morey’s Boogie Board released, originally offered as a buyer assembled mail order product.
1972
Bahne screw and pin fin box introduced and becomes a standard feature on most kneeboards.
1974
Adoption of the legrope (or surf-leash) sees standup surfers begin to appear at extreme reef breaks, previously considered the domain of belly and knee boarders.
1975
The Bellybooger, a molded plastic twin fin bellyboard with spooned deck, marketed in Australia.
1977
'Bout a Spoonful article by Bob McTavish, eight easy steps to building a Greenough Spoon, printed in Surfing World magazine.
1987
Boogie rider Mike Stewart profiled in Surfer magazine.
1995
FCS fin plugs
1998
Endangered Species, an article on kneeboarding, published in the Surfer’s Journal.