Surf
Board Design
by Brian Freidrichs
Introduction
There are two theories about the birthplace of surfing. The first,
which is the well-known version, puts the ancient Hawaiians at the
forefront of developing the sport of surfing. The other puts it in
Peru over two thousand years ago as depicted on a small ceramic piece
excavated outside of Lima; on crafts called " Cabiltilos"
fashioned from reeds.
Whichever is true one fact remains, surfboard design has been evolving
ever since.
1800'S
The 1800's
opened with a very small surfing population worldwide. Therefore we
saw very little in the way of earthshaking board design. Equiptment
was crude at best, consisting of solid wooden planks carved from native
woods most often Koa. Papa he's nalu or wave-sliding boards came in
two main types; the alaia and the olo. The only common feature shared
by these two boards was their convex deck and bottom. The rails were
tapered to thin rounded edges. The alaia boards were round nose squaretails
extremely thin in the half inch to inch and a half range. Seven to
twelve feet was the average length with eighteen inches being the
standard width.
The old boards were very long thick and heavy. Olo boards have been
reported to be as long as twenty-four feet but the average length
is in the sixteen to seventeen foot ranges. At sixteen to seventeen
inches in width and five to six inches in thickness the olos weighed
in at over one hundred and fifty pounds.
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