Surfboard with Soft Ride for Bad Knees

[windyway]

The Problem:
My knees hurt!
I ride in 1 to 6 foot choppy shore break surf in 15-20 mph winds.
I need an easy planing light wind directional board and pads that eat chop can give me an ultra smooth ride.

My Equipment:
My current board is an excellent 6-0 Dereck Camacho epoxy quad fin which I will hate to give up.
The NSI surf and skim padspads are thin and don't absorb much shock.
The NSI Proton straps are the most comfortable.

What surfboard and pads will save my knees from the smacking and pounding from psycho chop?

[tstansbury]

If you DC has inserts you could add a second layer of pads or go to nsi and have them make you a custor thicker pad.

[Frank Rosin]

Underground Freewave!
It has a nice flex which makes it a very smooth ride also in bad conditions.

Frank
http://www.famousfrank.com
UNDERGROUNDkiteboards Germany

[Airmiles]

Are you using a C kite?

Bow / SLE riding style can save your knees a bit. Bouncin over the chop toeside wont help with the twisting forces, twintip would be easier but dont suppose thats what you're into.

[robertovillate]

you should try the Spleene Zone. It's very flexy, rides through anything..chop, big waves, whitewash... without difficulty, super easy on the body. The only consideration is whether you like riding toeside half the time. Some people aren't comfortable with that, but I love it.

I suppose you can set it up to jibe it, but it's more likely you want to ride it set up in one direction or another.

I wrote a little about it in my blog at

http://www.kiteatlas.com/blog/robertovillate

you can probably find more comments if you do a search about the ZONE on this forum

if interested feel free to contact me more info or for a price

If you are going to be in FL this winter you are welcome to demo my board.

[tautologies]

I would assume your knees would like a less bouncy ride? I think it will be hard to get a super lightwind, yet non bouncy ride. I am not sure how much flex in boards would help unless it is made of jello...try to test a board which has good chop qualitites. I like the 5'4'' naish for that...it is still a quad, but not as long as the one you are used to, it is a narrow board, with a long straight rail that gives it a surprisingly good low end...yet it is not a low wind board. I cuts through chop very well, but it does like to be ridden with some power and speed. I could go out with it in about 12-13 mph with my 12 Shockwave.

The pads are fairly thin though, and will give you a lot of contact with the board, which is good for riding, but maybe not your board...you could take them off though. I would think a board that isn;t hitting you as hard would be better than pads (?)

Otherwise the underground boards used to have a thick pad, but it left you with a little less board feeling. I have 5'8'', that works great, but I'd say although it has a slightly better low end than the 5'4'', maybe..it's pretty close due to the hips on the UG, it is way more bouncy in chop..it's still a nice board though...both of them.


A.

[simonm]

The Problem:
My knees hurt!
I ride in 1 to 6 foot choppy shore break surf in 15-20 mph winds.
I need an easy planing light wind directional board and pads that eat chop can give me an ultra smooth ride.

My Equipment:
My current board is an excellent 6-0 Dereck Camacho epoxy quad fin which I will hate to give up.
The NSI surf and skim padspads are thin and don't absorb much shock.
The NSI Proton straps are the most comfortable.

What surfboard and pads will save my knees from the smacking and pounding from psycho chop?

Sorry to say this, but unless the board is as flexible as a wobble board or the pads are a foot or two thick, they are really not going to make a whole lot of difference. What will make a big difference is doing some strengthening excercises to build up the musculature around the knee, learn to ride a lot slower to stop excessive bouncing and slaming on the chop and to try and use your knees to better absorb shock (ie concentrate on lifting your knees to absorb swell rather than slaming into it). If you ride toeside a lot, it may be worth jibing instead to see if that helps as well. Also, I find riding strapless forces you to avoid excessive bouncing over chop.

[Adrian Roper]

Simon M. Maybe Alex Taut as well See if you can find one of our 5'8" freewaves and compare to a surfboard for smooth ride. They are not noodle flexy but definately smooth the ride.
Quite a few of our surfboard riders prefer these for kitesurfing now. not too many made yet. Alex I think Jeff has some on the way.
let me know what you think of them.
Thanks Adrian[/quote]

[scklandl]

I think there is a tremendous amount of torque on the knees because of the fins. I notice a massive differnece in how my knees feel after riding a surfstyle board of any kind. but unfortunately in order to get those turns you need those fins...

thoughts for ya:

try flexier fins on your board

try your DC w/out straps which will allow you to get your feet in the best stance to help your knees out and will also allow a little slippage between the board and you

if this dont work, get a board with less volume. they are much easier are the knees. Im riding a 4'6" x 1.5" similar to the freestyle fish. Its shape and size allows me to eat up the shit chop with a very forward stance, almost TT like, which helps the knees out alot. and when on the tail, the lower volume doesnt bounce around as much as a 6'.

[tautologies]

Simon M. Maybe Alex Taut as well See if you can find one of our 5'8" freewaves and compare to a surfboard for smooth ride. They are not noodle flexy but definately smooth the ride.
Quite a few of our surfboard riders prefer these for kitesurfing now. not too many made yet. Alex I think Jeff has some on the way.
let me know what you think of them.
Thanks Adrian

[/quote]

I will check it out for sure.

Actually we talked about those boards the other day... Kitebull (mr. TT himself wanted to have a go too).

A.