New 5'6" alaia for belly riding

I really love riding prone.  I do it more than regular standup surfing.  Its a whole different world when you are on your belly, your nose just inches above the water.  And every day is big!

 This board has a built up nose and rails, which give it some nose rocker that helps with a steep drop in.  The rolled rail and the tail board give the board a bit of stiffness, so they don't break as easily as a flat alaia.  

When the glue is set, the side rails get chamfered on the inside and the thickness will be zero at the tail.  The nose block gets lots of shaping on the inside, so that there is a smooth transition from the deck to the nose and tops of the rail.  Because of the thicker rail, I'll put two tiny half moon fins just to give the rails a bit more bit in a steep face.  

This is the original model which got reshaped 4 or 5 times until i was happy with the rails.  I ended up with some pretty wide chined rails in the nose section. You can see the nice curves that the nose and rail have where they meet the deck.  This board developed stress cracks where the top rail has a joint.  The new board has a one piece rail to eliminate the joint.  

New 5-6 alaia for belly riding

I've been riding 47" long belly boards for a long time now.  They are super fun and fast in small surf but I wanted something longer that I could get my hips and knees up on to, and that would maybe work a little better in bigger surf.  The nose is 18.5", hips 16.5" and tail 19.5", length 5' 6".  Thickness is 1/2" - 5/8", so its really flexy.

I'm finding it to be really fast across a steep face.  Fore to aft balance is pretty critical for staying in control.  Too far back the tail slides out and too far forward the nose does the same thing.  But if you find the sweet spot it is quick and maneuverable.  

 Cedar with thin mahogany stringers

 Rough shaped

New Belly Slider

I was recently cruising my favorite surf sites and ran across a really neat looking wood belly board.  As a shaper, I'm not above taking inspiration from other designs.  The shape is unusual, I think, because of  the pin tail on such a short board.  This one I found also had some neat turned down rails near the tail to act as little fins.  Pretty cool.  Of course I got all excited because I like belly boards, and ran down to the garage to see if there was anything lying around I could use to make one.  Yes, there was!  I cut down and reshaped an old 6 foot alaia that did not work too well.  I wanted to do the turned down edges, but end up recycling some old bonzer-style fins I found in the bottom of the old fin box.  Alot less work, and probably more effective.  Maybe.  I think it looks pretty cool.  It's about 4'7" long and about 20" wide.  We'll have to see how it works in the water!