Flexmeister, what a score. I don't know anywhere else in the world to find these kinds of pics and information.

Besides the craftsmanship, what strikes me about the carbon edge board is its similarity to a mat in principle. You mentioned the paper-thin "skin" rippling and the "passive" flexibility overall. There's the strake-chine setup, a pontoon-type influence. Of course, the fin doesn't fit the mat paradigm, but this one is designed to hardly be there; "neutral." The whole thing looks like it's designed to conform, slide and drift like a mat, not bank and carve.

Maybe Greenough started out having fun on both boards and mats, and being torn between the two, tried over the years to combine the best elements of both, gradually coming to this.

Are you thinking of making something like this, tuned to your size and weight?

That is partly it. The sliding/drifting may not be part of the intent of the design.



I'll have a complete history of his edge boards on here soon. The quote above is from it. Funny how the footage from Crystal Voyager which many people have seen is of a board which may have been his worst! A development mule. too heavy too stiff no runners



The way they ride and are designed to work is so different that even my friend Tim who has ridden spoons since 1971 - but never an edge board - would be disappointed if he rode it. The feedback from the board and what you do to make things happen is all different..

Now that I have ridden all 3 types of boards I can say that I finally understand(at least better than before) how the edge boards work. In the past I rode them just like any other spoon.

This is from an email to solo today:



I'll be working on Velo and edge board in next couple days(and surfing Rincon). I want to ride the edge board again.

Also ordered a blank to make a mellow velo. 10'8" Walker w/3/16 cedar stringer. Going for 5' X 20.5" removable fin. fiberglass/epoxy

Sounds like Mr. Flexspoon is fully back in business!!!

But what does this thread refer too? From MOW's first post seems I missed something...what did you score?

The score is those pics of gg's carbon edge board, and the personal encounter and all the info that came with it, which is still to be posted. He hit it out of the park, Dr S.

The "score" was spending a morning with Paul Gross(w/Greenough's last carbon fibre edge board), my buddy Tim and his spoon, Spencer Kellog(who was there when Paul made the "Project Velo" boards) and both of my spoons.
2 edge boards and 2 "Velos" in background


Also got a copy of Surfer's Journal from 1994 where Paul wrote article "George Greenough: The Ageless Artist" which has a fantastic explanation of how Velo was designed to function which directly relates to my experiences riding my Velo board at Rincon. Reading, discussing, learning and actually doing all at the same time. My impressions from riding Velo are explained in Paul's writing and conversations with him. All makes more sense.

Greenough was/is so far ahead. Even with no new developments in spoon for 15+ years I see the gap between spoons and standup/kneeriders growing wider. Greenough's boards were designed to fit the waves while surfboards/kneeboards are designed for something else. This becomes very obvious when riding Rincon. The lines/tracks that I ride are very different than anyone else out there except Tim on his spoon and some longboarders.

Another part of the score -
Greenough Edge Board Molds -- 1970 to 1990


I'll be posting an article by Paul with the history of edge boards/molds with pics. coming soon...

Score indeed

vicarious thrill