Kneeboard

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Kneeboarding at Bear Lake, Utah Kneeboarding (3852827348).jpg
Kneeboarding at Bear Lake, Utah

A kneeboard is a board ridden in a kneeling stance. Kneeboards are ridden in ocean surf, or while being towed behind a boat on a lake or river. [1]

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Background

Kneeboard riders generally wear life jackets or wet suits and catch the wave by paddling and kicking or dipping their hand in the water . Advantages to kneeboarding include an extremely low center of gravity, less wind resistance, the ability to ride higher and farther back in the tubes, and taking off on a steeper part of the wave.

Towed kneeboarding is an offshoot of kneeboard surfing; kneeboard riders compete tricks, and expression session events. Towed kneeboards have a padded deck contoured to the shape of the shins and knees and a strap holds the rider to the board. Towed kneeboarding declined in popularity with the advent of wakeboarding and other modern watersports; however, it still enjoys popularity among water skiers and newer models of the kneeboard are still in production. A kneeboard is a good piece of equipment to start out on for boat-towed sportsthe low center of gravity often makes it easier to get up on than a waterski or wakeboard, which both require standing up.

Surf kneeboard innovators include George Greenough, Steve Lis, Peter Crawford and Ron Romanosky. Till Wipperfuerth is one of the actual top performers in kneeboarding, since he became champion of the Tunilake Kneeboard Masters.

Kneeboarding is also a very easy alternative weight boarding

See also

Related Research Articles

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Wakeboarding Surface water sport

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Kiteboarding Extreme sport

Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is an extreme sport where the kiter uses the wind power with a large power kite to be pulled on a water, land or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding. Kiteboarding is among the less expensive and the more convenient of the sailing sports.

Articles related to surfing and surf culture include.

Kneeboarding is a discipline of surfing where the rider paddles on his or her belly into a wave on a kneeboard, then rides the wave face typically on both knees. The typical kneeboard is between 150 to 200 cm in length, with a wide round nose and constructed of Glassfibre over a polyurethane foam core. Kneeboard designers however are known for their wild experimental excess and so most modern materials including various aerospace elements such as Titanium alloys, carbon fibre and kevlar in epoxy matrices are not unusual. Modern kneeboards may have a rubber pad for the rider's knees, preventing undue wear of the knees, also preventing slipping to help the rider maintain control. Kneeboarders also typically use swimfins and an ankle surfleash.

Kneeboarding (towsport) Water sport

Kneeboarding is an aquatic sport where the participant is towed on a buoyant, convex, and hydrodynamically shaped board at a planing speed, most often behind a motorboat. Kneeboarding on a surf style board with fin(s) is also done in waves at the beach. In the usual configuration of a tow-sport kneeboard, riders kneel on their heels on the board, and secure themselves to the deck with an adjustable Velcro strap over their thighs. Most water ski kneeboards do not have fins to allow for easier surface spins. As in wakeboarding or water skiing, the rider hangs onto a tow-rope. The advantages of kneeboarding versus other tow-sports seems to be an easier learning curve and a sense of being closer to the water when falls occur.

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Wakesurfing Water sport

Wakesurfing is a water sport in which a rider trails behind a boat, riding the boat's wake without being directly pulled by the boat. After getting up on the wake, typically by use of a tow rope, the wakesurfers will drop the rope, and ride the steep face below the wave's peak in a fashion reminiscent of surfing. Wakesurfers generally use special boards, designed specifically for wakes.

Sit-down hydrofoil

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The riding of waves has likely existed since humans began swimming in the ocean. In this sense, bodysurfing is the oldest type of wave-catching. Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient cultures of Peru surfed on reed watercraft for fishing and recreation up to five thousand years ago. Standing up on what is now called a surfboard is a relatively recent innovation developed by the Polynesians. The influences for modern surfing can be directly traced to the surfers of pre-contact Hawaii.

Wakeboard boat

Wakeboard boats also known as wakeboats, surfboats or tow boats are designed to create a large, specially shaped wake, for a wakeboarder to jump the wakes from side to side doing aerial tricks. They developed from the Runabout type.

Flowriding

Flowriding is a late-20th century alternative boardsport incorporating elements of surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding. Flowriding takes place on an artificial wave called the FlowRider or the FlowBarrel. These waves were created by Wave Loch.

Danny Harf is an American professional wakeboarder and sports video producer.

Horse surfing is an extreme sport invented in 2005. It requires two people, a horse, and a board. Horse surfing involves one person riding either a kite-board, surfboard, wake-board, or skim-board, while being towed behind a horse, ridden by a second person, through shallow water, at speeds up to 40 miles per hour (64 km/h). After originating in England the first official horse surfing competition was held in 2006 in La Baule, France, and over the last 14 years the sport has continued to spread internationally. Today there are several international competitions with globally established rules and categories.

References

  1. "History".