Prone or Body Board Alaias

Body Boarding or Riding Prone

Finley was 5 years old when I was pushing him into tiny reforms on a little alaia. I would watch him from behind and I could see his head going towards shore. One whitewash reformed into a wave with shape and I hoped he may angle across it.  But I just about had a heart attack as I saw the shadow of his head through the wave go so fast that I thought he would for sure get hurt. I wasn’t expecting that at all!  Such is the speed of the prone alaia.

Once I found how much fun the short (at the time) 7’ alaia was to ride prone I was hooked. I could make impossibly long sections at the points and I spent more time than ever in the tube.  As the boards evolved they became shorter. Surfing with my wife and kids, we found the little alaia was super fun in small surf.

The Peaches Model alaia has a slight roll through the bottom and on the deck. The roll makes the rails thinner making them nimble in the wave face. You have a lot of control bending the board into the wave and accelerating by putting reverse rocker in, or lifting the nose and turning in the pocket. In the tube you can use the flex of the alaia to get the best fit. Paddling out is effortless because you can easily push the surfboard under waves and whitewash. The take-off is easy because you can reverse the rocker by pushing down on the nose. This lets you into the wave early. When the wave closes out you can easily turn into the wave, go through the back and pop out, just as if you are bodysurfing.

I often ride the Peaches Model alaia in bigger surf, especially closed out beach breaks. I can stay in the impact zone and duck dive under the sets with no problem and pull into tube after tube without getting pounded. I just pull through the back of the wave as it all shuts down. I named this alaia model “Peaches” after a nick-name I have for my wife. On the first experimental surfboard of this shape, I wrote “Peaches” across the deck for Margie. The name has stuck and since then all the laydown alaia surfboards of this design have been called the Peaches Model.

In 2008 Mike Stewart came to stay with me and we made a limited edition body board alaia. He had been surfing the alaias while filming with Thomas Campbell in Indo and Hawaii. Thomas was actually the biggest force behind the resurgence of alaia popularity.  The boards  were under 4’ and 16 ¼ wide.  I still make this shape but they are not as fancy as the collector boards.

In 2009 my family and I went to Europe. I was shaping alaias like crazy and we lived like old-school surfing gypsies. We were introduced to the plywood belly board by Sally Parkin and John Isaac. I had no idea that thousands upon thousands of people were belly boarding on wood all over the world in first half of the 20^th century. These boards are different from an alaia because they are narrower and the nose is pulled up.  At first they looked goofy to me but after trying them I could see that the pulled up nose is a huge development in prone riding. You can push down or up on the nose, flex the board and gain speed and control on the wave.

I have started making this style body board, but I have not learned how to steam the wood to bend the nose up.  The top and bottom are flat and the rails are square so they are really easy to shape.  I just cut them out, round up the nose, and make them smooth before the oiling process.  The trick is to get really good cuts of wood so they don’t split.  Unfortunately the cuts that don’t split are more likely to cup and bend as the temperature and humidity change.  The board can look like a potato chip if left in the car on a hot day.  It is actually no drama, the shape will come back as the wood moisture and temperature even out.

I really enjoy these little boards as well as the Peaches model.  Mostly they ride whitewashes toward shore.  This is actually really fun and I enjoy sharing this surfing experience with non surfers and beginners.  The feeling of riding a whitewash prone towards shore is not that different from any other type of surfing. I see the stoke on people’s faces as they ride up onto the sand and it may even be happier than the surfers on a ripping day at the points. I still love it and when nobody is watching that is where you will often find me.