My introduction to the wood belly board was backward. I made replicas of the boards I saw in the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and found how fun they are to surf. I was wondering why nobody else surfs like this. Then I discovered there were pockets of stoked wood belly boards in the UK and Hawaii. Once I looked deeper, I found that 100 years ago there was a wave of belly boarding popularity that went around the world.
This is a little clip I took of Finley on a very early alaia. I love it because it shows how excited he is to catch a wave. Finley still loves surfing and is showing me a few things.