Turn On It, Tune Out, Drop In

NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT.
WIND WAVES 2 FT.
NW SWELL 5 TO 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
TONIGHT W WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BACKING TO SW AFTER MIDNIGHT.
WIND WAVES 2 FT.
NW SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS.

In 1965, George Greenough shaped/sculpted/invented his hull-shaped kneeboard, the Velo. It was unlike any surf vehicle that had been made, an unusual and distinctive spoon shape. This spoon design has been a guiding principle of Greenough's boards since then. The spoon offers a performance characteristic that Greenough refers to as "neutral handling," the board itself flexes, much in the same way that his tapered fins did. The spoon resembled Simmons-like plan shape, but was floated only by a foam-filled rail section, the middle of the board being solid fiberglass and tapering to a flexible glass tail, the board itself barely floated.

Velo weighed only about 6 pounds and was powered by an 11-inch high-aspect fin designed and built by Greenough. The skeg was wide and thick at the base, sweeping and tapering to a raked tip This fiberglass foil loaded up on torque and propelled the kneeboard out of turns with alarming force. Velo (and its powerful fin) is credited as the inspiration for Nat Young's 1966 World Championship board, Sam, and for the vee-bottom shortboard experiments of Bob McTavish and his test pilots in Australia in 1966 and 1967. Thus, in many ways, Velo may be considered as the catalyst for the shortboard revolution itself.

~adapted from Surfline