: Hi Justin.
: That's a great piece of work, but it gets worse.
: My wife would like to know if a SOF ironing board is realy very
: practical!!!!
: (I'm not sure how well that translates on your side of the pond.)
: Regards, Les C.

Practical? If I were practical I would just drive down to my local surfshop and buy a popout made in Thailand.

How practical are SOF kayaks?

How practical was the Wright flyer? I saw a special where a bunch of engineers used modern computer modeling to examine the Wright flyer. The conclusion was that it was humanly impossible to correct for the instability of the craft. So they built one. And some pilots flew it. And crashed it :).

I had the same questions. Like I said the shape is over 70 years old. The shape is actually very nimble for a 14' X 24" "ironing board". When I first started paddling it, I thought I laid the "keel" crooked because I kept spinning away from the course I was trying hold. I adjusted my weight a tad and found I could hold a nice straight course despite a stiff breeze hitting me from an angle. There is no skeg on this board. I can hold a comfortable coarse on any "point of sail" with a few inch shift now. It's easier to hold a course than my modern roto kayak.

I can do a 180 much faster than on my 12' modern longboard. I can prone paddle them about the same speed (timed 1 mile paddle) in glass. In mild chop the Blake is faster. My skinning work was not ideal and the way I worked out the nose is less than practical. When the skin fails I will re-do how the rails and nose come together and do a better job of skinning. I also have a bum shoulder so those all add up I think to my inability to overcome the wetted surface area of the Blake board to reap the rewards of the extra waterline.

I thought the board was going to be a stiff tank. I built it to sup on thinking the old school tanks were stable barges. Not so. I can SUP on my 12' surfboard (I weigh 220# (100kg?)). On anything but glass the BlakeSOF is too much work to stay on.

I chose the shape because of it's simplicity, boxy rails being easier to work out in SOF than a modern board.

If your wife has questions about the practicality of riding ironing boards check this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mls1hhpPJEA
Wegener had some questions about the ancient Hawaiian shapes he saw in museums (As did Blake). He found those shapes are quite effective. Modern surfing essentially abandoned 3000 years of evolution in 70 years. Starting with Blake and his modernization of the ancient olo. Sounds a bit like kayak evolution. Wegener is actually shaping "alaias" in foam now like a modern board.

Blake revolutionized lifesaving with this board. Some refer to the shape I used as the lifeguard model. I'm an ex-lifeguard, a land/flatwater locked surfer and a waterman history geek so the shape has some meaning to me. I have a 1940's American Red Cross lifesaving manual with pictures of Blake's boards in it.

Practical? Never. Did I learn something? Absolutely. I learned more than I thought I would. I have a new respect for Blake. I heard someone say we seem to forget that those who came before us essentially had the same problem solving skills and intelligence as us, they just had a different body of knowledge.

I'll probably build a Blake board using the classic build method someday. My next project will be a folding SUP. Blake actually made a folding board. I've seen pictures from a distance but have never found info on the internal structure.

I hope I don't come across as preachy. I'm not offended but I just want to stress we can learn a lot from those who come before use. Calling the Blake shape an ironing board is a bit like calling the great pyramid a pile of rocks. There is subtlety and elegance to these old things that can only be experienced. Picasso was a great artist in the classical sense before he discarded that and went cubist. A Picasso exhibit just came through town. I had respect for his place in art history but not until I saw some of his work in person did I truly understand what a genius he was. (I'm not trying to call myself Picasso by the way). Just the classic look to the future while understanding the past kind of thing.