Slyde Handboards - An Alternative View

Okay, so I checked the frikin forecast, I got up early. What's going on? What I am looking at is a wave that I can't surf. On paper the tragic lie-weed gave me a green light for a dawnie, I made the effort but all I can see is a close-out-back-wash heap of dung. Being dawnie skunked is the pits.

Previously at this point I would possibly regress into a filthy strop that would last until the end of the day. I have, however found a solution, hand boards. If you are not familiar with the concept, check out the moving picture below:

For me the journey of body surfing began when my wife was pregnant with our son and found that lying on a surfboard became a bit uncomfortable. She still wanted to catch waves so she bought a pair of fins and a hand board and made it look really fun, so on those funky days I joined her and the rest is history. It is just very pure and simple fun.

I wanted to find out a bit more about hand board construction, types and shapes, so I thought I would get in contact with the guys that make the best equipment out there at the moment. Steve, the founder at Slyde Handboards was kind enough to talk to me about all that I desired to know.

SB: Hey Steve, thanks for sparing us the time I know you must be crazy busy, how did it all start for you and handboarding?

Steve: Well it all started for me in Cape Town, South Africa which is where I was born and grew up. I was a kid that had decided to see if he could surf on a fast food tray. The same thing was happening all over the world, kids were just using what they could get their hands on and seeing if it would work. Later on I started using my old surfboards, cutting them up and seeing what would work. Its kind of how the whole thing came about, we started wondering what would happen if we made it a bit more aqua-dynamic and shaped it like a little surfboard. It evolved from there.

SB: Slyde offer a lot of different models and construction types, can you tell us a bit more about the differences?

Steve: There are 3 main shapes that we offer at the moment, I have been playing around with lots of different shapes for a while but those 3 are the best. We have the 'Wedge' the 'Phish and the 'Hexflex'.

• The Wedge, is about the biggest you want a handboard to be and is for less than perfect conditions. It is designed to give you a little more float to stop you sinking. The small bumps on the back that cut the outline down also help direct the spray away from you face in a sort of plume. The extra width that this board has lets you sit a bit higher on the wave and allows you to perform little turns too. This is my favourite shape I think.

• The Phish is a different story, I drew the shape up myself and I wanted it to have the classic fish look, you know, and then I took the idea down to another South African guy, Donnie Brink, who has a brilliant mind for aqua-dynamics. He helped me come up with the finished design for the Phish. When I saw it finished, I thought it was not going to work because I had this idea about how I wanted it to look with the classic shape. We took it out on test and it was just crazy, so fast. It’s all to do with the long drawn out rail that makes this board just fly.

• The Hexflex is a smaller board. This I would call a handplane, which is a smaller version of a handboard, which is bigger. We designed this to get into a shore break, take you a bit further along the wave ,and still be able to punch out the back of the wave. Its pretty handy as sometimes you might get yourself in a more critical position especially in a shore break.

SB: Can you tell us some more about the Hexflex construction?

Steve: It's pretty interesting, yes, I was actually getting my boards traditionally made by a little company called Hydroflex who are based near here in Oceanside, California. I was down there one day for a meeting with Rich, the CEO, and I saw this skateboard that they were playing around with and it looked like it was made of some cool material. I looked at it and said, to Rich “We have to make a handplane out of that.” That's where the Hexflex material came from, it's basically a layer of triaxial cloth in a mould and some special honey comb foam, and then another layer of Triaxial cloth and then they inject the resin into the mould, it sits there for 24 hours and then it's done. What's cool about the honeycomb is the extra strength that's involved because the resin can connect around the shape. It also discourages de-lamination which is I guess why they can make skateboards out of it.

SB: Do Slyde sell all over the world?

Steve: Yes, we sell to over 60 countries all over the world including Russia, Morocco & even Nigeria of all places. The first one we actually sold to a guy in the Netherlands who still emails me telling me how much he enjoys the board. (laughs) The majority we sell to California, that is really all down to shipping costs.

SB: Is there a competition scene at the moment?

Steve: The short answer is no, but I see that coming up very soon. It's up to the companies to get involved and through that it's one of the ways the sport can grow. Personally I am not a massive fan of competition and want the sport to retain its fun aspect but that's just a personal view. As long as it's done correctly, just a bunch of heads bobbing around having fun, that would be cool.

SB: Does Slyde have anything coming out soon, any projects on the go?

Steve: Yes we have, we have just actually started collaborating with this very well respected guy, Shaun Enoka whose local break is Point Panic in Hawaii, which is kind of where body surfing came from. He has been designing a board for years with a specific aim towards Point Panic, so that is being designed as we speak, we have to go through R&D and all that fun stuff. I would really like to get working with other shapers and athletes and get more collaborations going, one with LOST would be amazing.

SB: Can you tell me how it made you feel the first time you caught a wave?

Steve: Well, the first time actually stood up on a wave I can remember specifically but its a tough one to describe, its a very personal experience and something I truly believe you can not quite put into words. Its something that I am sure only a surfers knows, I have ridden a lot of waves in my time but there are only a handful that sit in my mind and when I think about them I feel that irresistible pull towards the ocean. Its the kind of happiness the wells up inside of you which is what I think people refer to as the 'stoke'

SB: Thanks so much to Steve for sparing the time for us here at Surf Bunker, I know he is a massively busy guy.

So there we have it, the inside scoop on body surfing. Hand planes and handboards are a tool to help you make the most out of the wave and no one puts more enthusiasm and effort into making the best on the market than Slyde. It seems to me that bodysurfing is about taking it all back to the fun, removing the seriousness and replacing it with that sort of stoke that we can all share.