Anyone ever try the hand planes for body surfing? Been trying to figure out if its worth the hundred or so bucks for an 8 inch piece of wood....
they work, just def not worth that kind of price tag... for less than half that you could go to home depot/lowes buy a wood board, a strap, screws/bolts for said hand strap, a coping saw, and a spray bottle of clear coat to seal it. make a project out of it and build your own, you'll feel pride that you made something yourself and have something to do when there's ripples coming in too small to surf but perfect to swim in!
I use them but it's because I make my own. The prices are outrageous and I have a background in woodworking so I gave it a shot. They make a difference but I wouldn't say its worth buying one. Here in Jersey there are days when you can really get all your weight on it and fly down the line, but the average small ****ty waves don't really call for a hand plane. Where I think it really helps is getting some extra leverage paddling into a wave, the extra surface area on my hand definitely gets me moving faster as I swim into something.
If you haven't done so yet, check out the handplanes at Greenlight in Manasquan. A guy named George builds them, and they're really well designed and beautiful pieces of functional art. They have concave and rocker and foil... really nice stuff. I have no idea what they cost.
A buddy of mine makes them here in VB. Party Missile Handplanes If you're going the DIY route here's a thread from a while back http://www.swellinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?19845-Experimenting-With-Hand-Boards
My neighbor makes them. He is making some for me to give as groomsmen gifts. I figure that is a better gift then a stupid flask or pocket watch. He makes them with polonial wood (not sure that spelled correctly) and they are all different looking depending on the how the wood grain is. Some have single stringers some double. Don't know anything at all about wood working but they do seem kinda labor intensive to make. If anyone interested in mon cty he has been trying to get them in a couple local shops Eastern Lines, Spellbinders, Brave New World but has yet to have any real luck with sales.
There's a local kid I graduated HS with back in '08 who went on to open an apparel company called Points East on Long Island. He makes some pretty cool hand planes starting at like 50 ish I think. Might wanna give that a look too.
