In 1949 Bob Simmons was recommended while in hospital to try surfing as a form of relaxation and recovery and general health.

Being an inventive type who liked to come up with ideas for doing things his own way, Bob started to think about surf riding. Having a brother who was involved with the quest to put man on the moon, Bob had access to another inventive brain and the latest technology available to mankind at the time. Bob had styrofoam. At that time, remembering it is 1949, surfboards were very crude and almost unridable craft that were built like a skiff or long canoe with an enclosed top made from ply wood.

Bob designed the Planning Hull, shaped from a block of styrofoam and commenced riding it around his home breaks around Southern California. This is where and how the folkloric Mini Simmons surf design was born.

After only one year of riding his innovative creations, tragically for Mr Simmons, his family and the direction of modern surf design. Bob Simmons drowned at a famous point break while surfing alone in solid swell. Three days after Mr Simmons was reported as missing his body was found washed up at the waters edge near to where the shack at Windansea now stands.

This board and others I have produced are an adaptation toward the original Bob Simmons design. Incorporated  into this design are aspects of my own design work and board making experience which covers 28 years of my life. I have also used materials that are a derivative of insulation in the building trade, Les Paul guitar construction and high end boat hull construction. The core is hand shaped from a 4 inch block extruded poly styrene, glassed in high quality epoxy resin and tinted with dies used to colour lacquer in the finishing of vintage guitars. The fins are hand shaped from Canadian flamed maple, the same timbre used in classic Les Paul guitar tops and violin construction. These boards are unique to say the least, a conglomerate of my passions in life and craft pursuits to date in life.

Above all else, the enjoyment and completion of the experience is in the ride.