Super Cool Aquaplane
Anyone lucky enough to have grown up recreating on a freshwater lake may recognize this form of vintage water sports equipment. It is a wooden aquaplane dating from circa 1930-40.
An aquaplane is “a board ridden by a standing person and pulled by a motorboat for entertainment” (www.lexic.us). This “Arro-Plane” was probably made by a water ski manufacturer, and has fantastic graphic appeal – painted with a long arrow shape that is crowned with an Indian head (think arrowhead) in strong red, white and blue colors. The condition of the paint decoration with minor scuffs and wear indicates that the board must not have been used much. In addition to being a cool piece of vintage sports equipment, this board has all of the attributes that are desirable in vintage trade signs.
It is 71” long x 24” wide x 2” thick, and is quite heavy - about 35 pounds.
A rope harness would have been attached to the two side rings, and then a tow rope would have extended from the front of the aquaplane to the back of a motor boat. The light blue patches near the back of the board are sand-painted to provide grip for wet feet.
This following rather comical vintage illustration shows aquaplaning technique during a thrilling ride behind what looks to be about a ten horse-power motor.
http://descowaterskis.com/desco_aquaplanes.htm
We also found a few 1924 vintage photos (on ebay.com) of aquaplane athletes that show the basic technique of board riding, as well as some fancier tricks .
Even more fun is a film clip from 1932 with the tag line “Grandpa knew how to do extreme sports” that is posted on You Tube showing aquaplaning in action in Cypress Gardens, Florida. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UHErQxvxrI). Some of the aquaplanes in this film are fitted with carved horse heads to make it look like the rider was galloping across the water.
The person from whom we bought this “Arro-Plane” in Michigan remembered making an aquaplane as a kid from an old door. Make-do aquaplanes were apparently common, as revealed in one woman’s memory-lane blog entry about growing up on a lake in Vermont where she used her mother’s ironing board as an aquaplane (http://www.atgrotonpond.com/awesome.html).
The sport of aquaplaning was picked up by adrenaline-craving sea surfers and evolved into freeboarding, wakeboarding, and eventually tow-in surfing (where surfers are released into huge ocean swells from a Jet Ski), all done with higher tech equipment and much faster speedboats (see http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/freeboarding-history_810/).
So anyone wanting the thrill of surfing behind a boat these days can get ultra-light boards made of high tech materials such as fiberglass, polystyrene, or epoxy, which are no doubt safer should you find yourself hurled from the board - you definitely would not want to get conked in the head with the “Arro-Plane.” This wooden board that evokes simpler, albeit rowdy times on lakes, is probably best relegated to use as eye-catching décor for a lakeside retreat.
