yeah bob simmons design was the bigger boards , the mini simmons as far as i know was bought into conception by john elwell ( i could be wrong on this ) but theres arguments and disagreement on the first mini simmons , some say joe bauguess,some some say john elwell , but richard kenvin seems to be the instigator and researcher of the concept , rusty's name is there as well as is jeff mccallums, larry mabile....who knows?
here's a link to the simmons forum that explains a bit more and i'll try and find the richard kenvin link to a movie where he talks about the origins.
all in all , i think the simmons or mini simmons design is basically a concept of planing hulls and bob simmons seemed to be 50 years ahead of his time, and now they've minaturized his design to a more practical size.
fast little buggers !heres a link:
www.surfline.com/blogs/talking-design-the-board-blog-with-rusty-preisendorfer/legendary-stories-about-a-pioneer-and-his-quest_41256/

topics gone quiet ....hope those links helped

Surfer's Path has a cool article on dantomo.blogspot.com/ and his boards, he has some interesting theories.

I'm quite tall(6'3"?) and riding a 5'9", it's a super fun board not just for small waves.