If you are old like me, you might remember seeing duckboards in Westerns of the 1940's or 50's.  The word origin is from WW I, for boards used to walk in the drenches.  They weren't a reliable surface to walk on, because your foot slipped off the board like water off a duck. 

And all this time I thought a duckboard was a board someone swung at you while someone else yelled "DUCK!" 

3 hours ago, Bill W said:

And all this time I thought a duckboard was a board someone swung at you while someone else yelled "DUCK!" 

You must have seen a lot of Laurel and Hardy movies.

7 minutes ago, raven1 said:

You must have seen a lot of Laurel and Hardy movies.

Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, and when I was a kid, The Three Stooges.