rodndtube.com's (OLD) MyPaipoBoards Forums. Reading but no posting on the OLD forums.

[Poobah]

Ned Kelly....plywood, fiberglass, gelcoat and possibly a glassed-in box fin?

[kage]

Very interesting. I would like to hear the reasoning for the size and shape of the fin. I am stumped when it comes to sizing fins. Also how was the bending done if that is all ply. Is It meant for prone only riding or kneelo or drop knee. I don't know if Henry is on this site but I would like to know more about the board.

[Poobah]

He says the board is still a mystery. He agreed with me that it looks like a wedge was cut out of the nose, then (steam?) bent up and together. I also suspect that a lexan box fin was slid through a slot from the deck side, and then held in place by the deck glass. He's about a month away from test riding it.

[Nels]

I would agree on the fin being slid down through the deck if that photo is showing a depression there. If that's a deck lump then it was probably build like the late Roger Wayland did some of his later finned ply paipos..by building up the deck enough to support a fin box and then grinding the excess smooth on one or both sides.

[bluey]

At this stage cannot give any more info about the ply board, as only held it for about 5 minutes! after purchase, then into storage for 2 years. Am planning on getting it wet in some salt water down south west of western australia in a month or so. Will report back on how well it behaves.

Picked the Shane twin fin off a guy who had been using it as a wake board behind a boat for many years, again I have not ridden it yet. As you can imagine for a c. 64/65 board packs some weight. Shane came out with the Shane Shoe in 1970, kind of like a spoon, but no real flex.

Some contemporary boards to the Shane bellyboard on surfresearch.com, check the early to mid 1960's bodyboards->

http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000000.html

The Bellybogger, made arround 1975, died out due to arrival of the boogie board. Only recently taken delivery of this in Sydney, and am looking forward to getting slotted on it.

http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000150.html

I have some other plastic boards, including a plastic spoon, but no pics as yet. It also has a slight ding so needs to be fixed before can get it wet, could anybody advise on how best to fix a plastic ding?! (all the pastic is there its just been cracked and pushed in, about an inch square).

[Poobah]

[Poobah]

[bluey]

[bluey]

Got the old board wet last week down sw of western australia, must admit was hard trying to work out how to ride him. After a few surfs basically worked out that easiest way to get onto waves was just hanging right of the back with my hands down the tail of the board and kicking into them.

1st surf - Rabbit Hill (Yallingup) - 3 to 4" off-shore, mainly close outs - nearly went in after a stressful hour of working out how to get onto the waves to borrow a lid but kept at it, got a couple of reasonable waves.

2nd surf - The Farm (Cape Naturalist) 2" off-shore, probably a bit too small for the board, but got lots of waves, a few little barrels, certainly seems to have some speed, and flexy fin made turning and some cut-backs interesting.

http://www.chjmarfleet.plus.com/surfpics.html


3rd surf - Yallingup main break - 4 to 6" off-shore, got a couple but nature of the wave meant that it was hard to get in the right place to take off, and not really right kind of wave for this board, but a few nice late big take off drops.

Think I will put him back into retirement where he probably is more happy!, borrowed a lid for a few more days surfing and must admit it was certainly easier to catch waves.

After bascially 9 months out of the water (a couple of uk surfs but very poor conditions) many people thought i was mad to even try using the board and that i should stick to what i know (lids or mals) but all in all was an interesting experience, and has made me decide to get one of my spoons wet.

Cheers
Henry

[eef]

when on a holiday in Portugal i picked up a plywood skimboard which i used as a bodyboard / paipo in combination with dive-fins.

no flotation whatsoever (just a litle lift when kicking) and just like Henry menitioned a bit strange in the beginning when i tried to catch a wave.

It feels almost like bodysurfing: swmming with the board in front and pulling it under me when the wave started to push.

Loads of fun (quite tiring though) and easy to dive under waves!!
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[bluey]

Dive fins rather than using bodyboarding fins would have helped me immensly in getting more waves when I took it out in bigger surf. Very strange feeling when you have a board that when waiting in the line up prefers to act like a submarine!

Further Info on "Ned Kelly":
I showed my board to a guy I know (Mich Mock) who is one of the main surfing archivalists in Australia and he reckons that Ned Kelly could well have been made as a knee board for towing behind a boat, certainly would explain the effort that was made to have a turned up nose.

Cheers
Henry

ps. where in Portugal did you surf ? - I have been meaning to get over there for some time and as I have now relocated to the UK (done Canaries, SW France and Northern Spain over the years) hanging out for some quality waves.

[eef]

Hi Henry,

I like dive fins the don't have the accaleration of the bodyboard fins, but it feels like the end speed is higher.

I went to surf at the Algarve coast in portugal (that's the south coast). The waves there don't get too big (not like margaret river) in summer. They do in winter, but all the bodyboard guys that live there head for the west coast of portugal when they want to surf BIG waves.

I'm not that comfortable in big waves, but form what i've heard is Portugal a good country for big hollow beachbreaks.

You can get more info on the spots there at

http://www.wannasurf.com
_________________
Increasing succes by lowering expectations

http://www.monsterboards.org

http://www.hugtheworld.net

[swordie]

BVluey go over to Magic seaweed:

http://magicseaweed.com/

in the forum section there's a couple of Ozzies in Portugal, as well as us mat/prone guys. Solo pops in every now and again as does Poobah. You can also get the skinny on weather/waves etc for just about anywhere. Ben's done a great job and it's all free and no pop-ups.
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in the green room then