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

[bgreen]

I have surfed shortboards for over 30 years and now have 2 fibreglass paipo boards which I have surfed for 2-3 years. Reading about paipo design got me thinking that probably the first board I surfed was in fact a plywood belly board my father made - he screwed on door handles so the board could be held onto.

I vaguely recall seeing on the paipo design forum some more specific details about design measurements but could not find it. Does anyone else remember these seeing this or is it my imagination?

I am considering trying to make a wooden board - I know this is a personal preference, but I was iterested in thoughts on a good basic design. There seems a lot of variability in possibilities from tails wider than the nose to tear drop tails. I surf in Queensland (Australia) so surf points and beachbreaks.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated,

Bob

[kage]

I think that may be a difficult question because there are so many paipo designs. Either that or the locals of this site are goofing off for xmas .
Have you looked at the lamaroo site -- http://www.larryobrien.com/lamaroo.htm
If you see a paipo shaped like the one you want to build you can ask the builder. Most of them are on this site anyway. My first board was a plywood beater made by my dad too, no handles but a big fat skeg screwed on the bottom.

[Poobah]

You can surf through the photos on Photobucket:

http://s393.photobucket.com/albums/pp16/Lamaroos/

[Poobah]

I was trying to remember if Roger Wayland ever made a wooden spoon, or if he just talked about it. It's been a project on my "to do" list for a while. Maybe 1/4 inch plywood for the flexy portion (full template of the board,) and then 3/4 inch plywood for the rigid part around the nose and forward rails. So the plan is flexy, but not too flexy. Light for safety, but heavy on the nose end for dropping in. The spoon rail also needs to improve your grip on the board.

Speaking of Roger...he did make a rather spiffy wood version of the old Newport concave Vector.

http://vagabondsurf.com/PaipoNewportConcaveReplica.html

[bgreen]

Thanks for the info. I looked at the designs and probably of most interest were:

Aker
Grandpa Fred
Mysterious Turtle
Tefnut

I'm not sure how the very short designs would translate to double their length (e.g 4'). I would be interested to hear how any of the above ride - though I suspect Grandpa Fred may now have retired.

regards

Bob

[Nels]

I've been busier than, well, some kind of disgusting animal story metaphor...more detailed study of this thread must be undertaken before thoughtful commentary can be rendered. As to Roger Wayland and his making a spoon design, he did in fact do something along that line. He used to glue two thicknesses of plywood together to give him thickness to grind out areas. He made a Velo replica and I believe he ground out the interior deck area (away from the rails). I don't think he got any photos that showed those details though. Building up thickness is also how he got the space to install fin boxes. The belt sander and grinder are our friends. More later.

[Poobah]

Aha! You called it a Velo replica. I remember now. A google search gets us to http://vagabondsurf.com/SummerGallery5.html
and a photo of the bottom of the board (the red one.) Hopefully there's more photos lurking somewhere on your computer.

P.S. I took a couple of guesses at how you might have filed a top view, and I hit on this jpeg.

http://vagabondsurf.com/WaylandVeloWoodDeck.JPG

[Poobah]

As for Aker and Tefnut translating to double their length....they would be 21.5 to 22 inches wide. Which is fine as far as templates go, but is a problem in the method of constuction. Those mini paipos are solid wood, and the noses were bent by boiling them first in a large pot of water. A larger pot could be made by cutting a steel oil drum in half. A steamer box could also be made, but you probably wouldn't get a solid piece of timber 22 inches wide for the bellyboard. It would have to laminated together. Of course you don't have to heat bend your wood. All rocker and kick can be shaped into the board, like they do at Black Sheep...

http://www.blacksheepsurfing.com/MakingPaipoBoard/makepaipoboard.htm

[bgreen]

Thanks, for the link to the blacksheep page. The construction info was useful.
It seemed there was no particular template for the boards to start with - most of them appear to have quite parallel rails.

It would have been interesting to see a photo of the bottom & rails.

Thanks again


Bob

[Nels]