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

[Poobah]

I was reading one of Solo's posts about using lexan in flexible foam, and I started to wonder about the safety of the test pilots. One of my worst paipo wipouts was on my very first attempt to ride a plywood paipo. It was something my friend Roger made in 8th grade woodshop. About three feet long, totally flat and handles cut in the sides. I was a confident bodysurfer and rafter at the time. I took the first wave in a big set, and pearled on the drop. I bent around the board, and it knocked the wind out of me. I wasn't able to breathe in before the next wall of soup hit me. I barely got in half a breath before I went under the third wave. I managed to hang onto the human slice-o-matic. I swam to shallow water, walked to shore and threw down the plywood paipo. I grabbed my hillbilly raft and went back out. Two years would pass before I rode another paipo...and I stood up on it. I sometimes wonder about the path of my devolution if I didn't wipeout on my first paipo wave.

[Solo]

Poobah,

Did you say \"safety\"?? Not only lexan strips buried in soft, flexible foam, but also long, narrow plastic and alloy tubing, not to mention extruded fiberglass rods. Sometimes they`ll stab through a bodyboard`s outer skin like a nasty compound bone fracture. I`ve used a lot of paipos that were extremely sharp and thin, especially flexible rear edges and corners. Hard fiberglass and epoxy rails, and high aspect ratio fins that functioned like long knife blades. Keels and strakes finished so sharp they cut skin... yikes! I`ve had broken bones, deep bone bruises, herniated abdominals, torn ligaments, fractured skull and teeth, lacerations, tweaked spine, eyes and ears. A good portion of these were indirect overuse injuries, as well as from certain types/sizes of waves and their proximity to rock.

After all the edged, hard, pointed stuff I`ve been enthusiatically involved with over the years, my surf mats have proven themselves to be a delightful irony: favorite surfcraft, yet least likely to cause me bodily harm.

[Poobah]

Are the ends of the tubes plugged when glass or plastic tubing is used in flexible foam? Seems to me it would act like an apple coring tool if it wasn't. Maybe even take a core sample out of the rider after it cored through the foam.

[tumak]

...Presenting the all-new PAIP-0-MATIC! It SLICES, it DICES, it even gets CORE SAMPLES! Ouch!

[doc]

wayull....if you're building the thing for yourself, that's kinda up to you. As for me, I'd worry more about the rocks in the vicinity. That's why I like nice, friendly, gentle sandbars like my home break;



Picture yourself tucked in right there......

[Solo]

Poobah,

The ends of the tubes were plugged with oversize discs of polyethylene foam or silicone caulking. I generally glued them into a tight channel to limit their movement. I wanted the board`s separate components to function as one unit. I also made a few designs that had removable- changeable stiffeners, either attached on top of deck or positioned internally.

[kage]

Poobah,
That brings back some memories because its pretty much a description of my first ride on a paipo (bellyboard) at Stinson Beach. My dad made them from marine plywood with a fir skeg on the bottom. 10 years old, no wet suit, no fins, sub 50 degree water. It was like being beaten with a bag of rocks. After pearling a couple of times with that board in my stomach it's a miracle I made it back to shore. Makes what I ride now seem positively cushiony.