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

[kage]

I had to make a hamburger press in shop, so my dad made mine out of plywood with a screw on 1 x 2 skeg. High Tech!
I have also tried to find info on Val Valentines whereabouts, no luck.

[HIpaipo]

Sorry, my dad only knows it as a paipo.
_________________
" NO SCARED UM, GO GET UM! "

[Thierry]

[kage]

That would mean Val Ching is Val Valentine. Could be.
His takeoff is paipo style for sure and he's certainly a master of that board, but it doesn't look like the shape I understood to be associated with him - the HPD style guitar pick. Maybe Paul Lindberg would know.

[HIpaipo]

http://hydrodynamica.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Look under Reno and the Paipo Quest.

And possibly the man himself, Val Ching?
http://www.ryanfieldphotography.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=5&p=0&a=0&at=0
_________________
" NO SCARED UM, GO GET UM! "

[kage]

That's it. You tracked it down. I'm impressed - Val Valentine =Val Ching.
Now all we have to do is get him on this forum...

[bgreen]

HIPaipo - an interesting link you dug up.

It doesn't exactly (or as far as I could see) say Val Ching = Val Valentine. However, this movie which was posted previously on the paipo site, says it was made by Richard Kenvin of San Diego.

If anyone knows Richard or how to contact him, he may be able to shed some light on some of the questions being asked, as he also did some historical interviews.

Bob

[kage]

"Reno proceeded to break it down...Val Ching, Wally Froiseth...et al. For the next five years we spent considerable time and energy documenting the links between the paipo, the Lis fish, and the Simmons hydrodynamic planing hull. We interviewed Wally Froiseth and Valentine Ching..."

Unless there are two people Val Valentine and Valentine Ching which seems unlikely...Plus that guy looks like the guy in the paipo video + about 40 years. Unless Valentine is a really common name in Hawaii?

[bgreen]

Kage,

I'm waiting to hear back from someone who went to school with Val Ching and his brother, to see if I can post the e-mail that he sent me. He was very clear that Val Valentine was a completely different person to Val Ching.

Bob

[bgreen]

Here is an email from Peter"Pope"Kahapea

Aloha Bob,
Val Ching & Val Valentine are two different people.

Val Valentine was a photog and movie photographer from Oahu along with Clarence "Mac" Maki who did alot of early photography of local Waikiki Beachboys and surfers within the 50's & 60's time periods. Both gentlemen I believe have since passed away. Bud Brown, from California was also a well known photographer and who had filmed alot in Waikiki during the same time period. Bud, has since passed on too.


Val Ching along with his brother Mervin Ching, paipo boarded down at the "Wall" in Waikiki after the "Wall" was built in the early 50's. The "Wall", along with the still present cement barriers that run parrellel with Kalakaua Ave now days, were put in place to stop the constant erosion problem along the Waikiki shoreline. Sand was brought in from Waimea Bay on Oahu and later from Kaua'i I believe.


I grew up with Val & Mervin as a young boy and we all went to Kamehameha School. Val & Mervins Dad, was the Fire Captain in the 50's at the Kapahulu / Waikiki Fire Station.


There's a wonderful you-tube clip of Val riding a "Paipo board" at the "Wall" and way before the upcoming 70's move into the short surfboard beginning and some of the guys at the Wall were even doing "dk" , drop knee riding as well.


The name Paipo board has always been what I called it UNTILL, the term "boogieboard" came to be from Tom Morey and his "new product" .


I see your from Aussie as well. I won the Junior Mens International Title in 1962 along with a fellow Aussie who won the Men Senior Title the same year, Midget Farrley. I also visited the Noosehead contest some years back with Greg Noll and his surf legends. I love Aussie and it's people. Bloody nice folks you are!!


Best Regards,
Peter"Pope"Kahapea

[kage]

This from Paul Lindberg --

"If that is Val Ching in that video than it is not Val Valentine. I knew Val Valentine. He was a larger retired haole guy in those days. Val Valentine was more of a film maker than a surfer, and made many great early surf films. All local to Hawaii, mainly North shore. He kind of introduced North Shore to the public. Too bad about that. "

You guys were right. Oh well I thought I had it all figured out. Lots of Vals in those days riding paipos I guess. Paul goes on to say he believes Val Valentine is dead, which had something to do with the beginning of this thread. Which is begining to look like a short history of paipos in the modern world..

[Poobah]

Some of you may recognize this photo.



It's from the Summer 2000 issue of The Surfer's Journal. Photo and short story by David Pu'u. The old man in the photo is Paul Winfield Swanson of Oahu. According to the story he inherited some of the boards from his friend Val Valentine after he died. Paul broke his legs twice while surfing big Sunset. When he was rehabilitating, he took up paipo boarding and became friends with Val Valentine. Paul eventually converted to paipo riding amost exclusively.

[bgreen]

Below are four posts from Peter"Pope"Kahapea with a link to a story about an old paipo board. Also there is a post from another Peter, from a UK surfing museum.

1)
Aloha Bob,
Sorry for the delay. Daily life has prioritys.
Waikiki Beachboy, DiDi Kealoha, Father, to two surfing legends, Michael & Dane Kealoha,says he remembers paipo boards from the late 40's / early 50's time periods. He also said, paipo's were made from plywood, and some of the fellows used a 4-6 inch " broom type" handle to hold on to. Glued onto the top of the paipo and then screwed on from the bottom. Some did, some didn't. Personal choices.


Also, a friend of mine here in Hanalei,just had a "relic" paipo board he was making during his college days and selling them to get his way through school, returned to him after all these years and in "prestine" condition.


Vinnie was shaping surfboards as well as paipo boards.
Vinnie gave it to this young boy in 1964 / 1965 in Central California, in the San Luis Obispo area. The young boy,
(now grown) was told by his Father to return the paipo back to Vinnie seeing that he hadn't used it in all these years, so it was recently returned to Vinnie.


I just happened to be on the beach yesterday and was told this story. ( 4-23-2009) by Vinnie and held the board in my own hands. What a beautiful looking paipo board after all these years. Hand shaped by Vinnie in the mid 60's.


Pictures to follow. I hope this some how helps your group in research on the Paipo boards.


Aloha Nui Loa,
Peter" Pope" Kahapea

2)

Demensions on the Vinnie Bryan Paipo were:
LOA ... 4' 41/2""
Width ....22"
Width @ Tail ... 11"
Skeg Heigth ... 71/2 "
Skeg Base .... 10"


As you can see ( I hope) that the deck was "concaved".


I'll do an interview with Vinnie and try and get more information from him and send it along later.


Aloha,
Peter"Pope"Kahapea

3)
I posted this on the SurferMag bulletin board.


http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1584982&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD

4)
DiDi refered to the name as "Paipo boards". He said some of the guys would "go catch waves" first before raking the beach (cleaning) and "opening the beach up" in the morning. "go catch waves" was refering to Paipo boarding he said.


....................................

Peter Robinson from the British surfing museum had this to say about British bellyboards:

Hi Bob
Prior to the 1960s they were called surfboards or surf riding boards over here and paipo boards in Hawaii and the USA.
There are many printed references to them in the UK dating back to the early 1900s and even some from the 1800s.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards, Peter

[rodndtube]

[bgreen]

Rod,

Thanks for this. I am beginning to consider two different sources for the word paipo. There is the original paepo and the later post WWII paipo - the big question is just how post WWII. Is it as Jim Growney suggests a manufactured term, playing on on earlier words or has it a continuity. I am following a couple of leads on this.

John Kelly's Surf and Sea also offers a theory on this, and there was an Hawaiian Pai Po Board manufactured by George Froiseth, though I have been unable to find anything about this board (when it was made or what it was).

Bob