Aipa shaper Identification? Help

General Discussion
1

I can barely read this name.  I can’t find this name anywhere associated with Ben Aipa.  I think it reads Mikiala but I am not sure…so I ask the powers at large (Hawaii)…

I have had this board for about 24 years.  It looked like it had hit a pier when I got it.  Made the mistake of loaning it out 10 years ago and the nose got broken.  So it has sat around for a long time and I was thinking of stripping it and working with what I had left.  If the lam comes off OK ish then maybe trying to keep what’s left of the shape…It is sick fast.  An old early 80’s quad fin gun from what I can tell…how it got to the way wrong coast I am not sure.  Didn’t measure but we are in the 7+ foot range.  V from mid section, to a sweet deep double concave tail, quad fin with  lots of angle and spread way out…fins rather small.  The back two almost come out from behind the tail.  Same rail profile along most of the board.  Gotta be 3+ inches thick…but strangely not really too heavy…1/4" stringer.  OK let the guessing begin…or maybe you recognize the board!

Chuck

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2

My guess is that it’s the name for whom the board was shaped for.

3

Couldn’t tell ya - Foamdust may be spot on. It looks just like the Aipa my roomate has in our shed, but that’s a tuflite epoxy cast of one of the glass boards shaped by Ben himself

4

Sounds like that is probably it.  No signature on the stringer. Beside it is such a non permanent way to go.  Well the deck is partially delaminated and the nose well!.. the tail has seen better days.  I may try to strip it and thin it down to a longish “Aipa simmons quad performance short longboard” :slight_smile:

5

Upon second thought, although I still think that the name on the stringer is who it was shaped for, I would think Ben would have signed the blank. That leads me to think it might have been shaped by someone else. At one point Ben did have guys in Cali shaping for him during the stinger era (I think Rick Hammon was one of them), although this particular board was obviously shaped after that. Sorry if I'm adding any confusion. Whatever the case, if that board rides good, I'd try to repair it as best as possible and ride it like that.

6

 

Tuflites are not “cast”, and they are made with fiberglass.

 

 

Good thing, that.

7

 

Wow dude, be a dick much?? When I say it’s a tuflight “cast” I mean that they take the actual shape of one of the glass and foam boards and they mimic it in the form of an epoxy board, typically for the purpose of a shop being able to have a demo version of a line of boards they sell.

 

And I’m not sure what you hope to achieve by mentioning tuflites are finished with fiberglass considering that’s pretty obvious. I mean, I suppose you could smear the board with feces and let it dry in the sun but thats no way to laminate, and I assume that, based on the fact that you obviously are SUCH an expert, you would know that a traditional board is often referred to as a “foam and fiberglass board” when compared to a tuflite (hell, surftech even uses that EXACT PHRASE on their site), so I can only assume you weren’t trying to be a smart ass about the verbiage I used to describe a “traditional” board.

 

 

Seriously dude, if you don’t have anything useful to post, why bother?

8

 

No, they don’t. Tuflite cores are based on a plug that is shaped by someone. That plug is then used to create a mold by which they duplicate the original shape.

And, you still don’t seem to understand that Tuflites are made with fiberglass and foam.

 

 

yes, that phrase is too often used by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. (For instance…)

 

What I posted could be quite “useful” to anyone who read your response, since what you wrote was full of misinformation and inaccuracies.  I corrected your mistakes so that others might not take what you say as fact.

You don’t know a whole lot about surfboards, do you?

 

9

Wow dude so you’re just going to keep being a douchebag for no reason?? Seriously, what the fuck purpose are you serving right now?? You come into a thread for the sole purpose of taking the way someone said one particular thing, which might I add in no way relates to anything in the thread, and pick it apart with a level of douchebaggery I’ve never seen before. How can you possibly be this much of a troll?? You’re correcting my mistakes so that others may not take what I say as fact??? Please, why don’t you tell me when this became a thread about the construction of tuflite boards? 

 

And hey, guess what??

 

Yeah jackass, that would be referred to in the adult world as the act of “casting a board” as you’re using a MOLD to make it - the fact that you introduced the word “mold” into the descussion means that you’re actually validating my literal use of the word “casting” in my description, even though I was only using it to refer to a duplicate of a standard “traditional” board. And nobody ever said anything about them not being made of foam, even though for all intents and purposes they aren’t. If you want to be really accurate, they’re made of an EPS fused-cell core which is in no way or shape like foam. The “foam” comes into play when they laminate thin layers of high-density foam in between the layers of fiberglass they use to skin the board. 

 

So basically, the short version of what I’m trying to say is this: go fuck yourself grammar nazi - your inital post was not only off-topic and counter productive, but it was a flagrant example of being a dick to people for no reason. Now go blow it out your ass

10

In The mid 70s Aipa would come to Solana Beach and work with the crew at Surfing's new Image.  Donald Takayama Hammond and a couple of others would shaped Boards for the mainland both east and west coast. He often brought Buttons or Bertelsman with him. See those guys Surf was eye opening.

11

Well, now. Aren’t we all upset? Instead of simply trying to offer facts to support what you claim (which you can’t), you resort to juvenile name calling, ad hominems, and basically throwing a hissy fit. The simple fact is that you seem to know absolutely nothing about surfboard construction, and are offended that I pointed that out.

You might want to have a look at the posting guidelines/rules for this forum. Or, just come back when you’re old enough to speak to adults in a rational, civil tone.

When you posted the wrong-headed, ill-conceived, erroneous, clueless mention of Surftechs, that’s when.

 

1 Wrong. Surftechs are made with an EPS foam core.  Have you ever seen one that’s snapped in half? Guess what? The inside is FOAM. Essentially a high grade styrofoam, but foam nonetheless.

2 Wrong. It’s styrofoam. Fancy styrofoam, if you will. But, it’s still foam.

3 Wrong again. Strike three. The stuff you are thinking of is PVC sheet foam. It is very much akin to the material used in some soft boards and boogie boards.While it is used between the layers of GLASS ( you know, FIBERGLASS), the core of a surftech Tuflite is FOAM.

Do you want to continue with these immature rants, just in case anyone has missed the fact that you don’t know a thing about surfboards?

Or, would you prefer to just retrieve your sippy cup from where you tossed it on the floor during your little tantrum?

 

BTW, I never corrected your “grammar”. Though I must say there’s lots to “correct”.

12

Sammy, You have yourself a new friend! :slight_smile:

I say that Aipa is from the time Ben would spend time in Ventura cranking out boards for Stan Fuji at Stan’s old shop.

I’m sure someone here from Ventura could add more … 

13

 

Aren’t I lucky? He’s such an amiable, articulate fellow, too!!

14

Okay dude, seriously, you’re being a dick for no reason. Your only post was to criticize mine, about something that the thread isn’t even about, and yes you criticized my grammar because your entire attack was regarding the verbiage of something I said. You’re claiming to be “correcting” me for “claiming something” that isn’t true regarding the construction of surftechs (which I never commented on until I made the reply post which, by the way, is information taken directly from the surftech website - so while you may be correct that some surftechs have an EPS core, that is not the case for all of them, just like they don’t all use bamboo), when that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of the thread. SO - your post served no purpose except to insult what I said, with the attitude of, wait for it, a douche bag. And no, nobody is throwing any kind of tantrum, though I’m sure that’s the way you read all posts in your mind. I’m simply pointing out how your entire contribution to this thread is a useless flame.

And you may want to read up on the forum rules, because flaming other posters is actually against forum rules… I mean, we wouldn’t want to have such an invaluable expert such as yourself banned. God forbid that should happen, then we wouldn’t have anyone to go around uselessly policing the swaylocks forums and calling people out and beating them down for using the wrong word to describe something

15

Wrong, I did not. I pointed out that your comparison of Tuflites to other boards was inaccurate. It seems you don’t know what “grammar” is.

Wrong again. It was not an “attack”. Your subsequent replies certainly were, though.

The Tuflites do, and that’s what you were referring to. A Tuflite.

Wrong again. The purpose was to clear up your misguided notion that Tuflites aren’t made with “foam and glass”. This website is about surfboard construction. My reply was in keeping with the context.

Wrong again. You’re consistent, I’ll give you that. Your first post in this thread was wrong, and damn near every reply since that has been pretty much wrong, as well.

 

16

 

Sweet, you’re really good at taking snippets of peoples posts and pulling them out of context to serve your purposes of further being a dick - im done with you and im just gonna go ahead and block your posts from now on, since you obviously have no actual information to lend, and meerly like to go around policing the terminology people use. I’m sure when you go to a resturant with someone and they order a “coke” when they mean a “pepsi” you berate them and tear them apart talking about how the molecular composition of pepsi is different than coke, and they obviously know nothing about beverages. 

 

Seriously man - if you want to actually help people on here, you should avoid trying to make youself look like a complete douchebag (yeah, I said it again since you’re sticking with that theme) and just make your point without feeling the need to say things like “it’s a good thing you don’t claim to be an expert, since you obviously know nothining about surfboard construction”

I suggest you re-read your first post from my point of view to see how you absolutely did attack me in that first post. And by the way, for the last time, I NEVER SAID THEY ARENT MADE WITH FOAM AND FIBERGLASS! - The entire freaking surfcraft industry uses that term when comparing surftechs to a traditional foam and glass board, and if you want to cry about it some more I suggest you email Surftech since they’re the ones who use that exact terminology about a dozen times on their website. Since you’re such a noble cruisader of accurate surfboard technology, you should maybe also inform them that they apparently “know absolutely nothing about surfboards”

17

 

Everyone calm the fu@k down.  I think your sensitivity has artificially escalated the situation.  SammyA has been around here a long time without getting the same reactions.  If you take some time to look back through the archives you may come out the other end with a different opinion about his expertise, and who you’re getting into a pissing match with.  

Sometimes the best reaction to gentle correction (by someone who’s way more experienced than you) is to just suck it up and be silent.  No need for major drama here.  We can all get along.

18

Shushka 420, you are not even providing entertainment value, here for 11 weeks, operate a foul mouth, you make Roy look like a nice guy, where are the moderators? 

 

Cheers

MrT

19

Final note.

I looked all around the Surftech website and did not see a single reference to “glass” boards.

 

And Kendall…Thanks for your words of “endorsement”, as it were. I make no claims at being an expert in these matters, but I’m sure not a noob by any stretch.

Are you the guy from SC?

20

 

Used to be.  I’ve been in SF for the last eight years.  Up and down the coast a lot though.  Islands too… although that’s been too long.