Hi everyone, in the next few days I’ll make my attempt to build a hollow wooden (unglassed) alaia. While I have figured the building process pretty fine, I don’t have any idea on how the bottom of an alaia should look like. Also, have some doubts about the rails, close to the tail area. Attached you’ll find the outline of the board I’m planning, it’s gonna be 8 feet long and 20" wide, 7/8" thick, what do you think about dimensions?
How are you making it hollow at only 7/8ths thick? That sound like it will take some serious woodworking skills!
20 inches might be a bit wide. I don’t build any of my alaia’s over 17 inches, I found they actually catch waves easier if they’re not too wide. Also they ride better in a steeper wave the narrower they are. I’ve recently made an 8 footer thats only 14 inches wide by 1 inch thick and although its hard to paddle, it rides great.
The first one I built about 3 years ago was 8ft by 19 inches and it went ok, but totally slid out in anything steep or over 2 ft.
I’d love to see some build pics! The idea of going hollow is intriguing !
So, what wide do you think will work fine? The board will be ridden in winter swells in gulf of Mexico (with luck waves get 4’-6’, but not too steep). The idea of making it wide is to gain some floatability, ease of paddle and planning surface, while keeping the weigh down. Is there any way to avoid sliding while keeping some width?
Iniatilly I was inspired by this board: http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000175.html but soon I realized 23" wide is too wide!.
If you really want to keep some width, I’d suggest going for 19 inches, and then using what Tom Wegener calls the “parabolic” rail outline. This is where the board tapers in from the widest point but then flare back out at the tail.
This is a picture of a 7 foot alaia I made in that shape. It rode very well, trimmed super fast, but it didn’t really turn at all.
ola Jack!
lets have some more details of the hollow build plan. Are you going to us a frame an skins or split it and chamber?
Ok, I think I’ll go 18" wide, keeping the overall outline you saw in the attached image. I think the parabolic shape is fugly, and want my board to turn 
What can you tell me about the bottom shape? Do you have any pic of you boards showing the bottom and tail rails?
Hey J,
Was wondering if you’ve come across this link in your research. I found it pretty interesting when I was looking to start my alaia.
http://www.2ndlight.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=79467&enterthread=y
Have a great day Chris
Hola Jase! Well, I don’t want to give details yet, the only person who knows what I plan to do is Mr. Roy Stewart (but the way I’m gonna build them has nothing to do with his method). Keep an eye on this thread, you’ll start seeing pictures of the building process soon. My goal is to build 2 boards, 6 and 8 feet long, using a jig saw and sandpaper as only tools and spending no more than $60 in the process. If they don’t work, I’ll end with 2 nice alaia-shape benches.
I’ll attach the updated outlines and overall dimensions tonight.
Jack
Nice! didn’t see it before, but looks similar to what I want to do. Hope local waves get as nice as those in the pics by the end of the month…
Jack
The other way to go is to run a shallow concave from the tail up the back 3rd of the board. This gives good hold in the face, and it’ll work well if you keep it 18 inches or less. The parabolic shape isn’t the prettiest I agree, but it can be done a bit more subtly than the one in the picture. I’ve tried to get shots of the bottom curves, but they don’t really come out well. The one below is a slightly thicker board (1-1/4 thick) but it might show you what I mean with the concave.
Cheers,
BJ.
BJ , The 18 inches of concave is that for this specific length or just a general rule of thumb i remember reading tom w. having a model with a concave that runs nose to tail. Thanks for any input
Chris
Sorry, I just re-read my last post and realised I worded it badly. Keep the board width 18 inches or under (my widest one is 16) and run the concave one 3rd of the way up from the tail. Tom and I have played around with full length concaves and we found that on waves under chest-high they tend to make the nose of the board pull up the face. On bigger waves this problem seems to disappear, but most people will stick to small clean waves for the first few months.
This is my attempt to make a hollow, wooden, unglassed, light and cheap alaia, I cut 2 outlines out of 3/4" plywood, then hollowed’em leaving what I think is enough support for 1/8" skins. Next step is to sand the rails of the “cores” to make them thin, and also sand a little “kick” in the nose trying to achieve some rocker, but the overall profile will be pretty parallel. The whole thing will be glued with gorilla glue, then some wood sealant, and many coats of urethane varnish as a finish. According with some calculations made, the final weight will be around 14 lb for the 8’ board, and 10-11 for the 6’ board.
Jack
Wow, you got the shapes dialled ! They’ll definitely ride well !!!
I thought those were CNC routed until I saw your last pic… that’s a lot of work! Wow!
Yes, my back still hurts…Also my electric jigsaw died during the cutting proccess. Had to go and buy a new one
They’re looking great can’t wait to see how they finish up.
Chris
At least it wasn’t with a file.
Looking great.
Hallo jstephen,
now, I might be saying an obscenity, so correct me if I’m wrong.
I’ve seen that hollow wooden boards have a ventilation plug, to avoid (during air flights or under the hot sun for example) expansion of the enclosed air and subsequential breaks in the deck or bottom wood skin.
The inner structure of these boards has holes so the different empty spaces -hope you understand what I’m writing, I don’t own the correct terminology, sorry- are interconnected. It’s like a “hard” baloon divided in many different sectors that connect between them.
By this way, a single vent plug is sufficient to do all the job, since enclosed air is free to move through all the board.
In your hollow wooden alaia seems like there are not interconnections between the different empty spaces nor ventilation plug.
Isn’t this going to be a problem? I mean, there is the possibility that enclosed air might expand (if the board’s exposed to sunlight or similar) and break the skin.
On the other hand you say you won’t use epoxy or similar, so there might be a chance for air to escape.
Just a thought…
You are right, empty spaces aren’t connected with each other, and the board won’t have any ventilation device. Previous hollow boards I’ve built have their ventilation plug, but the volume of air in this boards is many times larger than the volume contained in this alaia. So (I hope) each of this spaces are small enough to make expansion - contraction insignificant.
Jack