I've got wood!--cheap fun

General Discussion
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With some good tips from Dale and Nels I got a piece of 1/4 inch exterior grade plywood and cut out the template I found on the Hawai Paipo site. Too big! Softly rounded the edges w/ sandpaper. Epoxy putty to stick on a triangular piece of acrylic for a wee bit increase in directionality (1/2 inche base, 3/8 inch depth). Rounded/foiled nose of keel. Using my wife’s hairdryer I melted in paraffin to seal the wood. Took at least 1/2 maybe 3/4 pound!!! Total cost was around $15.

Took it out today in 4-8 foot pretty hollow beach break. Lot of close-outs, some perfect. Probably ride it once more before I take the saw to it and make it smaller but it was a real wrestling match. Got a couple fun drops that ended deep under water. Did an inadvertant 360 spin which did a great clean out on my sinuses. Very fast but no control. Felt like I was frantically crawling uphill everywhich way at all times trying to find direction and edge. Got one small inside wave it worked pretty well on but it was an angel take off line drive in the pocket; no turning or adjusting and probably not more than a 3 foot face. For general use, I’m thinking I just have too much area for my flyweight and short body and limbs.

Gotta say though, it does put you right down there in the waves energy. Nothing like the feeling of floating up the face when caught nearly in the impact zone and watching the lip throw wondering if you have enough kick in you to not get sucked over and just kinda grooving on the surge and power. How long can I wait and enjoy the view before diving and still make it through?


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Gotta say though, it does put you right down there in the waves energy. Nothing like the feeling of floating up the face when caught nearly in the impact zone and watching the lip throw wondering if you have enough kick in you to not get sucked over and just kinda grooving on the surge and power. How long can I wait and enjoy the view before diving and still make it through?

This really ought to be a sport unto itself…frankly a fair bit safer on a soft bodyboard as you definitely can get caught in the Suck Zone. Going to specific spots to properly align yourself to get multiple views of sunrises or sunsets through the pitching lips is not unheard of.

Among a lifetime of surf memories are a summer afternoon session at Corral Beach, Malibu on a rising south swell; an August evening south of the San Clemente pier in 1980 in warm water with an otherwise unremarkable swell- but with pristine cleangreen see-through lips and sunset and tiny fish apparently “surfing” in the lips of the peaks; some thumping Zuma thrills dodging the horns; and a hodgepodge of Ventura-area experiences accumulated over time but too mingled to sort…nothing beach break afternoons where we were just getting wet on surfboards, bodyboards, or bodysurfing…hanging in that nether region between pitch and pow, actually riding a wave irrelevant or of questionable value.

A great thing about working in wood, culled from many communications from the late Roger Wayland: Wooden boards are always work in process.