Hi, I have been bodyboarding for 18 years now and do understand a certian ammount about boady design.
Recently (since a friend got one and I had a go) I have been thinking of getting a fibreglass paipo, so i need some help with the design.
I have made a template from my fave bodyboard and just extended the rail till it came to a point, and gave it a large swallow tail (rahter than bodyboard cressent)
So Questions.
1 bodyboard have zero rocker at the rear and basically have a bit of nose kick in the front 6" will this work on a stiff fiberglass board?
2 I have been considering fins, but seeing I dont have them on my bodyboards dont think I need big ones, have been looking at either FCS etc twins fin set ups pr getting the 4 fin bonzer set up so I have 2 small and 2 large to swap between.
3, where should the fins go on the board? (Its 44" long for scale)
4, A body board is 2" thick how think am I going to been this thing to be?
5, rail design. i’m used it we pretty basic 50/50 bodyboard rail what would you suggest?
I don’t know much about paipo boards, but I would cut that template down the middle. It doesn’t look symmetrical to me now. Maybe just the picture, but if you have one side traced then flip the template, and trace the other side it will be even.
If you are going flat all the way, with lift starting only in the last 6 " you might think about tapering it a bit further back.
If you are going for a fin box, you can also ride it finless. Twin fins would keep it simpler. Nels directed you to the paipo interviews. Have at look at the interview with Larry Goddard - he has twin finned paipo. Finless is a lot of fun.
The rail acts like a fin and you can go as hard as you like. You don’t want thick rails.
Thickness - all depends. 2" or less will allow ease of duck-diving etc. You may find the decreasd bouyancy frustrating, depends on what sort of waves you want to surf and how.
What effect would tapering it further back do? (this taper work on my bodyboard or is they irrelervant now
You say I dont want thick rails, i have no idea what a thick rail looks like? My bodyboard stays 2" thick to the rail and then just has a 50/50 angle cut. Do you mean the 2’ thickness should be tappered of to somthing thinner at the rail ?
thanks fo the input guys i think i will register and put this post at the paipo forum
E howzit Krusher; Iʻve built and ridden several foam/figerglass paipos; my 1st one was a foam/glass bodyboard I had a friend shape; it was the size and shape of a “Super Turbo” bodyboard popular back in the 90ʻs; worked really well finless in some powerful Hawaiian juice; had the same rails and rocker as the normal bodyboards but was much thicker and floated higher; I rode that board for a few years til I stopped bodyboarding in the mid 90ʻs; I took up paipo in 2010 and have built two new ones last year; the 1st one was your standard shape; 4ʻ6"; round nose, parallel rails, large rounded square tail and twin fins; worked OK but I consider it a stepping stone; my next board, what I ride now is the “Wavearrow” design; it is a radical departure from the norm but these boards work really well; google Wavearrow and go onto the website and check out the design and if you like them copy one; thats what I did; I started riding mine last winter and I still ride it when I can find uncrowded, juicy waves which is what the design loves; bottom turns good, is super fast and the twin fin tri-hull bottom holds on the most steep faces; paddles well due to itʻs thickness but doesnʻt duckdive very deep; I love mine and canʻt wait for my fave winter spots to start producing so I can get back on it!!! Happy hunting!!
E Sparx, the last dims I got from Gus were 52" long and 23" wide and 48" from nose to inside of the tail arc; I changed my design a little not wanting to copy his exactly; I did a 57" long,23"wide, basically the same double pintail, 3"thick with hard rails all the way; I also scooped some of the deck out for body fit when paddling and I alternate between a kickpaddle and a surfboard stroke; I basically “eyeballed” the tri-plane bottom and got it close enough and installed fin boxes; the board does many things well but it surpassed my old paipo design when I found I could push through witewater to get back into the curl, something my other boards couldnʻt do; my guess is the fin/bottom/rail gives additional bite; as far as I know nobody outside the Big Island rides these boards; take the design and run with it; Iʻm already planning my next one!!!
The original post concerned a wood board but there photos of foam boards. Wood boards rails on paipo can be very different to foam/fibreglass boards.
Larry Goddard has advised me:
The bottom curves and nose kicks that I used over the years were
discussed in my interview, and I now prefer the flatter curve as shown in #26 and #29 of the Bds series
scale drawings. Less rocker and lower nose kick = higher planing speed.
Also read the notes for the skeg or fin designs #31 - #35. The fins on my best twin-fin boards were canted out about
5-6 degrees if they were glassed on. There are fins now available that fit into
a fin box and are canted at the base. A hot-dog
board needs a little more toe-in than does a high-speed board.
Now Alamoana's point about duck diving is an important one. If you are surfing reefs with defined channels or points, duck-diving may be less important. If you regularly surf solid beach breaks or a spot with clean-up sets, go for less buoyancy.
I built a belly board for a customer
after studying Larry Goddard’s work. Here are pix of the shape before glassing and of the final product. I used an USB 5-10RP blank, and placed
my template so that the nose of the template was even with the tail
of the blank, and the tail of the template facing the nose of the blank. This gave me the width I needed for the back of the shape a fairly flat bottom rocker (after cutting 7" off the nose of the blank!) that went from
almost “0” at the tail to just under 2” at the nose. My
T-Belly features a convex bottom in the front half which transitions
to a flat middle and then “V” with single concave out the tail
between the fins. This bottom shape allows the T-Belly to roll up on
rail easily for turning, to plane smoothly and allows water to flow
quickly across the bottom and out the tail. The rails are full to
maximize volume, with soft and forgiving tucked-rails in the nose
transitioning to a tighter tucked-rail in the middle and then to
down-rails in the last 9” of the tail. The LB SB fins are set close to
the rail about 2” off the tail, and serve as a pivot point for
turns. Switching to a deeper set of twin fins provides the hold
necessary for steeper and/or larger waves. The foil of the board
keeps most of the volume under the rider’s shoulders, chest and
hips, and the nose is scooped-out slightly to reduce swing weight. A
light concave runs through the tail of the deck for better rider fit.
The T-Belly is fitted with a leash cup about 4" below the nose. I have the Aku .brd file and .pdf file for this board, just PM me if interested. Also check out Austin Surfboards website.
Cheers Alamoana......Yeah i really like where that design is going......the tri hull idea makes a lot of sense and really the whole concept takes it to the next level.....I will have some thought and then dig some foam out of the loft and attempt one in a couple fo weeks when i ahve some free time.....Again thank you for the input.....
Man I'm going to have to stop messing with this stuff and get in the water.
Thanks for the fabulous responces, fantastic wealth of detailed info here!!!
Thats larry goddard info certainly has answered many questions for me.
I used to have a bodyboard from the ex-pro Ben severson with a Tail design like he uses (flat with rounded corners) I found it very fasy but far to loose, offcoarse a bodyboard has no fins and i see this is where you can get fast and have the hold to.
It going to tak e abit of getting used tho these fin things when i get my board, sure is going to slow up the 360’s
On the subject of 360s - I’ve come across guys who have tried the wood boards (in particular), and been frustrated they can’t do all the boogieboard tricks. Paipo will have their own way of being ridden - it’s a bit of a voyage of discovery, especially with the fibgrelass boards, as the designs can vary so much.
Here are a couple of interviews with guys who have made the transition:
Here are some pics of bellyboards (not really 'paipos'?) that I have been playing with recently. In my experience it is much like surfboards in the sense that the conditions in which the boards are being ridden play a larger role than the boards that are bing ridden.
My designs play on the idea that your 'stance' is going to be different from a regular surfboard and that the tail rocker and thickness profile should play off that. I put thickness and tail rocker farther back than on a regular surfboard with the idea that you are basically going to be pivoting off your belly button? Hard boards can't be bent to fit the waves so some rocker is going to be important unless you are going the Alaia plank-style route.
He’s the guy in the video. I think he’s 6-0 and was about 200 at the time. It was shaped 2-7/8" but I think you can go a little thinner (2-3/4"?) in juicier beach break waves. The board I shaped was for a slow, reef break wave.
