Jeff Beck of Nine Lights surfboards recently stopped by to let us check out his new alaia.The board is 6’ x 15" wide x 3/4" thick , and as Jeff says the board has no limit on speed basically it will go as fast as the wave will move you.He also said these things are super addicting,and since its maiden voyage 3 weeks ago hasn’t surfed any thing else.Has any one out there tried one of these? What are your thoughts and opinions?
very trendy. Can’t wait to get run over by some out of control dude riding one.
Very nice looking, but yeah, I was thinking the same thing looking at his blog this morning… solid wood would hurt alot.
I saw Jeffrey out riding the Alaia over the weekend. He surfed it very well, and in a way that allowed me to realize why one would want to ride it. Insane trim speed when it hooked up, and a slip slide bendy ride. More controllable then you’d think. The one saving grace to the alaia is they require a great deal of water knowledge to have any fun or success. Very little buoyancy. Paddling out is close to swimming with a plank. Just being able to paddle into a wave is difficult as the widow is tiny. I can only imagine the advanced surfer trying to ride one and with that in mind, hopefully you’re not going to see a run away alaia screaming at you in the white water. I fear the 8’0 floral print hybrid monster much more!!
exactly. although they’ve attracted a following due to the work of tom wegener, alaias aren’t going to go down the path of SUPs. they’re just too difficult to ride for beginning and even intermediate surfers. an 12’ SUP board on the end of a 10’ leash in the hands of a novice adds up to 22’ circumference of danger.
i am a novice and personally cannot wait to try to make one of these. they seem like a great way to learn control of board and stuff. tho i do have to say i think ill be drilling a hole in the back or middle to hold a leash. since on the east coast the breaks are so close to shore. dont want to kill anyone.
for those who usually ride these. what size waves do you need for these boards to work properly? i have a feeling its bigger then the east coast medium days
“an [sic] 12’ SUP board on the end of a 10’ leash in the hands of a novice adds up to 22’ circumference of danger.”
No, um, that’s a 22 foot RADIUS of danger and a 44 foot diameter of danger. The circumference of danger is 22 x 3.14 = 69.08 feet and the area of danger about 3.14 x 22^2 = 1519.8 square feet
picky picky
Nice board ! I’ve been hooked by the Alaia bug too, it’s been 18 months since I surfed anything else ! I’ve got 8 different alaia’s from 4ft up to 8ft. They’re a blast ! The ones pictured are my 6ft swallow tail (15" wide, 1/2" thick) and my new “gun” which I’m yet to test in anything overhead, but the first couple of sessions were promising. I’ve used a deep concave in the back 3rd of the board to give the narrow tail some hold in the pocket, and an unexpected side-effect is that this board will actually do a fairly deep bottom turn without giving any sense that it wants to slide out. It trims brilliantly and is super stable and fast down a long steep wall. I’m looking forward to the next decent swell, although I must confess that I’m not the bravest once it gets much over 6 foot !
The bodyboard Alaia is great fun too, especially in hollow dumping shorebreaks !
you got me charlie. & i should know better, i’m a school teacher. though maths was never a strength. i stand humbly corrected.
Hi Bjis,
Is that board in the pic 1/2" thickness…it looks a lot thicker but could just be the perspective or lens distortion? I am assuming that the thickest point on the board is 1/2"…
I have made 6 boards now, all very different from each other. My favorite prone board is a 5’5" x 16" x 3/4"…ZERO flex, which I didn’t think would work real well, but for some reason this thing really gets up and flies. I’ve got a 6’ with similar dimensions but only 1/2" and a little flex…goes well, but not the same glide and planing ability of this board. I have a 4’10" also that is about 3/8" thick and works very well in the steeper, hollower shore pound. My Standups are 6’8", 7’2", and 7’7", with different rails and contours than each other. I’m waiting for some paulownia to shape my next standup one at about 6’, but with more thickness like you had recommended to me earlier.
Hey Deca,
The swallow tail in the picture is 1’2 inch thick, the tail profile pic is of the 7 footer which is 1 1/4" thick.
Sounds like you’ve got quite a quiver going on. How about some pics ?
Deca,
Do you have any photos of the 5’5" ypu could post? I was particularly interested in the profile shots.
regards
bob
These look very cool but challenging. I just read a story about Jon Wegener and there where a lot of pictures of him shaping an Alaia. Here is the link.
I wanna make an alaia board…what kind of wood should i use?
The wood that Jeffrey used on this one was paulownia wood , that he got from Tom Wegener.
How much does paulownia wood cost?? For lika 7"6 board.
The blanks run around $150.
I dont have any access to paulownia wood…wuts the next best wood for an alaia?
i was testing some 7 ply the other day…seemed right ,
had a nice flex when both ends rested on cinder blocks and my 230ibs was standing in the middle… maybe better for a skateboard?
would any of the paulownia guys do this to one of their boards? or would it snap?
the ply was about 5’ long…