does anyone have any ideas on a shape/design for a plywood paipo
could you put a fin on it?
back in the day, there were many shapes. Frequently whatever the real estate business was currently using.
The more sophisticated (not home-made) were in the form of a very rounded trapezoid, that is, the back end a bit wider than the front. 1/4 inch mahogany ply with a couple coats of varnish or whatever. Seldom glassed.
You could put a fin on but what would be the purpose? Ridden prone, they don’t spin out (see all the rippers at Pipe on the sponges - no fins on those).
Surfkid,
Take a look at; http://rodndtube.com/paipo/forum/ Stacks on design of paipo.
Attached is a photo from this site which indicates the variety of shapes. In the image next to my post is a red HPD paipo, based on a classic shape. The yellow board is fibreglass over foam, with channel bottom and made by John Galera.
regards
Bob
Surfkid,
Nice choice of shape. I’ve seen that shape ridden on the North Shore for many years. My only suggestion is that you consider a thickness no less than 3/8th inch.
I did a cork/plywood combo last Summer. It’s a fun little board. 1/2 inch cork glued (contact cement) to 3/8 inch plywood (a recycled skimboard). The idea was to increase the bouyancy a little bit, and pad the deck for both chest impact and hand grip. Also enough texture for wax-free riding. In this case the plywood was varnished and the cork was oiled, but you could do the whole board in oil (like a Watco exterior oil) after you’ve glued the 2 pieces together. Alaias are a possibility. I just haven’t gotten to that experiment, yet. I think this area of wood/cork combos is ripe for experimentation. Go for it.
http://www.lamaroos.org/mrnutter.html
I bought my cork sheet from a tile and wood flooring company. Apparently 36 x 48 inches was standard for them. A good size for paipos, but you could slice it in half to do a longer board. I should also note that I only used contact cement, because I was putting it on an old skimboard that already had a finish on the deck. I suppose Titebond II or III would work well for unfinished plywood to cork. The Watco oil would then be the smelliest part of the project.
finished the board and rode it it was really fast, but when you pearl, it hurts
Surfkid,
When you wrote: finished the board and rode it it was really fast, but when you pearl, it hurts
What is happening? Is it pearling often? Hopefully you are not hitting bottom, head first (I did this a couple of times while learning) or are you getting caught up with your board and getting hit by the board underwater, or something else?
Bob
i only pearled a couple of times, but the nose of the board hit the bottom
and drove the tail into my stomach
Surfkid,
Yep, sounds painful. On the bright side - some of my early wipeouts results in my headbutting the sand with the top of my head due to the inertia effect. This could have resulted in very nasty damage. Sounds like you might now have a bit more angling going on rather than the nose dive of death.
Bob
Congrats on the short amount of time between first post and test ride. Did you oil it? Spray paint? And when you pearled…where were your hands placed on the board?
car wax
my hands were on the back 1/3 of the board
i figured out that you need to have your hands much more towards the nose
Bizarre ! Never thought of holding onto the back third, has anyone else ? Are there no pictures of paipo or bodyboarders in SB ?
I’ll echo Poobah, Rather Speedy indeed !!
SF.
Hey Surfkid!
Can you post a picture of your paipo (i love pictures :D) and what are the dims?
Wood hurts sometimes indeed, i found that out too 
@surffoils: i have my hands somewhere in the middle and hold the board out in front of me. As soon as i or it start planing i pull the board under my belly.
i kicked into the wave with my hands on the back of the board, once i was into the wave then
i pulled the board underneath and put my hands on the nose.
Quote:
i kicked into the wave with my hands on the back of the board, once i was into the wave then
i pulled the board underneath and put my hands on the nose.
At least one hand in front of your face…this goes back a long ways but I recall that with the traditional paipos up to say 1970 when they dropped off the map one hand would be near the nose and the other dropped back a bit on the outside edge (edge away from wave direction). It seemed to me this was to compensate for the monsterously wide tails on traditional Hawaiian paipos. The bodyboard came in and it was generally two hands on front at takeoff with one trailing down the rail again on the outside edge during the ride. It is important to recognize, and the earlier the better, that traditional paipos are thin wood creatures or if made from contemporary materials still modeled off thin wood creatures…they are hard and have little floatation…unlike bodyboards.
A thin paipo will have flex properties bodyboards don’t. I don’t offhand remember you saying what kind and thickness of wood you ended up using. I have a wood paipo that’s 1/4" ply…with hands near the front I just flex it back if I think pearling is imminent. If pearling or some other horror seems inevitable I have just nosed the paipo into the water and slid over the front, taking great care to cover up after so I don’t get bonked. So far, so good.
It is true, we have a poor paipo culture. So poor, I wouldn’t even know whether the fat end goes forward, or backward. We do have nice offshore winds today, though!
–BCo
Quote:
I wouldn’t even know whether the fat end goes forward, or backward
Went back through the whole thread…the photo of Paul of Paipo.com shows the riding configuration, and shows what looks like some spoon action on the nose. Haven’t visited his site for a while and have yet to see one in the flesh. Those would be the starships of traditional paipo boards. The most fun people I’ve known would think me remiss if I didn’t say that you not only can but should ride things every which way, including backwards and upside down, just to check it out. If you pearl and take the paipo in the stomach, it will be less fun for you with less tail area…
Surfkid…I saw that you did say 1/4 inch. Like I wrote earlier that should give you some flex to play with. Jim mentioned going a bit thicker and for sure you would get more durability that way…either works. I’ve made minipaipos - basically kickboard-ish sized handboards - out of 1 inch pine. No flex, but something that small wouldn’t really benefit from a lot of flex I don’t think.
Here’s the last full-size one I made…nose down so the “art” would properly “align”…1/4" birch ply…completely hacked out, painted, and polyurethaned outdoors in the shade of a 40 year old Modesto Ash tree…
Is that The Virgin Mary with a halo ?