Im going to build a super heavy 8ft- 9ft alai board finless to ride like it was in the duke days at waikiki what do you think?
Wood board? The Hawaiian Ali’i boards were up to 14’+ long if you want to go heavy and authentic. Research shapes and templates to craft something you’ll be proud of.
I would look up Tom Pohaku Stone at Kapiolani Community College, he has done the research and had boards made already. Some of the boards were up to 20 ft.
I suspect that you’ll need a length of around 16-20 ft.
You’re talking about, lets say, a 16’ x 2’ x 3" board (roughly averaging things) , which if you build it from hardwoods will run around ( calling the wood density between 30-50 lbs) which will weigh in at between 160 and 270 lbs and only have 108 to 155 lbs of floatation when it’s completely immersed. Acacia (Acacia koa ) was the original wood used for some of 'em, and it runs between 37 - 45 lbs per cubic foot.
Balsa, for what it’s worth, runs 8-17 lbs per cubic foot and foam around 1-3 lbs for commonly used types.
This also works out to around 128 board feet of wood before shaping, for estimating the price of the ‘blank’.
Heaven help anybody who gets in the way…
doc…
Josh,
If you really want a big heavy board, but you want one which surfs really well while still having the glide of the ancient boards, then I humbly venture to suggest that I have some excellent free plans for a seventeen footer, which can also be customised. I suspect that you already know this, but as mega boards are my thing, I am saying it again. The seventeen weighs in at about 45 pounds, it is cheap to build (you can use any timber you can find) and there is also a thirteen foot nine version and a twelve foot version.
Regards, Roy
PS “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when your boards are as perfect as mine . . . . :)”
If you wanto talk mega wooden boards, I’m the man!
Alaia boards were under 11’…Olo boards over 12…ben finney…go Josh alaia boards are just fine to start out they are less wood and plenty of effort to start out…duke ,a respectable role model, is just the tip of the iceberg…he wasnt ancient,ambrose… waterproof glue
Great idea Josh. Keep us posted. There was an article about Tom Stone/Pohaku in one of the surf magazines, he has made some beautiful traditional boards. good inspiration for you if you can find it…
Quote:
“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when your boards are as perfect as mine . . . . :)”
If you wanto talk mega wooden boards, I’m the man!
Roy…
Don’t throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back…
We all understand your angle, and most of us appreciate something different…
But your trip is wearing a bit thin…
Easy fella…
Paul
Faked your draw! 
Is that Tom Stone, the ex Pipe legend, who took up windsurfing for a while, dad of two pro windsurfers, and living at SunsetBeach?
Thanks For all the possitive feedback!
Roy I will check out those plans and maybe make a 9ft board out of recycled wood anytype of wood It will be epic once again thanks Roy!
Happy Surfing,
Josh.
yep thats the tom stone who was also into the hawaiian sled project too,I was told the sled runs on the big island are visible fron space and they built a hotel right at the bottom of one long running one where it crosses the flat and goes into the sea… the sled runs were made of stone and covered with ti leaf kinda like the luge with waxed paper on stone but hawaiian style…eat it and eat a pohaku sandwich A’WE…ambrose…he was on the cover in the tube at the pipeline too…just read a little and stumbled on the story ,holua sled…on legendary surfers site…about the big island surf and sled challenge races
Hi Everyone,
Ive decided to give making a hollow board (roys type) a go. i’ll make a board shaped like the early okinuwi mals. i think this should be fun! ill keep ya posted!
Happy Surfing,
Josh.
forgive them grandfather they know not what they do…not that theres anything wrong with doing stuff that looks ok and seems to be cool enough and some o’ the other guys seem to be o.k. with it , oakanewtie,damn if thet dont sound downright polyetheric-a-neesian…any poly-morphisms to blend in with the other first rate ingriedentswill be greatly apprixeated … ambrose…just about ready to build an authentic reproduction of a neandrethal club out of welded aluminum thick wall tubing to take to a reinactment gathering at Lascaux,if the club is accurate enough you get to repaint skinny legged bison,just to try to get that proportion right…
Ambrose got me thinking in his first reply post that we need to be respectful of the Hawaiian culture and refer to the boards and such with correct terms. I was guilty, for example, in my quick response about length of the “ancient” boards. I have a rare copy of “World of Surfing” written by Duke Kahanamoku, published in 1968 (near the time of his death), so I went back to see what he said about such boards.
First, the alii or ali’i were the royalty family, not a “type” of surfboard, as I so irreverently stated in my post without thinking. Duke states, “Two kinds of boards were used to ride the forward slopes of high waves; there was the shorter one called the alaia, and the longer one termed the olo. For the most part,the alaia boards were made from koa wood, whereas the olo boards were constructed from the much lighter wood of the wiliwili.” There is no mention of lengths to classification of boards in his book, though I have read other sources that do give such (as Ambrose stated).
Some think of all the “ancient” boards as super long, but dig this from Duke’s book: “One particularly representative alaia board …is made of koa wood, is 6 1/2 feet long, a little over a half inch thick at its center, and weighs eleven pounds.” Sounds like the older alii either did some thrash surfing or the little baby alii paddled out at an early age.
Just wanted to get it right! Aloha
good job Mc finney says I think alaia boards were for commoners and Alii riding Olo boards were specialized and used at special spots as well…some of which could have been Kapu to the low born… trees were not freely availiable and accessed through ceremony as well as permission from the ruling class…ambrose…mahalo Mo’i keha
by the way, I don’t know anything and will graciously accept corrction by my betters…amcIII…
Ambrose,
In a section in my website I wrote a short piece about the ceremony of preparing the log for building surfboards by the alii in times of old - before the infamous Cpt. cook did his thing that put an end to it. Ahh, but the legacy lives on and the proud culture still rises above the visiting tourist moderners who try to “make it mine”.
I was asked to help launch one of the handcrafted boats at the most recent “Festival Of The Canoes” in Lahaina. Me, a nobody “whitey” paddling with the crew of five in this carved crafted beauty out into the water at sunset with a thousand people watching the ceremony was an honor I will cherish til death.
We all owe Hawaii for what it has given, but in their spirit they don’t ask for it. I digress… to too much “story” - the old man I am slowly becoming…anyway, If you care to give it a glance, go to the site, click over to “wave riders”, then to “process”. www.mccormickfinewoodworking.com
Aloha
I had never heard that James Cook put an end to surfing in Hawaii, rather that it was the Hawaiians who put an end to Cook. Wasn’t it Missionaries who came later who stopped surfing in the Islands? Roy
MC couldnt click in…my friend fred had that same model chevy nice wood…cook wqs the genisis of hawaiian contact with insular culture and resistance to assimilation natural to polynesia.as mc paddling cerimonially in the new canoe demonstrates,the atrophy of surfing had to do with the Alii taking up Christianity to break the strangle hold that the shaman kahuna power stiffled the hawaiian growth into the 19th century world…gunpowder nails and the like were the things that COOK introduced along with the world that undid surfing…,In the hawaiian alphabet there were no C’s… the spelling could be captain Kook perhaps simply an honest mistake confusing the man with an ingredient for stew… ambrose…to grok him completely
Yes, and on the seventh day there was rest… And it was good.