Val Ching in John Kelly's Book

[rodndtube]

I recall a while back -- maybe 3 or 4 years ago -- we had an active discussion on the forums about the various "Val's" in paipo surfing with some believing they were all one and the same. In all fairness it wasn't very clear at that point. We also had basic questions such as "where did the word paipo come from and is it really a Hawaiian word." Then there was a flurry of activity which directly led to the semi-formal paipo research project that many of us are engaged.

During the course of time we also heard that the stand-up paipo rider pictured in John Kelly's outstanding book, Surf and Sea, is Val Ching. (See: Kelly, John M. 1965. Surf and Sea. New York: A.S. Barnes.) Then we went about corroborating this statement. And now we even have a little story to go along with the picture shown in the annotated paipo bibliography. Many thanks to Cher Pendarvis for this moʻolelo (see http://mypaipoboards.org/pubs/BookSumma ... #KellyJohn).

[soulglider]

i think the word paipo started as Plypo but evolved into paipo.