MyPaipoBoards Forums

Uncle Grumpy wrote:When I first started riding the alaia style boards it took me about six months of regular use before I felt like I had it figured out.
Completely different from other craft.

I was thinking of making a new plywood board with that kind of dimensions (150cm x 40cm), my current is only 120cm long.
How would you describe the difference of riding between alaia boards and others ? I would say they need to be turned more from the nose, and the back just follows ?

Faster for sure.They glide right over flat spots. Also more comfortable paddling for me with my bad neck.
I'm not so sure about the turning from the nose.
I feel it's more from the middle like right where your navel would be when you are riding.
I use my body as much as my legs for maneuvering the board.
FWIW I have a couple boards that are mostly plywood but they don't get ridden as often as my all wood boards.

Hi there
Yesterday I had a fun paipo session, early morning, empty peak (very rare!), nice waves by my standards.
A lot of closeouts but nice long lines.
I took the gopro on a stick to film some videos:
https://youtu.be/8DMDxrTcXbI
The stick is a pain in the ass to surf with, I might use a classic "mouth mount" or an helmet cam next time
I was alone for 45mn, then the crowd arrived, the tide changed, and the surf started to be weaker. Limited amount of good waves for a lot of surfers.
Knowing that the good part of the session was behind me, I took the surf mat so I could arm paddle a little bit, kind of a workout, and why not catch a few waves.
Beside the usual questions I get every time I use it (I have to explain the whole surf mat thing to doubtfully surfers), it was still fun, I had a few epic ones.
Next time I'll go even sooner, I think being alone in the water worth it

I have started to get the hang of using a GoPro. Most of my efforts have been unsuccessful - including upside down footage. I think the helmet has the most potential to generate better quality footage and be less intrusive to the surfing experience.

They can be fun to capture the feel of a surf experience - you see a lot of things you don't notice when surfing and see what your board is doing (water off the rail etc). Unless a wave has size or is pretty hollow, a lot of footage can be pretty ordinary.

I find the camera detracts/distracts generally from the surfing experience. Having said all this, I'll dig mine out when the circumstances seem right.

Adam does a lot of Gopro - https://www.facebook.com/kingwakaskorner/

Just a single wave shot during the last weekend, in an estuary in France:
https://youtu.be/Dn5ZKcb-CtU
I like this place, waves are smaller, but when it gets a little bigger it produces dirty, choppy, yet fun waves, in brown water.

Another couple of small waves from my last summer trip in Galicia
Still the same finless plywood board
https://youtu.be/7xY8HL6MfTI

Nice ride on the wave that never really broke!

rodndtube wrote:Nice ride on the wave that never really broke!

Thanks, I love these "no breaking" waves

Hello there, I have time to kill in front of my computer Today, so I will tell you the story of my yesterday's session.
A Sunday morning in France, in an estuary spot.
It is a 2h drive trip, not sure it is worth it, as always. But, as always when it is wintertime, I've been stuck home by the bad weather for too long, so I'm hungry and I'll take a chance. The tide has the right timing (the spot needs high tide to work, plus I don't like surfing the afternoon), it should be ok.
8:20AM: dawn patrol style, I'm there, ready to go, the winter sun is slowly rising.
Nobody in the water, I will be surfing alone for 40 minutes. The water temperature is 48 °F.
The surf forecast predicted 5 feets waves for this spot. Much less than on exposed spots this day. This spot is in an estuary, so I know the waves are not "mean", kind of filtered, although they tend to be choppy and unpredictable. A lot of closeouts Today, unfortunately.
Although the waves are not big, passing the bar is a pain in the ass Today. The waves being a little dirty, they tend to double, I hate to face an unexpected second wave right after a duck dive.
The surf is not great. The waves size is ok, but they close out too much. The biggest ones close out almost every time, although some little unexpected peaks pop up at times.
Still, I'm having a great time, as always.
After 1h30 of fun, I'm freezing and I exit the water with a big smile on my face.

Of course, I took a gopro attached to a mouth mount, to film it
https://youtu.be/oAUzCS4OiTc

Nice! Plenty there for a good time. And then of course, you get to warm up with "2nd breakfast".

GeoffreyLevens wrote:Nice! Plenty there for a good time. And then of course, you get to warm up with "2nd breakfast".

2nd breakfast is part of the after surf routine, indeed

zensuni wrote:I rode my HPD board this afternoon.
That board is definitly more complicated to turn than my plywood board, I have been using this board occasionally for 2 years and every time I am still struggling to make a turn and avoid side slipping. I feel like I need to lift the outside rail, like on a bodyboard, but way more, otherwise it just side slips. Flat sections are easy though. But I really wonder how they manage to ride pipeline on that kind of board, I'm sure I'm missing something.

The HPD takes a different approach to ride - more like bodysurfing than board surfing. Set your hip on the inside rail with weight forward. With most of your weight on the inside rail, very slight lift on the outside rail (with trailing hand) will set the edge. The HPD likes forward balance and subtle diagonal shifts in weight from forward outside rail to back inside rail. You can get a good feel for the board by getting in bodysurf posture with arms back, face out front and using weight shift to steer.

Cranking the rail up like a bodyboard will make the board porpoise or slide out. Cranking the rail up and weighting the tail definitely doesn't work. The HPD will fly on a hard set rail, but you will need to ease onto the rail.

The HPD goes best where the wave tells you to go - let the wave dictate your path.

Good luck.

Ted, thanks for the HPD tips, will try that.

A foggy session this morning:
https://youtu.be/C9sFLRV_wVE

The fogg was crazy, I think it is due to the temperature that dropped down very quickly during the night.
I was with my son, it was complicated at times to find each other after a wave.
Also, it was hard to appreciate the size of incoming waves, they just popped up very quickly. That is an advantage of prone riding, you can decide to go in a second.
It is not in the video, but I tried several times to kneeboard my paipo, and failed utterly