MyPaipoBoards Forums

Hello fellow wave riders!

I'm Vitor, a 41 years old guy from Portugal. I've been riding waves since a kid and started bodyboarding at the age of 11 with a "slickless" Atunas bodyboard.
I still surf with my good old Mike Stewart Turbo III whenever may parenting, familiar and professional activities allow.
Just recently I started looking and learning about handplanes and paipo boards and started doing my own handplane from plywood. I'm also thinking about making a Paipo board from plywood but I'm still trying to learn more about shaping and sizing.
My idea is to try something between a Paipo and a Bodyboard based on my old Atunas (the orange board on the photo), with smoother lines, a small nose lift and maybe fins... because the Atunas also used to have them.
Glad to be here and I hope to learn a lot from you.

Welcome to the Paipo Forums, Vitor. You've come to the right place to obtain advise, opinion, expertise and more opinion. Suggest reading through the forums if you have not because you will find a wealth of information on wave and board surfing principles, what people like to ride and their style of riding, and do-it-yourself board building, in both wood, foam, rubber, and a mix of those, with and without board fins. Have fun!

Boa noite,

Krusher on this forum has made a few paipo based on bodyboard shapes. These were foam and fibreglass.

A ply board will have a lot less buoyancy than a foam bodyboard. Fins probably aren't necessary, though this will depend on the waves you surf and the experience that you are looking for.

There are quite a few threads about making your own wooden boards. This is an old one but contains some suggestions:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=569


Do you see many paipo in Portugal? Some paipo history in Portugal: http://home.brisnet.com.au/~bgreen/Euro ... ugal.shtml

Bob