My latest paipo experiment
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:23 am
Good morning gentlemen, short introduction I suppose, I've been building and experimenting with wooden bodyboards and paipo boards in my back garden for a few years now and strangely I've only recently discovered this site! Anyway I've been reading through the message board and some very interesting stuff here but just thought I'd share some pics of my latest creation. Only just finished and haven't had a chance to ride it yet so all design aspects are theoretical but here's the gist.
It's sold balsa with some hardwood stringers glassed in epoxy and weighing in at a not unreasonable (for a solid wood board) 3.8kg, 128cm x 50cm x 5cm. It's been designed mainly for when the waves are small and clean so the extra weight should give it a bit of momentum on flat spots.
I've spooned the deck to leave more volume back in the paddling while thinning it out at the nose to reduce weight and allow for easier duck-diving. On the base I've given it some belly at the front third to allow easy entry into the water, found this has worked well for me in the past. The belly then leads into a flat section through the middle to give it a fast planing area, this itself leads into a large single concave, leading into two channels close to the rails running the last quarter of the board. The rails are round for the first quarter to cut through chop before remaining very hard for the rest of the board. The base also tapers up to the rails by about a cm starting from 10cm out from the rail. It's been designed to be ridden without fins mainly, which is why I've gone to town with the concaves and channels, but I have fitted two single FCS plugs in each bottom corner, close to the channels. When I have some time I will whittle some small fins from the same wood as the stringers (similar to the style of the Kelly Slater FCS mini trailer fin) to give it a bit more hold if it needs any.
Anyway well done if you've managed to read this far, looking forward to getting it in the water and see if it works as well as it does in my head!
It's sold balsa with some hardwood stringers glassed in epoxy and weighing in at a not unreasonable (for a solid wood board) 3.8kg, 128cm x 50cm x 5cm. It's been designed mainly for when the waves are small and clean so the extra weight should give it a bit of momentum on flat spots.
I've spooned the deck to leave more volume back in the paddling while thinning it out at the nose to reduce weight and allow for easier duck-diving. On the base I've given it some belly at the front third to allow easy entry into the water, found this has worked well for me in the past. The belly then leads into a flat section through the middle to give it a fast planing area, this itself leads into a large single concave, leading into two channels close to the rails running the last quarter of the board. The rails are round for the first quarter to cut through chop before remaining very hard for the rest of the board. The base also tapers up to the rails by about a cm starting from 10cm out from the rail. It's been designed to be ridden without fins mainly, which is why I've gone to town with the concaves and channels, but I have fitted two single FCS plugs in each bottom corner, close to the channels. When I have some time I will whittle some small fins from the same wood as the stringers (similar to the style of the Kelly Slater FCS mini trailer fin) to give it a bit more hold if it needs any.
Anyway well done if you've managed to read this far, looking forward to getting it in the water and see if it works as well as it does in my head!