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My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:23 am
by Rugerdier
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.
Paipo deck
Paipo deck
Paipo base
Paipo base
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!

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:58 am
by bgreen
That's a nice looking board which you've obviously given thought to. Pretty light. I believe Krusher who was posting here was also from Wales. A paipo revolution?

What did you base the design on?

Bob

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:31 am
by Rugerdier
Noticed Krusher's posts from Wales, haven't seen any other paipo's in the water yet though!

The design is based predominantly on my last paipo which has been huge fun. It's a foam cored board with a balsa skin and has the same sharp rails and three stage base (minus the channels and tapered rails) but also a set of glassed on keel fins. The outline of this board was loosely based on the shape of a fish surfboard whereas the latest board is based more on the design of a mini sim style surfboard.
Lil Patriot
Lil Patriot
I also had a crack at building a Wegener Tuna board last summer which worked quite well as a finless board so took some influences on the rails off that.
No 7 rails and concaves
No 7 rails and concaves
Finally I lifted the channels from a Catch Surf Beater board I picked up so really it's quite an amalgamation of ideas!

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:17 am
by mrmike
nice nice nice!

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:36 pm
by Uncle Grumpy
Welcome aboard.
Nice work.
Just 'cuz I'm the curious type, why'd you put the plug on the nose of one and the tail of the other?

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:17 pm
by Rugerdier
Good question! There were three main reasons, firstly was purely cosmetic, with the logo and 4 stringers there wasn't an obvious place for it on the nose. Secondly due to it being bigger than any of my previous paipo's, on a good wave there is the possibility of standing up, so offers more options in that respect. The main reason though is that because of its size and weight, when I come off the board on a wave I want the thing as far from my head as possible!

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:12 pm
by Ted
Very nice looking board! Can you estimate or measure the volume?

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:42 am
by Rugerdier
Based on my original Aku Shaper plan I'd estimate it at around 22 litres, hard to be too precise as I mainly used Aku Shaper to plot the outline, I had a fair idea of rocker, concaves and channels before hand, but 22 litres seems a fair estimate.

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:22 pm
by krusher74
wow, another paipo rider in swansea!

I have been out in california since before christmas riding my paipo and its been working awesome.

We will have to get in touch and have a surf together and a board swap day. I have another friend who has a paipo glide from andy bick who alos lives in swansea.

When i tried my friends paipo glide with fins it tracked hard and i did not like it at all, have you noticed that with your finned boards?

keith

Re: My latest paipo experiment

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:01 pm
by Rugerdier
It is a small world! Would be good fun getting some new opinions on the boards though as well as trying something completely different so give me a shout when you're back in the country!

This'll be the first paipo I've built that doesn't have fins so will be interesting to see how it goes, which is why I put some plugs in it really so I can have a comparison. Compared to a regular bodyboard it's definitely more precise which when coming from a surfboard is nice but I have made a few finless paulownia boards which manage to be fast and controllable without fins which got me to thinking they're not necessarily required. Swell looks to be picking up again by the weekend so should get a chance to find out!