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I have been loving this 1947 California surfing video that OG-AZN posted a few days ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzXlnYUhAg

Around the 8:45 mark, you see some longboarders getting rides that start EARLY. In some cases these guys have been riding for several seconds before the swell ever begins to break. I really want to build a surf vehicle that can do that! I surfed longboards as a teenager, but I never had those kind of early take-offs.

This is were the advice part comes in. What design factors make that possible? Weight, length, flat bottom, bouyancy? It would be great to have a paipo (or alaia) that could do that. I saw some twelve foot long by one inch pine boards at the local Home Depot, so making a very long alaia would be fairly cheap and easy. On the other hand, a six foot board fits in my car for the five hour drive to the beach.

Jeff Chamberlain has been riding some "SUP" paipos -- so called because some of the design concepts were inspired by some of the waves being ridden by SUPs. The boards are long, extra wide and thick... even for a big guy like Jeff they are huge by conventional design standards. You won't be getting into waves like on a longboard but you will be getting into some of them a lot sooner.

That is an elusive dream of mine as well. I would love to glide into wave very early. I am always envious of longboarders and shortboarders who get into waves earlier than me. Basically the longer,thicker and flatter the more glide. Look at the post EPS prone flyer post below. In the interviews there is a guy who rides 8 foot prone boards. But longer and thicker boards have a lot drawbacks. I don't know if I'll go above 54 inches in my quest for boards.

I've read that an accomplished mat rider can pull off the "out the back, early glide in " but I have not spent enough time on the airbag to be able to make it happen and have never seen it happen.

I usually sit inside and take off late.

I have done the "early in" on a mat a couple times by shear luck. I hung way off the back and stiffened my body so I basically had one looooong rail line, mat and me and kicked big deep power kicks. As I felt the wave a bit I kept kicking HARD and gradually reeled the mat in. Of course, the water flow is crucial so you have to really monitor you body shape and its relationship to mat orientation and shape while still kicking really really hard.

Thanks for all the input, y'all.

I have been looking at some other historical surfing videos, and I think the 1947 one shows a guy building a slightly modified version of the "Waikiki plank"--12'x24", very little rocker, finless, solid wood construction.

I am tempted to try to build one of these beasts, but no one would confuse me for an olympic swimmer, and a hundred pound board might get a bit tiring.

So...could I create the same basic board shape out of 1" pine and glue cork or foam to the top to match the bouyancy of those old boards? I saw some posts on swaylocks about determining flotation/volume, but they left me scratching my head ( I am a bit dense with math).

I know this is moving away from paipos a little bit, but is such a thing feasible? functional? I don't want to build a submarine.

I don't think layer cake or sandwich construction will work for you, because you need a lot of length. I think you have to go hollow wood or epoxy glassed foam. You might be able to buy a used prone paddleboard, especially at this time of year. But there are some nice kits, also:

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/surf_boats/paddleboards/

Many moons ago I had a talk with Terry Hendricks about ease of takeoff, and he stressed the importance of length. There's something in the math about the square of the length in the equation.

One more thing, Atlanta...you didn't say if you just wanted to arm paddle the thing, or uses swim fins for extra thrust. if you want to kick and paddle, then you might pursue something really wierd....some sort of trimaran paipo.

Likewise....kneeboarders need a longer board if they want to compete for waves with the stand-up paddleboarders:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdhgVlbxygI

What an obscenity!

Cover your eyes, Rod. You might find this obscene too I am building a kookbox for use as an arm paddler. Dims are 2'x 13'10" x 4" deep. Last night I started filling up the box with pink XPS foam.

I hope it catches waves. It ain't the prettiest beast. The photo shows where I accidently broke it as I was trying to glue up a joint (as the air filled with profanity).

I've never been on anything like this, so I"ll have to see if it can function without a fin.

I"ll probably post the whole build on Swaylocks. Maybe Roy Stuart can tell me what's wrong with my approach

It is approaching a Tom Blake "kook box" I think they were called.

i've always found the ability to get into waves early is half technique and half board, my boards are only 3'8" and although i dont compete with longboards catch a pretty sloapy wave.

The technique is to be forward of the balance center of the board, so if you were stationary you would topple forward, when paddling for a wave the water will push back at you and stop to toppling, its a fine balance. about 5 years back in my 20 year surfing history i move forward on my board about and inch which felt horrible at the time as if i was about to peal all the time, now it feels totally normal and i catch a lot more sloapy waves.

hope that helps

Thanks for the tip. I've never really considered forward/back positioning.

Atlantasurfer wrote:Thanks for the tip. I've never really considered forward/back positioning.

Next time your in the water watch others, the ones who have there weight on the back of the board,snow plow the front of the board and drag the back and never catch waves. The ones forward of the middle balance glide into waves, I can out catch waves on my 3'8" compared to an average (middle balance point) longboarder.

krusher has it right. I have a log, a 9'8 Weber, and it's easy, esp as I don't surf a lot, to have my position off. What feels natural usually is wrong. But once I hit the perfect glide point, and that sort of feels like the nose is a bit too far down, the glide is amazing. I have my paipo dailed in now (esp after my time in CR).

Wondering how your sandwich board would have done down there...pretty fun wave.