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Atlantasurfer and uncle grumpy, do you have some videos of your long narrow wooden boards in action ?

I believe the opening ride is John Clark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_eU3USGVP8

If you are into FB see


https://www.facebook.com/guy.butcher.71?fref=ufi

https://www.facebook.com/HawaiianPaepo

zensuni wrote:Atlantasurfer and uncle grumpy, do you have some videos of your long narrow wooden boards in action ?

None that I know of.
Chatting with Tom Wegener at the Sacred Craft show many years back was what got me on the alaia path.
Here's a short video of Tom riding one in some small crumbly surf that will give an idea of how they go kipapa style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw0vSU8Do-M

Why dont you get some fins and try them on your 45" board. i have come from a Bodyboard back ground and now ride finless paipos. I found personally little i like about having fins, they did grip and help you get past a mush section. but for the drawbacks i found from them, i just prefer to be without them.

try some.

https://www.ebodyboarding.com/collectio ... -and-skegs

zensuni wrote:

TheGrumpyGator wrote:

zensuni wrote:Not sure that a very buoyant board is necessarily the solution.
My narrow plywood finless flat board (neutral flotation) works ok in conditions that seems similar to those you described:
https://youtu.be/EVWwCZgZnzc
I noticed that a long narrow flat board works better in small closeouts, no side slipping issues that I may have when I use my large delta shape board.

Those conditions are similar, a little cleaner than ours. Maybe the problem with my flat (neutrally buoyant) board is length. Looking at your video, the board looks much longer and narrower. Mine is 44" x 20".

Yes indeed, my board is longer and narrower, 47,2" x 15,7", the thickness is 0,4" (poplar plywood).
This shape makes waves catching easier and it holds well, although it doesn't have skegs.
I have made some tests on wider boards with similar lenght, but side slipping was an issue, especially in those small close out conditions.
I was inspired by the traditionnal english bellyboard, check out this video:
https://youtu.be/WYftssG9ucs
Regarding being hit by the board, it happened to me when I used a bodyboard leash, now I use a regular surf leash or no leash at all and I no longer have these issues.
Last thing, regarding the take off, you need to postion yourself way back, you swim pushing the board forward to be as flat as possible, when the wave catches you then you jump on the board. And you need powerfull swim fins.

When performing a take off, ensuring your kicking in the water and not surface kick. You'll need the thrust to push forward, position your body positions left or right as you slide your board under you, you will quickly gain speed. Honestly, I'm 238lbs and I float on all of my wood boards. I've got riders who's 250lbs. and up and they all float with my wood boards that is 3/8" thick. I've been using my "SurfnFin" over 30 plus years. You want a fin that feel comfortable that wont give you blisters.

Rod, I wish I did have some video of me working my small surf Florida magic!

I have had great luck with my 5'11" (or thereabouts) Alaia style board. 1/2" thick plywood works well for me, and it is pretty bomb proof.

I also love using a 5'4" mini-simmons as a Paipo. I just had my ding king install a leash plug for a wrist lease (but never the coiled kind, which can give headaches). If the surf is so small that I can just wade out and stand up in chest deep water, I take the ply board. If the waves are big/sloppy enough for some duck diving, the foam and fiberglass one seems to catch waves better.

Like a lot of dudes here, I started on a bodyboard. Yet it never felt right for Florida. Bigger waves were a pain to duck dive. When riding smaller waves, I could rarely get ahead of the whitewater.

I was inspired to start hacking wood in the garage by reading entries on this site and by checking out the Wegener brothers creations on Youtube.

This video is pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-lCSpiQUXQ

I use a bigger board. At 230-240 pounds I'm weighing in at 1.5 Wegeners.

You should really be fine on a 42.5 (wide point forward bodyboard) I'm your height and weight and surf in the same 1ft mush on one fine here in the wales.

If you are sliding out your staying to central to the board and not getting over on the rail/back corner.

Also check you board has not bent in the heat and got to much rocker, if you lay it on a flat surface it should have zero tail rocker and just some nose kick in the the front 12"

Rail volume also helps you get round sections, a thin wood board cannot drive off a rail as it has no volume to work against it can just plane and hope to race through.

I'll put forward the view that a wood board can be put on the rail - Sean Ross at Pipeline is a prime example. Its more a question of wave rather than board volume. I think the issue is that wood boards are often ridden in mushy/junk waves. The recent video showed guys having fun in junk waves, but these aren't waves to show what a board can really do. I think it is an issue for extending BB design - often we surf ordinary waves and that's what we typically ride. The interesting issue for me is how do our boards go in bigger/long period/hollow waves. Such conditions provide valuable feedback

I found this one which is not me but pretty much the "superman" way I typically ride in small stuff....................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw0vSU8Do-M

bgreen wrote:I'll put forward the view that a wood board can be put on the rail - Sean Ross at Pipeline is a prime example. Its more a question of wave rather than board volume. I think the issue is that wood boards are often ridden in mushy/junk waves. The recent video showed guys having fun in junk waves, but these aren't waves to show what a board can really do. I think it is an issue for extending BB design - often we surf ordinary waves and that's what we typically ride. The interesting issue for me is how do our boards go in bigger/long period/hollow waves. Such conditions provide valuable feedback

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I probably badly worded it, i did not mean you cant turn off a thin wood rail. But what I mean was : when you go to pump or get round a section, if a board has volume in the rail you sink that volume into the wave face and as it pops back out like a balloon would you move forward (pumping for speed) I only realized this is how speed can be gained on a board with rail volume from trying to do it on a thin railed wood board and finding it just sank into the wave face with no buoyancy pushing it back out. (just sank into my shoulder and stopped) I tried it many time to eventually realize with a think rail all you can do is change direction but not pump.

When performing a take off, ensuring your kicking in the water and not surface kick. You'll need the thrust to push forward, position your body positions left or right as you slide your board under you, you will quickly gain speed. Honestly, I'm 238lbs and I float on all of my wood boards. I've got riders who's 250lbs. and up and they all float with my wood boards that is 3/8" thick. I've been using my "SurfnFin" over 30 plus years. You want a fin that feel comfortable that wont give you blisters.[/quote][/quote]


When you use this method for taking off you are basically making up for the lack of buoyancy by extending/increasing the planing area by adding your body to it.

zensuni wrote:

TheGrumpyGator wrote:

zensuni wrote:Not sure that a very buoyant board is necessarily the solution.
My narrow plywood finless flat board (neutral flotation) works ok in conditions that seems similar to those you described:
https://youtu.be/EVWwCZgZnzc
I noticed that a long narrow flat board works better in small closeouts, no side slipping issues that I may have when I use my large delta shape board.

Those conditions are similar, a little cleaner than ours. Maybe the problem with my flat (neutrally buoyant) board is length. Looking at your video, the board looks much longer and narrower. Mine is 44" x 20".

Yes indeed, my board is longer and narrower, 47,2" x 15,7", the thickness is 0,4" (poplar plywood).
This shape makes waves catching easier and it holds well, although it doesn't have skegs.
I have made some tests on wider boards with similar lenght, but side slipping was an issue, especially in those small close out conditions.
I was inspired by the traditionnal english bellyboard, check out this video:
https://youtu.be/WYftssG9ucs
Regarding being hit by the board, it happened to me when I used a bodyboard leash, now I use a regular surf leash or no leash at all and I no longer have these issues.
Last thing, regarding the take off, you need to postion yourself way back, you swim pushing the board forward to be as flat as possible, when the wave catches you then you jump on the board. And you need powerfull swim fins.

Aloha, if you ride your wood board like a bodyboarder you'll never learn the proper way of riding a wood board. Smaller paipo are like riding or using a kick board. Their easier to control and ride in small surf hawaiian scale 1'ft-2'ft back of wave which is 2'ft-4'ft face with ease. I'd ridden a drifted 4'ft × 8'ft plywood on a 3'ft hawaiian scale surf with ease. Rider just have to know where to place their body on at any surf conditions. Tail sliding outwards is because body placement in the wrong area that you are riding "plain" style and not on the edge (rail) which I call "slicing". How to fix that is both hands grasping on outer rail and inner pushing downward for control. I've ridden many types of wood paipo and I prefer "flat" for speed and maneuver, "spoon-shape are great for maneuvers but not as fast as riding a flat-board. All of my wood boards are 3/8" thick with epoxy resin applied and it does hold me at 240lbs. above the surface. I'm riding a skeggless 57"inch flat wood Papa Paepo'o board on 4'ft - 10'ft surf at Makaha beach with ease. Hope this will help you..