I had a chat with a friend recently about his interest in trying a large handplane/small paipo. (he already bodysurfs with a handplane)
I had couple of paulowina planks left over from my SDF wood paipo project that seemed like I could squeeze something big enough out of. A trip this morning to my local Jewsons builders merchants (who have more interesting timber selection) came up with some sapelle strip to give a colour contrast and bulk the blank out 30mm.
giving me a blank 23"/13"/1 1/4" to work with. This board will be solid, belly to concave with outer V like my full size boards as an experiment.
Looks good, thanks for the link. I must spend more time here. Load of info. Look forward to seeing how it goes. You out this weekend? Plenty of swell about.
Got the board cut out and a good percentage of the shaping done, as patrick told me with the stringers being harder wood it hard to sand it even and not dig into the paulowina first
Good waves here this weekend so that will put a halt to progress, but here are a few more pics
Some belly at the front, single concave out the middle of the back, V on the outer edges, little bit of a chine rail on the back of the rail, will be interesting to see how a board 25% the size of my own board works with the same design
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Last edited by krusher74 on Sun May 29, 2016 3:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
krusher74 wrote:Got the board cut out and a good percentage of the shaping done, as patrick told me with the stringers being harder wood it hard to sand it even ad not dig into the paulowina first
The key is to use a small plane with a round (not straight) cutting edge. The radius of the curve should be similar to that of a US silver dollar. The curved blade allows you to cut down the stringer without touching the softer material (foam/balsa/paulowina) Sand until you can feel the stringer, then stop and plane down just the stringer, continue sanding. Keep the blade sharp as possible. Nice little shape...there's just something aesthetically pleasing about wooden surfcraft.
Very interesting times, on every surf session I am seeing this huge growth of people making and using hand boards, I saw three new makes in one day, in a verity of materials .It seems to be an ideal cottage industry, they don’t take allot of space to make, will it spill over to more people making full size boards from outside the surf industry. The first water craft I ever made were hand boards out of masonit and Perspex in Junior school many years ago.We called them hand guns here.Will fresh minds bring innovation into a stagnated industry ?
"Some of the best and boldest surfing I have ever seen was by men in Durban who either used no boards at all or had boards about half the size of yours." -Vernon Bartlett
Vernon mentions half-sized boards in his mid century booklet, You and Your Surfboard. Bob...Rod, in your research have you come across any old stories or photos of the really small boards being ridden by adults?
CHRISPI wrote:Very interesting times, on every surf session I am seeing this huge growth of people making and using hand boards, I saw three new makes in one day, in a verity of materials .It seems to be an ideal cottage industry, they don’t take allot of space to make, will it spill over to more people making full size boards from outside the surf industry. The first water craft I ever made were hand boards out of masonit and Perspex in Junior school many years ago.We called them hand guns here.Will fresh minds bring innovation into a stagnated industry ?
I guess it's pessimistic of me, but I see the new uptake of hand planes as just the latest of surfing "trends" and with trends come imitation and little innovation . I really hope the trend does not extend to paipos. The innovators to me are the guys hidden away making boards in their sheds and just quietly enjoying their surfs.
My friend Leigh has been bodysurfing for years, and now he looks like just one of the "trendy pack"
After 20 years of being talked down to by stand up surfers, who are now cool for 5 mins with their "new" handplanes, i really don't want them anywhere near me on a paipo for its "window of cool"
krusher74 wrote:Got the board cut out and a good percentage of the shaping done, as patrick told me with the stringers being harder wood it hard to sand it even ad not dig into the paulowina first
The key is to use a small plane with a round (not straight) cutting edge. The radius of the curve should be similar to that of a US silver dollar. The curved blade allows you to cut down the stringer without touching the softer material (foam/balsa/paulowina) Sand until you can feel the stringer, then stop and plane down just the stringer, continue sanding. Keep the blade sharp as possible. Nice little shape...there's just something aesthetically pleasing about wooden surfcraft.
Thanks for the tips, I will used that method in the future
You make a good point, but it might ignite the innovator in somebody. By the way that is a good looking board. The dark wood inserts really make the board pop.
Well by friend has tried the bodyplane but it needed a handle so i have added this for him, the evolution continues. Some rainbow webbing and a bit of recycled inner tube from the bike shop I work in
Well took it down the beach for some R&D yesterday, wanted the see if the handle was of use.
Turns out it rides great. I went out on a particularly weak local reef in waist hide waves and managed some log waves, take off like a hand plane but then once going you can pull it in and under your chest, so it really is a bodyplane.
Given it back to the owner now for him to try out the new handle.
Last edited by krusher74 on Thu Nov 05, 2015 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well I real enjoyed shaping my first full sized paipo, and seeing I had a off cut from the blank I thought I would get some more shaping practice and make another hand/body plane
This will also give me something to have a first go at glassing on too
Few more pics of my friend riding the bodyplane, these show the extra lift over a smaller handplane and how this is not just bodysurfing, the size if the bodyplane allows you to lift your chest out of the water.
Shaped another bodyplane today from the blank off cut from the last board I did.
I use them as shaping practice, so this time I put a rail stinger in the design to have a go at that.
The blue foam and standard stringer does not shape as smooth as the green foam and old growth redwood stringer off cut I used on the last bodyplane but is quite a bit lighter.
Anybody got and good ideas on how to attach a handle to a foam board, my only idea so far is a strap attached to two leash plugs.
