MyPaipoBoards Forums

Here is a new finless paipo board I made.
It is poplar plywood, width 16 in max, length 42 in max.

Tiny rocker and concave (using the iron steam way).
The leash attachment is a hole on the bottom.

Haven't tested it yet, but I made for my son a quite similar board already, which I know works great, with a good versatility. Fast, yet still handy. This one is just slightly wider to fit my weight.


Front: Back: Rocker: Concave on the tail:

looks good.

once you get a shape you like you should try out some paulowina, my friend had a go on my board and liked it, so he bought some ply to make a cheap copy. He reported back that the ply board was much heavier, sunk and was much harder to paddle due to lack of buoyancy.

Looks like a fun shape

How is the steam iron technique applied?

krusher74 I m sure that paulowina is better, I will probably order a plank this year from the link you gave me on another post. Looking forward to get a wooden board a little less dangerous, and lighter. That said, the lack of buoyancy of plywood is not really a problem to take off (just need to pull the board forward like a swimmer using a kickboard, like on surf mat), and it may be helpful for duckdiving. These flat plywood planks work surprisingly well in small well shaped waves. This blue board is most likely going to decorate our wall anyway, so decided my wife

Junkman
Well, you need an iron that produces steam, apply it to the part of the wood you want to bend, until the wood is very hot and humid. Then, quickly bend the wood and maintain it in the same position for 1 minute. It works better with thin planks.

And here is the little sister of the blue board, the cork board.

This one is slightly shorter (belly button height). The blue one is made from a single 1mm plywood plank, this one is made of 2 x 5mm plywood planks glued together.
It allowed me to do a 1 cm rocker (still using the iron steam way), and it gives the board more flex.
I also glued 1 cm cork to the top and the bottom. The cork isn't light, it makes the board heavier, but it should provide more buoyancy and no need to wax it.
The look of the cork is a little weird, but it feels a little more comfortable to lay on.

The board total thickness is 3 cm. When I grab it it is a little soft and flex, feels a bit closer to a bodyboard.

I'm curious about how the cork will behave in the surf. I have no big expectations for this one, so if it doesn't pass the test it will do a great board to pin pictures

Any feedback on cork is welcome.

That looks fun.
I have been cogitating on a similar project.

The cork may absorb some water making it noticeably heavier;
I haven't noticed this with the Bodypo but the one home built board I have with a cork deck I ended up sealing the cork with Barge Cement.



In hindsight I might have used Thompson's Water Seal instead.

Uncle Grumpy wrote: I haven't noticed this with the Bodypo but the one home built board I have with a cork deck I ended up sealing the cork with Barge Cement.

I guess the Bodypo is made of some composite cork which is mixed with resin or something like that.
I like the handle on your board, it looks like it's a sailman paipo

I am hesitating on applying varnish or not, but I am afraid it makes the cork kind of crispy

zensuni wrote:I am hesitating on applying varnish or not, but I am afraid it makes the cork kind of crispy

If you have a small piece of scrap to test on, try coat of thinned varnish, very firmly squeegeed in. Might not be too bad and surface I would think will soften back up with just a little use or rubbing, leaving the inner part sealed. Could also use beeswax and heat gun (rub it on then quick swipe hot air to melt it in) which would seal it from water but not get crispy at all and maybe even increase traction.

I applied varnish, the cork drank a lot of it as expected, the result is not bad, it is not crispy.

How are you finding the very straight rail? Does it just lock to the wave face and track down the line or is it turn-able.

I have found if using the same rail curve from my fave bodyboard, onto my foam/fibreglass paipo and paulowina paipo they all tun the same. So from that I have found template shape translates to turnability no mate what construction the board is.

I wanted to do a board of construction like yours but was worried the cork would not stay stuck to the wood for long

krusher74 wrote:How are you finding the very straight rail? Does it just lock to the wave face and track down the line or is it turn-able.

I have found if using the same rail curve from my fave bodyboard, onto my foam/fibreglass paipo and paulowina paipo they all tun the same. So from that I have found template shape translates to turnability no mate what construction the board is.

I wanted to do a board of construction like yours but was worried the cork would not stay stuck to the wood for long

I haven't tested the cork board yet. I'm not very satisfied by the result, it has a nice look, but it is surprisingly heavy (cork + wood), and since the rails are not made of cork it is not safer than a regular plywood board.
The cork would probably add buoyancy in the water though. I used epoxy glue, hopefully it will keep the cork stuck to the wood.

Last weekend in small waves I tested the blue plywood board, which has almost the same shape (just a little longer). It works well, I guess it depends of the waves and the rider's surfing style. I tend to ride it a little bit like a surfmat, no radical turns, using my body weight to turn, sometimes dragging a swim fin in the water to hold a line. In small surf this surfing style works great with that kind of board, but I am not sure it would work so well in bigger / hollower waves.

krusher74 wrote:looks good.

once you get a shape you like you should try out some paulowina, my friend had a go on my board and liked it, so he bought some ply to make a cheap copy. He reported back that the ply board was much heavier, sunk and was much harder to paddle due to lack of buoyancy.

Why don't you try in similar of a body board shape and then taper your rails. I shape Hawaiian Paipo boards of 3/8", 1/2" & 3/4" wood using a 6oz E glass cloth top and bottom with epoxy resin and these boards hold me up and I'm 5'-11" and 237lbs. Hawaiian with ease. And I chase small to BIG waves (Makapu`u & Makaha Hawaiian-Scale: 6'ft.-10'ft. (12'ft.-20'ft. FACE).
Here I am paipo boarding a shorebreak surf on East-Side, O`ahu "Sandy Beach Shorebreaks" a famous beach for body-dislocations or death. One of my BIG 3'4"thick board, board is heavy when it's out of the water but when I'm in the water with this board it can take further, drops, barrel-stalls, half-pipe slider, spinners and underwater take-off. To me you need the weight to get you down the face and it would give the speed when needed. Believe me, I used and abused any extra ordinary wood board, even tried a 4'ft. x 8'ft. plywood that was adrift after a commercial fishing boat got stuck on a reef the night before, found this 4'ft.x8'ft. plywood came across the channel to "POINt PANICS" and I surfed with it on some 2'ft. occassional 3'ft surf.

I finally tested the cork paipo that I mentioned bellow. The cork makes the board a little more buoyant, not that much, but I liked the fact that the cork avoids to wax. The board was not as fast as my other boards. I don't think the cork has something to do with that, I think the board is just a little too small, and it a has too much flex. Instead of using 1 plywood plank I glued 2 thinner planks, that explains the flex.