Latest alaia styled paipo

First finished this board back in January (Alaia style paipo mk 1) but I realised I went a bit too aggressive with the concave and split the board. Didn't fancy scrapping the board because it looked so much fun so I decided to fibreglass it so now it's back and super strength. Went for a yacht varnish finish this time to give it a shiny finish without too much sanding.

Latest little summer board

Following the sad mistake that was Il Joneso Superleggera (later to be re-named Bambi's mother), this summer I decided to make a sequel. The premise was the same, to create a high volume short board that can catch waves easily but still turn well (the main disadvantage of the Sim). Asides from being a traditional polyurethane blank, fibre glassed with epoxy resin, the other main difference of this board is the asymmetric tail. 

My thinking is that asymmetrical boards are the logical solution because feet and legs aren't symmetrical. You can put a lot more body movement into your forehand turn so the forehand rail is slightly longer with a tail similar to that of a performance fish to act as more of a pivot for sharper turns. The backhand rail is shorter and more akin to a rounded nugget to enable an easier with fins placed higher and closer to the centre of the board to allow a smoother, less forced backhand turn while trying to remove the need to move your back foot around.

Volume is kept high throughout and the nose quite wide to enable the board to stay short while still being easy to paddle (a little volume was taken out of the nose to make duck diving a bit easier. A large single concave through the centre of the board flattens the rocker to enable the board to carry a lot of speed while a slightly exaggerated nose and tail rocker has been added to allow steeper take-offs and and the increased rocker through the rails should enable the board to be more manoeuvrable. 

5'5" x 19 3/4" x 2 1/2"

Little board for big waves

Since I've started using the handplanes more I've realised size of my paipos isn't as important as I first thought in terms of wave catching and performance so this little ride is significantly shorter than my previous paipos at just 82cm.

The last paipos took steep drops confidently but the large big rocker has meant it required a bit of grunt to keep the speed up. This board on the other hand has a perfectly flat rocker up to the nose where I've then added a healthy curve. The theory is that it should take steep drops well while also carrying speed well for when the wave slows down. But I suppose there's only one way to find out if it works.

Group Photo

Starting to run out of space to store all the surfboards so thought it might be a good opportunity to get them all together for a group photo so I can finally see how many I've actually got. So here it is, 19 surfboards, 13 bodyboards/paipos and 6 handplanes. Problem is Wales doesn't get enough decent waves to use them all.

Oddball, he's not a fan of them negative waves

If you've seen much of Ryan Burch's Rabbit Foot surfboard you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a blatant copy, but you'd be wrong, the Rabbits Foot has got somewhat of an asymmetric crescent tail whereas this one has a crescent tail leading into a round tail. And it's got a different colour scheme. So completely different.

Anyway unfair comparisons aside, this board is the result of untold hours; starting life as two blocks of XPS loft insulation board, glued together, shaped and given a fiddly parabolic balsa rail for added strength. This was followed by a few layers of fibreglass, some resin tints and a shoulder damaging amount of sanding and polishing. 

Intended as a replacement for my Number 7 board, I'm hoping the fancy concave and channel will actually help offer a bit more control rather than just being a fibreglass nuisance. 

Revamping my old skateboard deck

Watched this video from Monster Children recently and decided my old Blueprint deck would do with a revamp. After digging it out of the back of the garage and a bit of work with a jigsaw and a powersander, it's got a new lease of life, even if the artist isn't the greatest!

The Rabbits Foot looks interesting

I'm sure everybody is familiar with Ryan Lovelace's Rabbits Foot, or at least it's worth looking up on t'Interweb because it looks pretty wild and as such it was inevitable that I'd have to make my own version at some point. So this is the current state of it so far. You may have noticed that I've swapped the crescent tail for a half crescent / half round tail asymmetric effort that I'd sketched out for the next version of my Bottom Feeder attempt.

Currently it is awaiting some warmer weather and longer days before attempting to fibreglass her, I learnt that lesson the hard way, but I am liking the curves on her. Can't promise I'll be able to get any waves but she will turn some heads!

Some photos of my latest paulownia wood paipo

She's a deceptive one this paipo, the top of the board is a full 2 1/2 inches wider than the bottom. I like the optical illusion effect that the triple stringers (made with Homebase's mysteriously named 'dark hardwood'). Unfortunately I went a little too aggressive when carving out the bottom concave, while stress testing the board I noticed a little crack by the central stringer which I'm pretty sure would snap the board under use. 

I do like the look of this board though and with this in mind I'll be adding it to my fibreglassing list for the spring. A light epoxy lamination should fill the cracks and give it more strength. I'll miss the wood finish but I think the glass finish will be a good look too and should allow for a good many years of battering.