Making a Paipo Board
This is a great Father & Son (Daughter, etc) weekend project

     The use of a "Paipo" board is probably the oldest form of "board" surfing. It's recorded Captain Cook saw  the villagers riding them when he came to Hawaii in 1778. Those boards were about 3' to 6' and were ridden "prone" on the belly, or on the knees. The desire to stand up introduced longer boards but may have been reserved for "Royalty". (There are many web sites with the history of Paipo Boards, if you want to know more it's worth a search!)

    For Christmas 2004 I got completely silly and made Paipo & Hand Boards for all my nieces, nephews, bros n sis's and some of my crazier in-laws. I've always loved working with my hands and my father taught me all kinds of in's n outs to woodworking when I was young. So wooden boards to enjoy in the surf is a natural for me.  This summer 2005, I made a date with my nephew Cory to spend the weekend together so he could make his own board. Here's how it went together.


You'll have to pardon me I'm more the artist type than an engineer
so I don't use plans, I let the wood itself determine what it's going to be.
All we knew was that by Cory's height and weight we were going to
make something about 36" in length, 16" wide, and about 1 3/4" thick.

Day  1

Approximately 3 hours of work.
(Does not including dragging all the stuff out and then putting it all away!)

Sorting the wood and picking out Cory's pieces. Laying out the general shape and width. We are going to use 3 redwood stringers also.
 
Thicker pieces in the middle,
thinner on the outside.

The wood was about 2" thick and 3.5" wide. We cut the pieces in half to get a slightly thinner board.
 
Sanding the redwood "stringers." The 2 outside stringers are simply sanded 4'x2"x1/4" redwood bender board from the hardware store. The center one was 2"x4'x5/8's thick redwood cut down from a 4"x8'x5/8 piece.
 
Placing the wood and
re-checking before gluing.
 
An all-weather wood glue is liberally
smeared on with a plastic scraper.
 
Using numerous clamps, start at one end and work your way to the other, tightening a little more each time until the seams are tight and the glue should be oozing out. Let this sit in a dry place at least overnight.
   

End  Part  1

Go To Part 2

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