Paipo Riding

"Untitled"

"A Hawaiian surfer cuts a fast right slide in standing crouch on the zippy skim or belly board at Kuhio pier, Waikiki."

Photo by Val Valentine

John Kelly: Surf and Sea (1965), facing page 192

Over the coarse of last month I've done a bunch of surfing with my hombre Franco. During one of our early morning sessions I found a piece of plywood on the beach and decided to paddle out with it and attempt to stand up and surf on it. The first wave I took was a success. I had no problem paddling in and standing up (Keep in  mind I was also in a full wintersuit with boots and gloves). Needless to say it was rad. I was hooked.

About a week after that session, Richard Kenvin came out to NY just to hang and surf with us. He and I did some talking about the "Casper" and the other Bob Simmons replica boards he had. I had told him that I had prior plans to shape one. I also told him I wanted to shape an Alaia and a replica of an old hawaiian Paipo. While in the shop one arvo the topic of Val Ching and the stand up paipo surfing came up. I told him about the day that I surfed the random piece of plywood I found on the beach and that sparked the whole Paipo convo. Richard was telling me that without even knowing it I was doing the same thing that Val did in the 1950's. I did some googling and found a video of Val stand up paipo surfing at "The Wall" in 1963. I don't know what it was but  between the session with Franco and the history lesson with RK, I was inspired to make myself a paipo.

A source gave me the dims of Vals board. I plotted the points and drew the template line the best I can. This is the replica of Valentine Chings Paipo that he rode in the video footage taken in 1963 at "The Wall".