2008 Space Odyssey (Woodstock)

Say hello to the newest addition to the Grey Ghost fam. I call him Woodstock and he is 4'6". My brother bought the foam to make this board, for $2 at the rockaway swap meat. In its previous life it was a boring old 7'10 China "Funboard" with a thruster setup. It was snapped about 2' down from the nose so I didn't have much to work with. I worked out a template on some graph paper a while back and I figure this was an opportune time to give it a shot. Oddly enough I figured a way to cut the china thruster egg funboard down so that I had a perfect blank for this little guy. With minimal adjustment the rocker was exactly where I wanted it and all I had to do was put rail bands on it and turn them. I did this all by hand. No power tools. I'm going to foil my own fins for it and even glass it myself for old times sake. Stay tuned for the progress. Peace

Paipo Riding II

David Swanson with his and Val Valentine's Paipo Collection

Haleiwa, 2000

"David Swanson and his Val Valentine Paipo Collection"

Photo by David Pu'u

The Surfer's Journal, Vol 9 No. 3, 2000, Page 122

Back Side Slide. In the Cut

Plywood surfing, Barbados, circa 1988.

Photo by Dave DiGirolamo

SURFER, Volume 29, Number 12, page 113

The Mad Hatter, in an insane parallel stance. Ride a paipo uughhhhh!

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".