Power to the Paipo
‘Too Ride Head First’
King Waka Scumm Stix
I decided to have a go at making my own timber paipo, so after a quick hunt around locally I found some 18mm laminated pine at the local hardware, cut out my desired shape with a jig saw then shape and sand with 7”power sander and by hand. This took me all of a couple of hours, then it was just to scribe a logo on the deck, give it a few coats of a penetrating polyurethane sealer, and finally a few coats of linseed and turpentine gum oil to finally seal the wood ….all up just under $ 40 in material !
The two above are only 900mm in length and 450mm in width, with the one below based on my previous paipos at 1.3 m X 450mm. I find the longer paipo to my liking with the extra length allowing my body to stretch across the board , keeping the tail into my groin and my hands pushing firmly onto the nose, which is ideal for taking off steep waves, the smaller ones I found were to just short for me, making the take offs difficult but once up and riding they planed along the surface much similar to the longer board…each to their own!
Maiden Voyage
Wooden Rafts
Was lucky enough to score some swell and company from my SCUMM brothers and sisters for its first try out in the water, 2-3 feet on a local left hand reef break, with the crew riding surf mats, you can see a speed difference between the 2 very different rides. Surf Mats you can manipulate the shape and ride by adjusting the amount of air in your mat,you can tap the surface tension of the wave to achieve the maximum speed out of the mat, Paipo have a flat hard surface, so they tend to take off and accelerate almost immediately, depending on the wave face and power of course !
Wooden Rafts from adam williams on Vimeo.
Blackwood
This was a fun little session I had mid week after work , with the crew all over a fun right hander on the adjacent beach, I decided to give this little left hand point a try and was stoked how well the board went, so different to riding my mat here, was able to hold my line better and make it out of the foam barrels where normally i would get pushed sideways on a mat.
Black Wood from adam williams on Vimeo.
Paipopolis & SCUMM outakes
Another fun morning with the SCUMM crew , with a mix of kneeboards , mats and paipo…..you can get so tubed on a paipo and still come out the other side.
paipopopolis from adam williams on Vimeo.
paipopopolis scumm outakes from adam williams on Vimeo.
Shazam
Scarmatra Bound
