Building Your First Paipo Board
I first began by getting scrap wood and shaping a regular 5in x 5in prototype surfboard. I did this so I would become more familiar working with wood and sanding.
I made a blank wooden deck so shaping the board could be as close shaping a regular foam blank like most surfboards. I used a small hand saw to make the rectangle wooden blank.
The next part was drawing the shape on the wood so i know where I will be cutting around on the board.
After I made the General outline cut shape on the board, I used a wood file to make it faster to get the overall shape of the board and not use a lot of sandpaper.
Once I finished the overall shape of the board I began to start concentrating on details and started sanding . I used a #110 grit sandpaper to get the surface texture off and make it one smooth piece.
I then Got a finer sandpaper and sanded it down more to smooth it out and finish the shape of board.
After the mini wood prototype board deck was finished, I made marks on the tail of the board so I know where my fins would be.
Eventually I cut out and sanded mini fins and glued them to the board in a thruster position.
I used gorilla wood glue to hold the fins down and intact to the board. I placed it in the sun and individually held down each finn so it would for sure stay.
This is the final mini prototype board in different angles.
Photo 1 Top view
Photo 2 Bottom view
Photo 3 Side view
After I learned how to work with wood confidently I went shopping for wood with my mentor.
We went to a surf shape shop in Ocean beach to get the right wood for our board and look at other wooden board designs.
After we collected the right materiel, we went back to my mentors house where we would start and work on our final paipo surfboard
We started off by getting one solid plank of surf wood and and placing it on a table to see what we were working with.
After we mentally saw the board on the plank we got cardboard boxes and drew the shape of our board on it. By creating a cardboard cut outline template of our board, we made it a more precise outline drawing to use for our wooden plank.
We traced it with pencil first, then sharpie after we checked if the pencil outline was accordingly to our measurements.
After the outline of our board design was on our wooden plank we used a jigsaw and handsaws to cut the overall shape of our board.
Once the overall shape was done we began to sand the board down to refine the shape it will have using power sanders first.
We sanded for a couple days using different sanding tools and grains as each day passed.
The next part was sanding some of the top surface of the board to give it the curve it needs to drop in on a wave smoothly.
After we were content with our more refined shape of our board, we started to manually sand it with a fine grain paper to remove minor bumps, scratches, and etc..
We had an option of either putting on fins or not but we came to the conclusion that finless was better in our case. Since the board wont be to big we can use it to our advantage by making it funner and easier to maneuver into 360's and other turning moves.
The last step was giving it a water proof wood gloss coating making it water tight and smoother.
Finally was letting it sit out on the sun to dry for two days and we then took it out on a couple test runs with the Go Pro.
Pictures and clips of us surfing with and without Paipo Board
I made a blank wooden deck so shaping the board could be as close shaping a regular foam blank like most surfboards. I used a small hand saw to make the rectangle wooden blank.
The next part was drawing the shape on the wood so i know where I will be cutting around on the board.
After I made the General outline cut shape on the board, I used a wood file to make it faster to get the overall shape of the board and not use a lot of sandpaper.
Once I finished the overall shape of the board I began to start concentrating on details and started sanding . I used a #110 grit sandpaper to get the surface texture off and make it one smooth piece.
I then Got a finer sandpaper and sanded it down more to smooth it out and finish the shape of board.
After the mini wood prototype board deck was finished, I made marks on the tail of the board so I know where my fins would be.
Eventually I cut out and sanded mini fins and glued them to the board in a thruster position.
I used gorilla wood glue to hold the fins down and intact to the board. I placed it in the sun and individually held down each finn so it would for sure stay.
This is the final mini prototype board in different angles.
Photo 1 Top view
Photo 2 Bottom view
Photo 3 Side view
After I learned how to work with wood confidently I went shopping for wood with my mentor.
We went to a surf shape shop in Ocean beach to get the right wood for our board and look at other wooden board designs.
After we collected the right materiel, we went back to my mentors house where we would start and work on our final paipo surfboard
We started off by getting one solid plank of surf wood and and placing it on a table to see what we were working with.
After we mentally saw the board on the plank we got cardboard boxes and drew the shape of our board on it. By creating a cardboard cut outline template of our board, we made it a more precise outline drawing to use for our wooden plank.
We traced it with pencil first, then sharpie after we checked if the pencil outline was accordingly to our measurements.
After the outline of our board design was on our wooden plank we used a jigsaw and handsaws to cut the overall shape of our board.
Once the overall shape was done we began to sand the board down to refine the shape it will have using power sanders first.
We sanded for a couple days using different sanding tools and grains as each day passed.
The next part was sanding some of the top surface of the board to give it the curve it needs to drop in on a wave smoothly.
After we were content with our more refined shape of our board, we started to manually sand it with a fine grain paper to remove minor bumps, scratches, and etc..
We had an option of either putting on fins or not but we came to the conclusion that finless was better in our case. Since the board wont be to big we can use it to our advantage by making it funner and easier to maneuver into 360's and other turning moves.
The last step was giving it a water proof wood gloss coating making it water tight and smoother.
Finally was letting it sit out on the sun to dry for two days and we then took it out on a couple test runs with the Go Pro.
Pictures and clips of us surfing with and without Paipo Board