Yeah, I didn’t search the archives too much; thought I’d burn those old forum rules crumudgeons a bit
OK, had this old El Paipo out in cracking 2 ft beach break last week and had so much fun. Scored a long and clean in-and-out prone tube ride. Now I want to build one out of an old 5’3" blank I have laying about. My only real question is: What kind of rope is used as the handles? I suspect that I would simply drill holes part way through board rails and resin soak the rope ends into the board. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for any help!
Umm, you pretty much have it. It’s a ‘yacht braid’,I think Samson brand, used rather than grabbing a rail for cranking a turn with a kneeboard. They were - I won’t say popular, but you’d see them on some boards during a brief period .
Now, you will never get an attachment as strong as the line itself, that stuff has a breaking strength on the order of 10,000 lbs, way more than a rope end plus resin in foam . I think they lost popularity 'cos they sometimes (often) tore out and you had a sort of ‘oh damn, what am I gonna do now’ moment. Lots of no-fun to fix. Plus you have to guess what’s the right place to put them.
Now, something reasonably strong that you can replace, repair or adjust? How about the foot strap stuff the kiteboard, windsurf and tow-in guys use. Most of the major suppliers like Fiberglass Supply have something and you can gin up custom straps with nylon or polyester webbing plus a little neoprene. There’s also some webbing and molded rubber items out there made for kayaks of all things - do a search on your favorite giant internet retailer named after a big river , there’s a lot of them.
Rig it so the fasteners fail (say, nylon screws) rather than the straps or the board attachment itself. Easier fix.
Again, I haven’t seen a new kneeboard with one of these in decades. There might just be a reason…
First, I used my first kneeboard as a paipo/bellyboard for quite a while, nothing to be concerned about. Get a feel for it, get some good swim fins (UDT Duck Feet, nothing else comes close) sized big enough for boots or fin socks under and there ya go.
Next- absolutely nothing wrong with paipos as paipos. Hilarious amount of fun, they have a combination of performance and intmacy with the wave that nothing else has. If you want to go with making one with that blank you have, have at it, let me commend to your attention My Paipo Boards and…More and the links from there.
Rather than handles on a paipo, I might go with a leash cup and a bodyboard-type leash up forward. attached to your wrist. Though that’s me, your mileage may vary and so on.
Kneeboards- yeah, well, quite a few back in the day were made from busted blanks or shaper screwups and they were as good or as bad as you might expect. My first kneeboard was (still is, now that I think of it) 5’0" x 19", pure speed, which sort of set me on my twisted path. They’ve since gone longer and wider, though that makes it different … handles have been gone for a long time.
I don’t know much about handles. You can’t wave your arms, make strange gestures and pose when you’ve got ahold of a handle. But I like the outline of that little board. The other thing you can’t do is make obscene gestures at bearded wonders while surfing R&L’s.
I’d take a functional approach. Ride the board prone and kneeling - what do you use the handles for? If kneeling and they give you leverage, then they are useful. Prone, they seem a bit far back - are they useful for anything? If they don’t add anything useful, you could forget them. Prone boards, with handles, typically are parallel tot eh tail and closer to the nose.
Out of curiosity, what does the logo say? Is it asingle or a twin.
Here ya go Bob. In tiny script it says “El Paipo Newport Beach Calif.”
Circa 1974 IIRC. My bet is it’s a large single fin. They did a twin fin belly board with a wide square tail as well. I think those were a couple years earlier.
Thanks. A clever graphic. If 1974 kneeboarding would had taken over, which suggests the straps would only be useful if the board was ridden as kneeboard.
The handles mean it is 100% a kneeboard. Never seen a bellyboard or paipo with side handles like that. A few 60s paipos had a handle across the front. Wardy made wooden ones with such a thing,
