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Here in Holland, custom board will cost you as much or more than production board. Which is why I don't go to a shaper, nor will I ever pay full price on a board. I refuse to spend more than €350-€400 on a board. They get stolen, break, I have lost boards at sea, etc.

I have bought mint condition factory boards at two years old for like €150. Those are well worth the money.

Amazing project, thumbs up! Just one question, in place where I live paulownia is very exotic and hard to get, could I use Balsa because its easier to get, or any other type of wood less exotic for europe?

Hi stanka, I got my paulownia from a hardware store called "Bauhaus" with a number of shops in many european countries, www.bauhaus.info/unternehmen/international/index.html . I use 200x60x1,8 planks, they sell at 22€ if I'm not mistaken. Ask for those.

Balsa is also good to work with. Paulownia is usually denser with 250kg/m3 as opposed to balsa (around 100kg/m3), so if you work with balsa, you can add more volume to the board, and you have to adjust the layup. I'm putting 2x 4OZ glass on top and bottom with wrapped rails, with balsa I would probably go 3x 4Oz.

Got a second board in the making, wait a bit and you'll see

cheers, tungsten

Wow, I'm really impressed, great work! Thanks for sharing it.

I was looking for the kipuna's dimensions to try to make my own not so long ago, this will be very useful.

Quick question regarding this project.

- Would you have the dimensions of the pieces you used to make the rails and nose (visible KIP_05.jpg and KIP_07.jpg) ?
- Where exactly did you drill the holes for the fins ?

I will try to get some decent wood and start a similar project as soon as possible, this board looks amazing

Thanks a lot for your help,

Kris.

Update:

I made Nº2 board in the same style. Well, almost the same. This time I did cut the stringer shape 26 times out of the paulownia plank. I glued those together and went on cutting the outline and shaping the board as usual.





The result is really good looking. But it's some real extra work. The initial built is a lot faster. A LOT. Anyways, here's what came out of it. I did tint the epoxy slighly blue, because I once saw this weird wood of trees that had been lying around in a swamp for 100 years, and they had a greenish shade which I really liked. Epoxy will yellow out with time ( the cheap stuff I use at least ), So this will be the result after a day or two on the beach. I do like it already.

If you look closely, you'll see the board has inserts for straps. Shame on me Naaah, just jokin'... this board is for a friend who had his stick stolen from his car the other day. He's just getting into strapless. And he's a bit of a sissy So. Now he's prepared for the ugly days as well.






Bit of a joke there, you won't get it unless you're from Europe I guess... greetings to Sweden!

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Tungsten,

You never cease to amaze me! Awesome post, but this has got so much good information I might need to turn it into its own post so it is not hidden inside your amazing write up on the Kipuna. Great stuff. Thank you for putting in the time and effort to share this here. You are the man!

ksper wrote:...dimensions ...

Anybody interested in making the board, send me a PM and I'll shoot you the aku shaper file.

good winds, tungsten

Hi Tungsten
This is one great board I really like the shape, just one question this is a hollow boards? (BTW I'm complete beginner in case of making wooden boards, but I want to start)

Cheers
tiamat

hi tiamat, welcome to LTS!

Glad you like the board, and nope, not hollow, it's solid wood. See above!

cheers, tungsten

So this is this kipuna board that you made?

You tried to make hollow board (probably yes, but I prefer to ask this questions) ?
And whats more suitable for beginner like me? With full wood board I'm afraid that it will be to heavy...

cheers

Yes, I made some hollow boards as well. Take a look in the "Build it and they will ride" section.

You do need some experience with wood work to make a hollow one, that's not for beginners. A full wood board is a good start, it's forgiving and you can correct a lot of mistakes. With the right wood (balsa, paulownia) there will be no weight problem. With paulownia I stay 1kg under a normal production board's weight, so... no worries!

Great work tungsten.

I have read that you have used paulownia wood from bauhaus. Recently, a friend who was looking for paulownia raw wood to make a hollow surfboard, he found this wood in Spain from local growers. They have a website where they sell also paulownia alaia blanks: http://wood-alaia-surf.paulownia.ws/alaia-blanks.html

I hope it can be useful.
Great work, and thanks for construction pictures.

Hi Tungsten,

Great board&builds . I was wondering how the 2nd method changed the properties of the board. Does it still have the same amount of flex? I can imagine it changed quite a bit as the woodfibre is not aligned lengthwise in the woodcore anymore. On the other hand, the epoxy and glass could be the more important factor in the overall flex. Can you comment on this?

I might try your building method as well, although Paulownia is virtually unavailable here in the Netherlands, especially in the size sold at BAUHAUS.

One more question: what is a "hand fad"

Greetzzzz

Karst