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Dick van Straalen is a respected shaper of many decades experience. He's the guy who shaped the next big thing board.

http://thealleyfishfry.blogspot.com/201 ... w-toy.html

Bob

I've had a few boards from Dick and I was about to give him a call and ask him about a prone board.
He rides his 9' carbon fiber all rounders prone quite a lot due to hip problems already.
So I've got straight onto the phone with him.
He's also made this style prone board as a 6'8".
The 5'er is currently down at Hookupu in Byron.
Apparently the guys down there have been riding it standing up though.
He'll have it back with him on the Gold coast next week.

Cuttlefish,

Let me know how you get on &the cost. A guy from the gold coast was wanting a paipo and was having trouble getting one shaped. He'd been quoted $1000. I suggested he try Tony Dragan up your way - a kneeboarder I know said Tony was willing to experiment.

The fishfry site has lots of interesting boards - sub 5' boards being ridden stand-up. Some would make greta paipo.

Bob

Hi Bob,
Dick told me $850 and that would be eps/epoxy with the handles just as his features and also with a legrope plug.
If you type "More turtle" in the fish fry blogspots search box it will come up with my 4'2".
You could refer the chap to Mark Pridmore who'll happily shape him one in PU with whatever features he likes for probably $650 (educated guess) base price.
You'll find Mark's "More" surfboards website link on the right hand side of the blogspots links.
Mark's been doing a lot of mini-simmons and finless boards and is an excellent choice to do more paipos.
Mark lives on the sunny coast but is shaping down the GC so catching up in person to talk about the board would be possible too.
When it comes to boards Dick will make you one but it's a chore to nutt out design aspects with him as he he's so knowledgable but tapping into that knowledge is tricky. So it helps to know exactly what you already want or go with whatever he comes up with.

Boys and girls, this is where semantics matter.

See, if a guy wants a paipo, he gets the appropriate lumber or plywood, makes one and goes surfing.

But if a guy wants a bellyboard, he shell's out 600-1000 (OZ) dollars after chasing around looking for somebody willing to shape it.

Now do you see the difference?

True enough Uncle G.
Then we confuse the Brits if we call it (fibreglass prone board) a bellyboard because they call their paipos (wooden prone boards) bellyboards.
I usually refer to my board as a prone board or bellyboard so I'll attempt to continue with that description to save confusion.
In replying to Bob's post he's used the term paipo so I've replied in kind in my reply.
When my local points at Noosa are firing the sweep can make boards with low floatation a real chore though.
Sure a foam and fibreglass prone board is expensive compared to a piece of ply wood.
The price differential is even more pronounced if you compare a 9' foam and fibreglass longboard and a 9' Alaia.
There's a good chance my Dell netbook I use to access the internet is a lot cheaper than most people use to do the same but I don't mind.

Uncle Grumpy wrote:Boys and girls, this is where semantics matter.

See, if a guy wants a paipo, he gets the appropriate lumber or plywood, makes one and goes surfing.

But if a guy wants a bellyboard, he shell's out 600-1000 (OZ) dollars after chasing around looking for somebody willing to shape it.

Now do you see the difference?

Maybe, for perspective, we need to compare apples with apples: home made vs. custom made. I see plenty of non-plywood kipapa-style riding boards out there that cost a good bit more than glass/foam boards. A person can also buy their own glass/foam and build a kipapa-style board for a good bit less than having someone do it for them.

P.S. The Brits also call then prone-riding boards "surfboards!"

Oooops!

Look at the post in your wave (father and son) that what it all about just pure fun look at the kids face it says it all

rodndtube wrote:

Uncle Grumpy wrote:Boys and girls, this is where semantics matter.

See, if a guy wants a paipo, he gets the appropriate lumber or plywood, makes one and goes surfing.

But if a guy wants a bellyboard, he shell's out 600-1000 (OZ) dollars after chasing around looking for somebody willing to shape it.

Now do you see the difference?

Compare apples with apples: home made vs. custom made. I see plenty of non-plywood kipapa-style riding boards out there that cost a good bit more than glass/foam boards. A person can also buy their own glass/foam and build a kipapa-style board for a good bit less than having someone do it for them.

hay there round tube

my brother in law had a serious motor cycle accident and was left with a lame left arm so he wanted to swap to prone riding. He approached allot of his previous shapers and they wanted the same price as a stand up board or were reluctant to build one.I have a fair bit of experienced building surfboards so I reshaped his 6'2'' thruster and widened it into a body board the whole build on mates rates only cost $50. he has regained tube time !

This is deja-vu. Here we go again

mrmike wrote:Look at the post in your wave (father and son) that what it all about just pure fun look at the kids face it says it all

Amen to that!

hydro_skiper wrote:

rodndtube wrote:

Uncle Grumpy wrote:Boys and girls, this is where semantics matter.

See, if a guy wants a paipo, he gets the appropriate lumber or plywood, makes one and goes surfing.

But if a guy wants a bellyboard, he shell's out 600-1000 (OZ) dollars after chasing around looking for somebody willing to shape it.

Now do you see the difference?

Compare apples with apples: home made vs. custom made. I see plenty of non-plywood kipapa-style riding boards out there that cost a good bit more than glass/foam boards. A person can also buy their own glass/foam and build a kipapa-style board for a good bit less than having someone do it for them.

hay there round tube

my brother in law had a serious motor cycle accident and was left with a lame left arm so he wanted to swap to prone riding. He approached allot of his previous shapers and they wanted the same price as a stand up board or were reluctant to build one.I have a fair bit of experienced building surfboards so I reshaped his 6'2'' thruster and widened it into a body board the whole build on mates rates only cost $50. he has regained tube time !

Most prone riding people probably should not rely on most surf board shapers to make their paipos. Not because they are bad shapers nor because they are prejudiced or bad people. They simply are not tuned to how a prone-ridden board differs from a stand-up board without having ridden one. As it is even many foot riders are better off and worse off because their board builder decides to build what they think the rider needs rather than what the rider/buyer wants, so it isn't limited to just prone riding boards. Just exacerbated.

True enough, that's why I actually waited for a couple of years before deciding to let Mark who shaped my board make me one which is unusual for me as I lack patience when wanting to try a new kind of board.
I looked into having an Austin shipped over but the cost was prohibitive.
Read all the info I could on the net and asked questions on forums.
Very happy with the result.

I've asked three surfboard shapers to make me paipo. Two of these guys worked out really well. But, it required me to know what I wanted and they did fine tuning. The third guy reckoned he got some foam but didn't have the time to work on what I wanted.

I think it would be harder to just go to a shaper and say, make me a bellyboard/paipo. A good shaper is a good shaper.

Bob

Cuttlefish wrote:True enough, that's why I actually waited for a couple of years before deciding to let Mark who shaped my board make me one which is unusual for me as I lack patience when wanting to try a new kind of board.
I looked into having an Austin shipped over but the cost was prohibitive.
Read all the info I could on the net and asked questions on forums.
Very happy with the result.

Austin says he has shipped a few paipos to Australia but the cost kept him back for awhile. The most economic way to do it is to get a group order and a surf shop to also take a few to sell. Kudos to Austin for taking my shape specs and shaping to it. I had some other nice ones made by a Maryland shaper but there was always something lacking or not how I wanted it... such are many shapers.

Most prone riding people probably should not rely on most surf board shapers to make their paipos. Not because they are bad shapers nor because they are prejudiced or bad people. They simply are not tuned to how a prone-ridden board differs from a stand-up board without having ridden one. As it is even many foot riders are better off and worse off because their board builder decides to build what they think the rider needs rather than what the rider/buyer wants, so it isn't limited to just prone riding boards. Just exacerbated.

Ain't THAT the truth.
I waited nearly 6 months for a custom foam board (from a well known shaper) and spent a few hundred dollars and when I got it, it just wasn't right.
It was like he'd ignored almost everything I'd told him I needed in a board.

I'd like to add an Austin to my quiver but aside from that I'll be sticking with home built PAIPOS in the future .

Aloha!

Uncle Grumpy wrote:

Most prone riding people probably should not rely on most surf board shapers to make their paipos. Not because they are bad shapers nor because they are prejudiced or bad people. They simply are not tuned to how a prone-ridden board differs from a stand-up board without having ridden one. As it is even many foot riders are better off and worse off because their board builder decides to build what they think the rider needs rather than what the rider/buyer wants, so it isn't limited to just prone riding boards. Just exacerbated.

Ain't THAT the truth.
I waited nearly 6 months for a custom foam board (from a well known shaper) and spent a few hundred dollars and when I got it, it just wasn't right.
It was like he'd ignored almost everything I'd told him I needed in a board.

I'd like to add an Austin to my quiver but aside from that I'll be sticking with home built PAIPOS in the future .

Aloha!

If you do add an Austin to your quiver be sure to ask for the RPM model and probably add a couple of inches in length since you are a tall boy as I recall. You can try my new S&S RPM this April if you'd like.