MedSwells Surf
Paipo HyperLooper crafts by the gremie writing this lines.
Some notes on why I craft, repair, and ride paipos and other weird surf crafts ... (and have been doing so for more than a decade, and plan to do so in the future)
Beginnings
From a young age I had the luck of living near the sea. So it was natural to spend summers holidays with friends on the coastline, that was just it, as youngsters we just loved playing with the waves, without any artifacts attached, just catching waves with our bodies, sharing waves, we would just play games to see who would catch the longest wave, and reach farther to shore, that was it, simple as that.
Rewind to a few years later, and bodyboards appeared, and we started bodyboarding. Remember this takes place in the Mediterranean sea, so most of the time we don't get waves, and when we get them mostly is just wind waves, so most of the time is broken waves and whitewash, bodyboards provide flotation, and are soft toys that we as kids welcomed to catch more waves.
Rewind to a few years later, and friend appears with a surfboard, and the natural progression was to start surfing, so it be.
Rewind a bit more and you see the Hawaiian Alaia renaissance started by the Wegener brothers in 2005. I started riding an classic wooden alaia for surfing, that worked great in the northern coast of Spain, however, don't try this in the Mediterranean, alaias need proper swell conditions: small and clean waves that just don't happen very often in the Mediterranean (or at least not where I live). Long story short, I wasn't catching many waves, so, I started chopping pieces of that alaia, and the 7' alaia became a 6', then 5' foot, and I ended with a 4' paipo (not an alaia anymore, and for those that are not into Imperial units, 4 feet is about a 120 cm long). Notice that this is quite common, some broken long boards, make for good foam paipos, but in my case the alaia was broken on purpose, and I payed for that alaia a few good bucks, and, then proceeded to cut half of it, fun :-).
And then with the 4' paipo I was caching waves more waves than ever, and it was effortless, and worked with any sea conditions, the board worked with 2' wind waves to 4' feet swell, to bigger conditions, whatever it was, blown out, windy, choppy, or clean perfect waves, the 4' paipo worked great.
So that's how I got into paipos, now why I'm still into paipos.
Nowadays
For me paipos are the natural start to surfing, and that's not only my opinion, get a decent book on ancient Hawaiian/Polynesian surf culture and you'll see that the natural progression was to start surfing prone in paipos, then progress to stand-up surfing in alaias.
As said above Paipos provide a natural start at surfing. Head to any place where there's people learning to surf, and you'll see that surfing is hard for the beginner, it doesn't come naturally, and although fun, notice the faces of the people learning to surf and you'll see that they struggle, sometimes battling with the wave, with their equipment, with themselves, and other times with the rest of the people in the lineup, just for reaching the goal of standing up on a waves, instead laying prone, letting go, and having fun, sharing, playing, and learning (or just enjoy being there, which is sometimes a well earned and worth reward in itself).
Anyway struggling when starting surfing is normal, most of the time surfing is about failures, and stubbornness, you repeat so many times the same maneuvers/failures that at the end you become proficient at failing, and then all of a sudden, you are surfing, because from all the times you fall, you learn to transition from falling miserably to falling with grace and landing with both feet on the board, most people call that surfing.
Paipos Pros and Cons
Paipos given a broad definition of paipo that encompasses any wooden board between 3 and 5 feet, this includes bellyboards, womps, and any piece of wood that surfs good whatever, provide the best wave experience. Bonus points being they're easy to craft and repair, small, so easy to carry (hey! I'm looking at you bulky 9' longboard and SUP), and clean on the environment, since no plastics, resins, petrol are involved in the process, and most important, they work in any wave conditions. Another remarkable bonus point is that you are as close to the wave and down into as it is possible. And this comes to a point that has been stated many times before: "every surfer should have a paipo in their quiver", or at least having tried one.
To be fair, there are some features of paipos that can be seen as handicaps too (opposite of bonus points), however, as they are intrinsic to the paipo nature, its hard for me to see them as handicaps instead benefits. I'm talking about: low or neutral buoyancy, that means that they don't float as much as a bodyboard, for example, but that's imho a benefit, you have to kick harder and, movement as slow as when swimming, but are you are also lower into the water, that gives stability, and also eases the duck dives, it also means that when paddling, catching, and riding a wave you position lower into the wave. As said, this point is questionable, as I have a biased preference for low buoyancy boards, and tend to feel awkward in high buoyancy boards. And, anyway as soon as you get the thing planning and engaged on the wave, buoyancy and slowness matters little to me, as then, its all speed ("speed" on "speed" as George Greenough put it)
Reality check
However, from experience, riding Paipos in the Mediterranean is almost inexistent, as one can count with the fingers of one hand the paipo riders around here :-). Reasons for that, I'm guessing are: that we humans are good at copying behaviours that we see, and we copy behaviours that we see in ads, TV, Internet, magazines, media, etc, since we are constantly bombarded directly and indirectly with propaganda about surfing, its associated lifestyle, surf wear, surf equipment, surf vans, surf forecasts, surf trips, posing and posting photos surfing on social networks. Notice that the whole life path is marketed, and its just business. And then, as Cortazar said "When you are gifted a clock, you are the gift" (see "Instrucciones para dar cuerda a un reloj" by Julio Cortazar). Notice how easy is to become the clock, your whole life is packed, and you become the product that's being sold, cazador cazado. And remember this whole thing started as playing with friends in the sea waves. Fun isn't it? :-)
How I use paipos
My usage of paipos is falls in: (1) when it's big get a paipo, (2) when you are exploring an unknown spot, and its potential get a paipo (3) and, last but not least important, just for pure fun. So I use paipos in the conditions above, this mostly fits with the usage of regular surfers, that switch to bodyboards when it gets too big, for me its safer this way, and also I tend to enjoy more big sessions.
I name this as using paipos as "wave exploration device": to learn how a new spot works, or how a known spot under different conditions is works, once I reach this stage two things can happen: (1) consider it safe and see that switching to a surfboard will bring more fun, or, remain surfing the paipo for the whole session.
The latter being rather frequent around the Mediterranean due to its lack of decent waves.
Closing thoughts
To conclude, Paipos are somewhat forgotten and ignored crafts by current trends, but have a long history, and although forgotten and ignored, they have been, and continue being, a source of innovation in surfing, and too a source of fun and joy, that tap into nature in a way that is hard to reach with other crafts.
If you like what you are reading, share it, and pass it to others to enjoy.
To Be Continued ...