Hey all, thought I would post a few pics of my latest Paipo. Having had my arse handed to me on a plate many times with my last board I decided to start again and shape one with rocker. I have been pretty inspired by some great builds that others have done here, some very pro, and others hack like mine. I am not familiar with steaming nose rocker into a blank, so I decided to start with some 50 x 50 sticks of Palownia. I learned several things from this project. First, this wood is pretty unstable. It moved a bit on me during the lamination process. I glued and biskit joined the blank and it had a slight warp on me. I was able to plane most of it out, and it won't affect the ride, but it was annoying. The other thing I learned that no matter how careful I was I could not control the bleed when I sprayed the raw timber. I am sure that is all due to my lack of experience. I ended up getting a little looser with my design only cause I couldn't get the pin lines I was after. Oh well, I don't mind what I came up with.
On this board I routed in some inserts in case I ever need to add straps for the surf, or if I ever venture to jump, (which at this stage I highly doubt I will. Too much slicing and dicing if things go wrong. Not sure if I will ever use them, but they are there if needed.
I really enjoyed riding my other Paipo, but having some nose rocker will save my butt on the occasional touchdown in transition. Thanks everyone for the inspiration, this project was actually pretty fun.

Good job. This is a project I'd like o take on some time as well.

Awesome ! How many hours do you reckon you put into it ?

More than I should have! I had too hot of a coat to begin with and had to sand it off, so forgetting that screw up, around 13 to 14 hours, learning along the way. The actual spraying part took way too long masking and trying to do pin lines, if I stuck with what I ended up with first which is a looser design I could have done it all in an hour max (not including drying times.) All in all a fun project anybody with tools and a little word working experience can do.

Nice build.

How important is rocker on these boards?

Do you have the dimensions?

I have just come across a supply of paulownia and considering something similar, except the guy can give me whatever thickness sheets of paulownia and dimension that i like (the price is right i assume).

I think it's pretty important. I got away with it and learned without, but it came at a price. Very easy to bury the nose, and in chop that can hurt. I think too more than anything is that it helps with transitions and changing your stance. You learn to push down and touch down to switch and gradually you touch less and less until it becomes second nature. The rocker helps with that a lot.
Dimensions are 1150mm long, widest point 410 wide, and the rocker starting out at around 600mm. There is a about 25mm of nose rocker which should be plenty. Thickness came in at around 20mm. I used 50 x 50 strips to start. When I look back on my previous build I now wish I had done this first, it would have helped my progression. Here is a photo from last year of the old board in action.