Speaking from one that rides that kind of shape, you have to be willing to step outside the box and enjoy the ride. I have found that style board fits my kbing style. The also need to know that the Apia style board is a board YOU want to ride. Alot of people look at my boards and say they are really cool looking, but don`t want to try them. Is it because it`s isn`t a rounded pintail, or a fish, or is it becasue not any of the well known kbers ride them ??
Speaking for me, I love the style and i`m willing to step outside the box...
NEW AIPA
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RW
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I gave my old Aipa stinger to a friend and his wife to use as a paipo board 25 years ago. I recently checked to see if he still had it...but alas....he had left it in the rafters of his old garage when he bought a new house.
It was a 5'4" twin fin made for the Country....ie..VLand. It worked bitchin' on double up reform reef surf, but was crappy on the more slopey waves CA is famous for. These things need dredging walls to work at their best potential.
I can remember why I gave it away now. McGuire, my brother, Duane Inoye, and myself went to NewBreak one stormy winter day while we were here on vacation. Surf was running 5-8' outta the NW and it was an angry storm driven swell. Conditions there were marginal at best and after about two hours of dodging and pounding we decided to head for "East Mission Jetty"....as we so appropriately called it due to the inland transplants.
It was dredging here also. My first wave was intense...but I ate $hit royally as the stick wouldn't perform correctly. I tried again and got beat down even worse. Next wave I get up and the board is undulating underneath me like a frickin' rollercoaster. I kick out, flip it over, and discover that it is cracked in half....but the glass is intact without a sheer or a delam.
So I paddle in and freeze waiting for everyone else to get there fill.....took them 2 hours the chumps.
I roughly pached it over and a couple of weeks later, then took it to the Rock....whereupon it proceded to plow like a barge on every wave....the magic was gone.
So giving it to my pal was not a loss for me, but it was a big gain for his limited surfin' experience.
That board design rocked in it's time frame...soo far advanced than everything else on the market. It ate the Lis fish up as an apetizer by comparison.
I had a 5'8" hand me down Harold Iggy twin fin from Mcguire at the same time and it became my go to stick after this one croaked. This stick had won him a few back to back US Titles and was majick allright. It was around '78 when I got it. That thing tore thropugh all the LJ reefs like butter....it really rocked at Hogan's and the ellusive deadly Vetours.
I can remeber it's last ride......an insanely roping 8' swell at RockSlides. I got one from deep on the reef and screamed in the pocket with four complete cover ups to the channel......well the channel walled out and I elected to ride it to the end for the hell of it......I got drilled bad and 3/4 of the deck delamned and peeled away in that wipe out.....but man it was worth it.
I repaired it and it still worked better than most of the sticks being shaped here then....until the GIRLFRIEND FROM HELL beat the $hit out of it with a giant ballpeen hammer cause she was a jealous insecure she-wench.
...I can still visualize it lying in the bed of my bus looking liike a worn out pin ball machine waiting for some balls......I didn't know any shapers willing to work at copying it then and sadly heaved into the garbage bin nextdoor....two months later I had me a self designed rocket fish that Ned McMahon shaped for me and it was a brave new world.
That Aipa today would be worth some cash to a collector...but a fortune to a shaper.
As a note....they both had yellow ski rope handles....one of the smartest things going pre leash in one way....unbeliveable kinetic energy for leverage and loading up G forces in another....at the time those ropes allowed boards to perform above their design limits. They allowed you to ride surf far above the boards capabilities in larger surf....however within 3 years Bud had resolved the design flaws and the ropes weren't needed anymore....
....but I can still "feel" being stretched out parallel over the water, fully compressed by G's, driving perpindicular off the bottom parallel to the heaving wave, and having all that energy harnessed on the rail just ready to explode out of a gouging carve.....
Man those were the days when when ya really had to know how to surf....
.....it's all to easy now....as today's boards come with auto pilot.....any monkey can do it.....lean, turn, lean turn, flap yur arms, pose for the camera, grimace like yur a real bad man......etc.
I wonder if it that Aipa is still up in those rafters......it's a dangerous part of town to go askin' questions in now days.
It was a 5'4" twin fin made for the Country....ie..VLand. It worked bitchin' on double up reform reef surf, but was crappy on the more slopey waves CA is famous for. These things need dredging walls to work at their best potential.
I can remember why I gave it away now. McGuire, my brother, Duane Inoye, and myself went to NewBreak one stormy winter day while we were here on vacation. Surf was running 5-8' outta the NW and it was an angry storm driven swell. Conditions there were marginal at best and after about two hours of dodging and pounding we decided to head for "East Mission Jetty"....as we so appropriately called it due to the inland transplants.
It was dredging here also. My first wave was intense...but I ate $hit royally as the stick wouldn't perform correctly. I tried again and got beat down even worse. Next wave I get up and the board is undulating underneath me like a frickin' rollercoaster. I kick out, flip it over, and discover that it is cracked in half....but the glass is intact without a sheer or a delam.
So I paddle in and freeze waiting for everyone else to get there fill.....took them 2 hours the chumps.
I roughly pached it over and a couple of weeks later, then took it to the Rock....whereupon it proceded to plow like a barge on every wave....the magic was gone.
So giving it to my pal was not a loss for me, but it was a big gain for his limited surfin' experience.
That board design rocked in it's time frame...soo far advanced than everything else on the market. It ate the Lis fish up as an apetizer by comparison.
I had a 5'8" hand me down Harold Iggy twin fin from Mcguire at the same time and it became my go to stick after this one croaked. This stick had won him a few back to back US Titles and was majick allright. It was around '78 when I got it. That thing tore thropugh all the LJ reefs like butter....it really rocked at Hogan's and the ellusive deadly Vetours.
I can remeber it's last ride......an insanely roping 8' swell at RockSlides. I got one from deep on the reef and screamed in the pocket with four complete cover ups to the channel......well the channel walled out and I elected to ride it to the end for the hell of it......I got drilled bad and 3/4 of the deck delamned and peeled away in that wipe out.....but man it was worth it.
I repaired it and it still worked better than most of the sticks being shaped here then....until the GIRLFRIEND FROM HELL beat the $hit out of it with a giant ballpeen hammer cause she was a jealous insecure she-wench.
...I can still visualize it lying in the bed of my bus looking liike a worn out pin ball machine waiting for some balls......I didn't know any shapers willing to work at copying it then and sadly heaved into the garbage bin nextdoor....two months later I had me a self designed rocket fish that Ned McMahon shaped for me and it was a brave new world.
That Aipa today would be worth some cash to a collector...but a fortune to a shaper.
As a note....they both had yellow ski rope handles....one of the smartest things going pre leash in one way....unbeliveable kinetic energy for leverage and loading up G forces in another....at the time those ropes allowed boards to perform above their design limits. They allowed you to ride surf far above the boards capabilities in larger surf....however within 3 years Bud had resolved the design flaws and the ropes weren't needed anymore....
....but I can still "feel" being stretched out parallel over the water, fully compressed by G's, driving perpindicular off the bottom parallel to the heaving wave, and having all that energy harnessed on the rail just ready to explode out of a gouging carve.....
Man those were the days when when ya really had to know how to surf....
.....it's all to easy now....as today's boards come with auto pilot.....any monkey can do it.....lean, turn, lean turn, flap yur arms, pose for the camera, grimace like yur a real bad man......etc.
I wonder if it that Aipa is still up in those rafters......it's a dangerous part of town to go askin' questions in now days.
shoulder huggin' chickens
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Smokin Rock
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good stuff RW
funny how the really magic boards seem to come alive in the gnarliest conditions.
i had this forest green single fin rounded pin way back when. the kind with the "s" rocker. bought it from the Greek in Huntington. so old there was no leash plug. for the most part it rode like sh%t. one day at Crescent Bay in Laguna the rights were firing off the point and reeling down the sandbar at a solid 6'. once in a lifetime for that spot. one other old guy on a 7' pin who was killing it and giving me serious stink eye in between waves.
i got one wave all the way through......one bottom turn.....edged under the lip and rode this huge green cavern for what seemed like forever. the board rode like silk....seemless.
i still think of that wave.....and that board
funny how the really magic boards seem to come alive in the gnarliest conditions.
i had this forest green single fin rounded pin way back when. the kind with the "s" rocker. bought it from the Greek in Huntington. so old there was no leash plug. for the most part it rode like sh%t. one day at Crescent Bay in Laguna the rights were firing off the point and reeling down the sandbar at a solid 6'. once in a lifetime for that spot. one other old guy on a 7' pin who was killing it and giving me serious stink eye in between waves.
i got one wave all the way through......one bottom turn.....edged under the lip and rode this huge green cavern for what seemed like forever. the board rode like silk....seemless.
i still think of that wave.....and that board
"This sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before." Butt-head
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albert
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[albumimg]5696[/albumimg]RW wrote: Man those were the days when when ya really had to know how to surf....
....it's all to easy now....as today's boards come with auto pilot.....any monkey can do it.....lean, turn, lean turn, flap yur arms, pose for the camera, grimace like yur a real bad man......etc.
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Smokin Rock
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Jimbo,
it was 77 or 78 and the middle of winter.
(the 70's were good to me 
)
a storm passed and the sun was just peaking out a bit. arrived to find big rights foaming off the rocks from way out then hitting the sandbar (which was much further out than today) and just spinning down at a perfect angle. no one on the beach and only one guy out.
you know the saying that the sun will shine on every dogs ass at least once in it's lifetime. that day it was my ass.
sorry to hijack your thread mr. Welch. everyone can go back to being pissed at Bob now.
it was 77 or 78 and the middle of winter.
(the 70's were good to me )a storm passed and the sun was just peaking out a bit. arrived to find big rights foaming off the rocks from way out then hitting the sandbar (which was much further out than today) and just spinning down at a perfect angle. no one on the beach and only one guy out.
you know the saying that the sun will shine on every dogs ass at least once in it's lifetime. that day it was my ass.
sorry to hijack your thread mr. Welch. everyone can go back to being pissed at Bob now.
"This sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before." Butt-head
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Smokin Rock
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RW
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kidrock.....I was one of those cats creeping around South Mission back then. ....damn that was a long time ago.
Now the other Aipa stinger we had was the single fin version with the 10" box. Did everything a pintail could..and couldn't do. My brother loved that thing. It got destroyed against a cliff face on a macking high tide swell at AB in '78.
The "skate on water" act Aipa introduced with his team riders in that era has never died out...in fact it's became the ground rules for competitive surfing as everyone knows it....Bertleman took skateboarding into the water and the Industry never looked back. They had the foresight to combine the two and thus found a way to milk a larger consumer base......and the feebleminded masses bought into it.
The sticks coming out of OZ have the same loose feel...but perform better in that comparison....but they've lost the forward extended drive as a sacrifice for those tighter turning radius' as they skate over wave faces and fly through the air.....however the stinger still has better projection and pit drive in medium 5-8' surf.
As an evolutionary concept it was brilliant....truth was it worked better for standups as they could get greater fulcrom leverage than a guy on is knees...and it was that evenly distributed weight over the entire board deck for leverage that made them go...like ridin' a skateboard...ya just can't do it that well on yur knees.
I examined one of Zeek's sticks last year....it works for what he likes to do....so who's to say they are nonfunctional.....every board is functional....ya just gotta figure out what makes it go....then use it in the right place at the right time.
There is nothing new under the sun in Surfing or Surf Design....just combinations of old breakthroughs "reinvented" to meet the circus nature of today's surfing....and for the slow guys.....that's the all inclusive collective of the greater Surfing community, not the tiiny walls of KneeBoredom.
For the most part Surfing is stagnant, mired in a packaged formula geared for sales and contest points. All the pics look the same, everyone does the same snapshot move, in the same style, on just about the same kinda sticks. There is really nothing left of individualism in this hobby but you'll see lots of posturing to create more sales....and new generational heroes.
So I make it a point to ride all the new stuff to keep a good perceptual balance on my surfing. There are no absolutes except birth and death....yet there is always a new horizon to awaken in yur surfing experience if ya can just break away from all the inundating central programming.
I'd ride one again if presented the opportunity....would I go outta my way to order or purchase one.....who knows....depends on the moment I guess.
Hey Little Buddy....it's not my thread yur hijackin'. If my giving some input on the pros and cons of the Aipa Stinger based on first hand riding experience is sooo inflametory...then perhaps I should just delete it all, address the more impotent issues of pissant interruptorious and let the pros google Aipa stingers
....damn that was a long time ago.Now the other Aipa stinger we had was the single fin version with the 10" box. Did everything a pintail could..and couldn't do. My brother loved that thing. It got destroyed against a cliff face on a macking high tide swell at AB in '78.
The "skate on water" act Aipa introduced with his team riders in that era has never died out...in fact it's became the ground rules for competitive surfing as everyone knows it....Bertleman took skateboarding into the water and the Industry never looked back. They had the foresight to combine the two and thus found a way to milk a larger consumer base......and the feebleminded masses bought into it.
The sticks coming out of OZ have the same loose feel...but perform better in that comparison....but they've lost the forward extended drive as a sacrifice for those tighter turning radius' as they skate over wave faces and fly through the air.....however the stinger still has better projection and pit drive in medium 5-8' surf.
As an evolutionary concept it was brilliant....truth was it worked better for standups as they could get greater fulcrom leverage than a guy on is knees...and it was that evenly distributed weight over the entire board deck for leverage that made them go...like ridin' a skateboard...ya just can't do it that well on yur knees.
I examined one of Zeek's sticks last year....it works for what he likes to do....so who's to say they are nonfunctional.....every board is functional....ya just gotta figure out what makes it go....then use it in the right place at the right time.
There is nothing new under the sun in Surfing or Surf Design....just combinations of old breakthroughs "reinvented" to meet the circus nature of today's surfing....and for the slow guys.....that's the all inclusive collective of the greater Surfing community, not the tiiny walls of KneeBoredom.
For the most part Surfing is stagnant, mired in a packaged formula geared for sales and contest points. All the pics look the same, everyone does the same snapshot move, in the same style, on just about the same kinda sticks. There is really nothing left of individualism in this hobby but you'll see lots of posturing to create more sales....and new generational heroes.
So I make it a point to ride all the new stuff to keep a good perceptual balance on my surfing. There are no absolutes except birth and death....yet there is always a new horizon to awaken in yur surfing experience if ya can just break away from all the inundating central programming.
I'd ride one again if presented the opportunity....would I go outta my way to order or purchase one.....who knows....depends on the moment I guess.
Hey Little Buddy....it's not my thread yur hijackin'.
If my giving some input on the pros and cons of the Aipa Stinger based on first hand riding experience is sooo inflametory...then perhaps I should just delete it all, address the more impotent issues of pissant interruptorious and let the pros google Aipa stingers shoulder huggin' chickens
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Smokin Rock
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toofast3
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RW…. Anything you want to try one of my boards, you’re more than welcome to.
I have never seen a real Aipa board. I have only seen them in pictures. I do know that they were single fins. Some of my boards are single fins and some are multi fin (meaning I have the option of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 fins). All of my boards have a 10” fin box, except for the board I got from Bruce. By putting more fins in, I know that changes how the board will react. Another part of the equation is board length. As most of you know, mine tend to be on the short side. This again, changes how the board is going to react. Like RW said this style of board fits my style of KBing. In my opinion, I believe that have been times that my boards have out preformed other boards of guys that I have surfed with. I know that their boards have out preformed mine. I ride my boards in ALL conditions and I don’t ride a curtain board for curtain conditions. I pick one and that’s the one I’m going to ride that day and I make the best of it.
Here is something else….. When I learned to KB, it was on a really thin fish. When I had my first board made back in the late 70s, it was in the Aipa style (which I still have). All my boards since then have been that style and I don’t see myself changing that. Even though I have ridden other KBs, I have never rode someone else’s board that has made me say to myself,” I have to get one these”. To go with that, I can’t tell you that this design has made me a better KBer, but I don’t know if I rode another design if I would be better either. I was once told by another member “that I was a good KBer and if I rode better equipment, I would be even better”. I believe I do have better equipment (with Bruce’s help) now and I do feel like I’m surfing better. Again, this board is in the Aipa style.
I think it all boils down to what you like and seems to work for you. I like the way I surf and I’m having fun doing it.
I have never seen a real Aipa board. I have only seen them in pictures. I do know that they were single fins. Some of my boards are single fins and some are multi fin (meaning I have the option of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 fins). All of my boards have a 10” fin box, except for the board I got from Bruce. By putting more fins in, I know that changes how the board will react. Another part of the equation is board length. As most of you know, mine tend to be on the short side. This again, changes how the board is going to react. Like RW said this style of board fits my style of KBing. In my opinion, I believe that have been times that my boards have out preformed other boards of guys that I have surfed with. I know that their boards have out preformed mine. I ride my boards in ALL conditions and I don’t ride a curtain board for curtain conditions. I pick one and that’s the one I’m going to ride that day and I make the best of it.
Here is something else….. When I learned to KB, it was on a really thin fish. When I had my first board made back in the late 70s, it was in the Aipa style (which I still have). All my boards since then have been that style and I don’t see myself changing that. Even though I have ridden other KBs, I have never rode someone else’s board that has made me say to myself,” I have to get one these”. To go with that, I can’t tell you that this design has made me a better KBer, but I don’t know if I rode another design if I would be better either. I was once told by another member “that I was a good KBer and if I rode better equipment, I would be even better”. I believe I do have better equipment (with Bruce’s help) now and I do feel like I’m surfing better. Again, this board is in the Aipa style.
I think it all boils down to what you like and seems to work for you. I like the way I surf and I’m having fun doing it.
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kidrock
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[quote="RW"]kidrock.....I was one of those cats creeping around South Mission back then. ....damn that was a long time ago.
hey RDub, you're dating yourself way too much, my brother 
I'm with Zeke. Who gives a flying f@(k through a rolling donut about what you ride...it's all about the guy having the most fun!!!
And let's face it, whether you'd ride one or not, those old stinger shapes are just plain cool.
....damn that was a long time ago.hey RDub, you're dating yourself way too much, my brother
I'm with Zeke. Who gives a flying f@(k through a rolling donut about what you ride...it's all about the guy having the most fun!!!
And let's face it, whether you'd ride one or not, those old stinger shapes are just plain cool.