Alaias in Japan

Well, the surfing is not particularly awe-inspiring, but the alaia stoke is spreading around the world. Here, we see a booty-glove wetsuit man putting an alaia through its paces:

Wooden Surfboard Armaggedon

Wegener narrates this crazy collection of everything from 20-foot toothpicks to massive D-fin aircraft carriers to alaias. Be on the look-out for the Tunas. Very cool.

Wegener Alaias -- The commercial?

Heydon Bunting -- Seaworthy

Great sequence. A visual representation of "waterman".

Alaia Surfing on the North Shore

The alaia in its historical home . . .

Alaia Shaping Manual For Sale

I got this in the email recently. Unfortunately, I have not seen a full copy of the manual so I cannot give you a review. However, based on the description below, it seems like it might be worth the money. (Link to the ordering site appears at the end of this post.)

Alaia Building PDF Manual
This instruction manual contains everything you need to know about building an alaia surfboard.

With 43 pages of information, over 4000 words and over 60 high resolution colour photos, every step of the process is covered, including:

SELECTING WOOD ROUNDING THE RAILS
PATCHING HOLES FINE SANDING
BURNING LOGOS AND DESIGNS FINISHING
INSTALLING LEASH PLUG OILING
SURFING AN ALAIA SUPPLIES
DESIGNING/PRINTING A TEMPLATE CUTTING THE OUTLINE
SHAPING RAILS PLANING/SANDING
SHAPING THE NOSE

The manual also comes with 10 free Digital templates that are tried and tested extensively by us in the surf.

After your purchase, we will email you the PDF instruction manual and the templates, usually within 12hrs. This means that it is available to ANYONE EVEN IF YOU LIVE OVERSEAS. All prices are in Australian Dollars. Currently, AUD$14.99 is equal to about $12.50USD.

As this product doesn't require shipping, please select the PICKUP option for delivery. If you do not live in Australia, do not worry - as long as you have put in the correct email address we will be able to email it to you anywhere in the world.

If you need it sooner, please call us on 0412 042 811 and we will organise to have it sent as soon as possible.

Please note that if you buy one of our blanks, the PDF manual is already included free of charge.

HERE is the LINK to the order page.

Stubby Alaia; Alaia as Bodyboard

This may be the direction that alaias take as far as the general population. While people who don't know how to surf will likely not be predisposed (or even able) to learn to surf on an alaia, it seems lots of people might like the speed and maneuverability of the shorter alaias.

Check out this video.

Alaia Shaping Video

The video below may not be a paint-by-numbers video, but if you know woodworking basics, you can probably figure out everything you need to do by watching this video. The only thing left out is the linseed oil coating process.





Props to Woodensurfboards for the find; and to Charles Loiselle for putting it together.

Reader Comment

"Kahi" posted a comment to my Boiled Linseed Oil post, and included a link to the following video, which apparently shows him surfing a pine alaia. Here is the description from the YouTube page:

Roscoe shaped me this alaia, been riding it for about a month and am completely hooked. When the surf is smaller all I ride is this thing. Its made of pine, 5'8", 1" thick, tapered rails, and a single concave. It used to be a 6'6" but we cut about a foot off of it so it would fit in my board bag. Glad to say it still works. Jeffreys Bay is unreal, this place is awesome. Thanks to Louise and Rich Hambloch for filming.

Here is the video:

Alaia + SUP = huh?

Okay, here is some crazy Frenchman combining the two biggest trends is the surfing world: SUP and alaia. Both trends have their detractors; both their advocates. I have no idea what to think about this craziness. I will say that I hope no nut-job tries this in a crowded line-up because someone is going to get hurt. Furthermore, if this is the only way you can get barreled on an alaia, you should probably reserve your alaia for trimming and your thruster for tubes.