THE HIKOI BEGINS....

kat is contacting adamJ to get some photos taken and will be leaving mid morning Saturday 1st December
comments:
Roy Stewart: posted 30 November 2007 19:11 "The new board bag has arrived, it's a beauty, please feel free to record surf sessions, dates, names, comments etc on the bag with marker pens, no obscenities please and only positive stuff as it's an expensive bag at $350 and I won't be able to get the writing off"
Here are a few of the first waves on the board:

:: Launch Day ::

RoyStewart 27 November 2007 17:53 "launch day was at Clyde st, we were there from 10 to 2 approx, nice clean little waves, board is very well behaved, and my surfing is very rusty ! We bought a new video camera this morning as the old one is toasted and of course the battery wasn't charged, so we plugged it in to the bus inverter and while it was charging I got the best few waves so they are not recorded, also the new tripod is super new and sticky so it's jerky panning no doubt, will post something later anyway. Still waiting for the boardbag, it should be here soon. We thought we might head over on thursday as some reports have the swell increasing but not sure if it's going up or down."

RoyStewart 29 November 2007 15:49 " Hi guys, Just got back from Clyde st, more grunt in the waves today and the cogs of the board operator meshing a tad better, got one noce wave and a bunch of closeouts. Just heard that the board bag is on the way and should be here tomorrow, so the beast is available hopefully from tomorrow lunchtime or so. . . it's over to you guys who grabs it and where it goes, I have tested the board it's all good and now will be occupied mounting a boardcam on the old 11'8" foilboard, starting a new SUP and finishing some other boards. Might be one ok wave on the video hopefully if so will post it."

New alaia & sanding the 13 footer

Paulownia seedlings at the beginning, The future primitive and it's first introduction to water(wet sanding) . . .showcasing pure Spring water from the Blue spring in Putaruru. . . And a peek in Roy's workshop at the shape of the Power Alaia. . .music by Phil Thornton and Hossam Ramzy called 'Last words of the Temple'

Vent and leash plug

Installing the leash plug and vent chain on the new 'Future Primitive' wooden longboard, music; 'Chocolate Elvis' by Baby Mammoth



Dmand " your tha Mayn Roy!! very admirable skills there brah..."

Future Primitive surfboard: installing the wooden fin

Roy setting a spitfire fin into the future primitive 13 ft wooden longboard, inspired by the 1920's Tom Blake designs. Woodwork for surfers! Music by solar fields 'union light'



comments:
RoyStewart posted 22 November 2007 "The board is all but finished, fin is installed, final sanding and polishing happening this arvo ! I'm going to take it for a paddle this weekend, and monday or tuesday next week, and then it's all go to go ( at least as soon as the board bag shows up, which should only be a few days now)We need to be sure that the beast's location will coincide with that of the Spudster during February/March, other than it's free to go anywhere in the country"

TheRealGroovn "three cheers for craftsmanship not being dead." C3PO " the pink gloves are a nice touch, offsetting the sexy look of that wood" swellseeker "hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray! looking good Roy. well done!"

Installing vent on future primitive wooden longboard

comments:
RoyStewart "Firstly I have it in mind to ride the board a few times before it sets off on its journey, just to check that its all good. I think the swell is going to come up, haven't surfed in 6 months, and also all my other boards are under repair right now so I don't have another board to ride. This will delay things by a few weeks, otherwise it's all go. I think I deserve afew waves on it first We have ordered a custom fitted board bag from Geoff at Surf Tubes, with three handles down each side so that two people can carry it ( a woollen board bag is ok except when it rains then it's a hassle. . . heavy and soggy ) so that will make transportation easier, also I'm putting an ATC2k waterproof video camera on the nose facing backwards, the idea is that everyone who rides it can make a record of it if they want to ( plus we all get some footage to check out )". By the way one of the purposes of the boardbag (RED) will be so that it can be signed with names,places, messages (nice ones) etc. . . who konows it might get to be signed by Bonga Perkins or Joel Tudor or Laird Hamilton or Gerry Lopez or Jamie O'Brien or Spud or Kat or RealGroovn or C3PO or Surfscab or Phoam or Oldscool or Hunty or Waves and all the sub 1000 members plus Daniel Kereopa and Doug Young but Maz isn't allowed. Nor is Helen Clark, unless she pays.

The Future Primitive Fin

Building the 13 inch Spitfire fin for the Future Primitive. This fin is laminated from 7 layers of 3mm Paulownia planks and glassed with cotton cheesecloth. Music is 'Fires of Ork' by Pete Namlook

Powersurfing Hikoi, sign up here

spud: Well what we basically need is a relay of surfers from Putaruru to Dunners and back to bring this board on it's tour. We have peope all over NZ, but we need to know where, soo sign up here soo we can plan a route.
Dmand put his hand up for a spin at Mangas.
TheRealGroovn suggested "assuming we can each get bits of good video footage and photos along the way, phoam... can you do the editing to stitch it all together? Can I volunteer to write the narration? This will be a really fantastic project."
hunty offered an Auckland to far north leg.
waves "Can do Pukekohe to kaitaia. Def keen to have a crack at some clubbies on orewa bar " dumbbell offered photography and video work for the upper SI
Father Ted made some suggestions " I'd be keen for a spin while it's in the 09, I'd happily paddle it out Forestry Pt given 1/2 a chance and a reasonable swell. Otherwise a wave or two at orewa when it's there would be cool, I've always thought you could have loads of fun on a really long board there, maybe try a tandem or two. I could airbrush a logo or something on it to commemorate the pilgrimage if someone wanted to come up with a design."
kat " Roy, any chance you could bring it through to Tauranga to start its journey? If so I would love to have a go and could probably get it up to the first Aux drop-off (Pukekohe?) - unless there's a Raglan rider out there wanting a go..............??"
paul cannon " im in, cyclone season, ill have a crack at some holow rivermouths, but i want it for a month if thats okay, we got prettylong waiting periods"

13th November Roy declared: What we have decided to do is this: we are going to send the Pipeline Challenge board which is finished (just needs the fin installed ) as it's going to take a couple of thousand to get it to Hawaii and the way it's going it looks like it's going to be too late fundraising wise to get it there for this winter on Oahu. If it goes next season that gives us about 12 months or so in NZ for it to do the rounds. So the upshot is that the board will be ready next week, and if the Spud is agreeable we can send it your way Kat to start the ball rolling.
HSJ - " 1. What colour is the board, so i can co-ordinate my bikini?
2.RG We have got to do the tandom standup on the board!! (on one of our epic chch waves), that way you can steer the beast!
3. I can prob help or share petrol with demand for the chch-dunners leg. Or depending on timing, could quite possibly do the length of the country drive to bring it back.
4. The waist leash was a joke aye??"

spud 13 November 2007 17:58 " Okay so it looks like the tour is starting on Dec 1 in Tauranga, where Kat will take it to Auckland. Hopefully Jabes or somebody can take it out to the West coast, and perhaps someone to take it up to Shippies. Then I'd say it's back to Auckland, down to Rags (we need someone who lives there) From there it would be good to get it to Taranaki. maybe Nimad might be able to hook it up with somebody. From there it's to Welly via Horowhenua (C3PO?), then to Kaikoura, CHCH, Dunners, Catlins. Maybe even a paddle on lake Wakatipu? It would be wicked to see it in Greymouth/ Westport, then back to Welly, Castlepoint, Napier, Mahia, Gissy, Whakatane and finally back to Tauranga.

Roy is being pretty trusting in allowing this to happen, so maybe we should arrange for insurance cover in case something bad happens to the board. We need the itinerary locked down with people we can trust to look after the board. We all need to agree where it's going to be stored and how it's going to be transported so that it doesn't get trashed.
I reckon photos at every step of the way would be good. Plus I like the Pink wettie idea. Perhaps someone could get hold of a pink rashie that could follow the board around."

About the Olo board

Father Ted: "It's interesting how you get a perception of things,
I've always assumed those boards are really heavy, even though I know they're hollow etc... they've just always looked heavy to me. It's not untill you see Roy working away on it that you realise that they don't seem heavy at all considering their length."

A question too, A while back Roy you advised someone not to hang 10 on it.. is that becauuse you don't rate noseriding or because the board would cartwheel? I just thought that with 13' of board in the water it might be enough to hold true

---

Roy Stewart: "Hi Ted, some are heavy, some not so heavy, this one is 28 pounds, my 17 footer is 65 or so.
The deal with noseriding this particular design is that you can do in some situations but it's a stalling move, the board isn't really dsigned for it, and if you try and ride it as if it is a noserdier its going to sulk in a big way, and you won't get the best out of it.

The deal is to let the board guide you, it shows you how to ride it.. . preconceived ideas are not very helpful, which is why complete beginners do well on the design. Basically the board is a tail rider, park yourself in the middle somewhere and go.

Going down the line don't trim straight like you would with a mal, she will sulk again, just hang high and let the nose and outside rail drop. .. . there is so much curve in the planshape that when the tail rail is working then the rest of the board is hanging out and down. it's impossible to spin the board out and it will hold in to the steepest walls, as well as being able to turn down the face anytime (never gets locked in ) so don't be shy to squeeze the board high up the face and then swoop back down whenever.

I will let you into a secret of the design, which I have kept to myself for years, partly because it can be hard to explain: The secret is that when the board is high on the wall and the outside rail and nore are dropped, then this angle of trim presents the fin partially horizontally, and it then acts as a big hydrofoil wing. . . (this doesn't happen with boards which trim level and flat).

The 'wing' effect of the fin is due to the angle at which the rail presents the fin, and it is one of the main reasons why the fin is so big. . .. the fin doesn't have to be that big to keep the tail from spinning out. . most board designers think that with such a narrow tail only a small fin is needed, but they miss the point that the fin is the main power in the board, the rails are just used to guide the fin and present it where it is needed. . . that's why they are so soft, they need to be able to release and hold without catchiness, so that precise control over the fin angle hapens instinctively.

Don't tell anyone, let them keep using tiny single fins !
The fin is ten inches long and 13 high, it's got loads of power and lift, a typical 10 inch Greenough flex fin just doesn't have enough grunt in comparison.
Those who grind the tip into the sand will be *$#@**& !!

A lid is not required but for rolling under on big days a lid is a good idea, as the strongest grip on the board happens when the arms are not way extended above the head but more bent, this brings the cranium closer to the deck of the board, and sometimes a slight tap on the head can occur if the lip comes down really hard, for the ultimate roll under grip #1 the head is pressed against the deck of the board and the hands pull the rails down hard, while the body hangs down as a sea anchor. . . the ultimate grip #2 isn't highly recommended, and includes the above plus wrapping the legs around the board. . . this method attaches the rider to the board more securely, but the catch is that without the body acting as a sea anchor the board will get dragged beachwards, the tail will dig in, and board and rider will cartwheel beachwards for a bit. .. . (not as fun as it sounds)

If the waves aren't that big and one wants to lose the minimum distance then grab the rails and extend the arms up as far as possible while pushing the body straight down, not quite as strong on the grip front but the whole shebang stays firmly put as long as the hand rail connection is up to it .
Hoping that helps"

RoyStewart 28 November 2007 22:19 " What we have done is 400 grit all over, with 600 in the tail area, 600 is supposed to be faster over 20 knots or so, so the tail gets a 600 wipe just in case. The sanding is all fore and aft for speed. Really a good sand to 1200 plus some silicone based car polish was what I was planning, just to keep the board really watertight and uv resistant ( epoxy isn't 100% watertight by itself), but went for the basic 400 instead as the swell was up. Basically, go for it just don't wear all the resin away"

How the Hikoi began

After Spud's original request to ride one of Roy Stewart's boards, and Roy's offer to make a 12 footer from scratch.
Beano expressed (after some rarking) his impatience to just see someone on the BB ride one of his boards in bigger waves. Discussion then leaned towards the use of the 13 footer destined for Hawaii for a Hikoi/tour around New Zealand where regular posters on the surfco bulletin board (BB) would arrange to meet, transport and ride the 13' board and document its journeys.
surfscab likened the journey to a Kiwi version of the legendary surf film 'Single Fin Yellow' and offered to support the boards travels to Dunedin.
dumbell suggested " How about we suss out a powersurfing circuit tour, and all chip in to freight this puppy around. Wellington, Chch, and Dunners. "
TheRealGroovn suggested "I think we oughta look beyond the notion of freighting. Nope, just sending the board place to place wouldn't do. Let's relay it person-to-person. I hereby put my hand up, if it gets to Welly, I'll come bring it across on the ferry and drive it in for the CHCH leg of the tour."
HSJ offered to transport the board in the Christchurch to Dunedin leg of the journey
Blunt' put his hand up to ride the wood in Wellington, Jabes at Bethalls and swellseeker at the top of the planet maybe meeting up with the Dunedin crew in the Catlins. waves was keen to ride too and deliver up to hunty in Kaitaia. Others who were keen to join the journey were marko sharko III, hunty and oldscool.

... and so the journey was born ...

"The Spud Preliminary Powersurfing Challenge"

Posted on BB by Spud:
Greetings people. You are all no doubt aware of brother Roy's challenge to them Yanks in Hawaii to try out one of his boards at Pipeline.

Well for a number of reasons it doesn't seem to have happpened yet. I'm thinking that they're basically chicken. Anyway, I have decided to take it upon myself to callenge Roy to send me down one of his boards and get me to try it out at my local. Now I'm not saying that my local is as heavy as the North Shore, but it has it's moments. I can think of just the wave to test one of Roy's boards actually.

so what do you say felluhs?