Building a tiki

[tomtepops]

I’m about to build a tiki from a 220 cm long, 50 cm wide and 1,8 cm thick paulownia plank. I've got inspiration from this page: http://wooden-stuff.com/english/ and I’ll think I will make mine 220 cm long and 46 cm wide.

I need some advice on the bottom side, can’t find any info or good pictures.

Anyone know if it’s the same principle as the alaia, with a concave ca 2/3 of the board?
Is fins and a bent nose really necessary?

[alpaia]

Hello, I have built one tiki and really happy with it, please find hereunder my comments hope it helps :

features, by order of importance imho :

- small nose rocker. approx 10cm on the last 500cm, the rest flat. really helps with chop & waves.
also, you can really glide flat, use most of the rail to track upwind because you know the nose will not pearl.
Making the nose rocker requires steam, patience, a template, swearing a bit and accepting the wood may spring back.

-a small fin a the back (TT 6cm say) ... without it is skids in chop and you can't hold the kite - to track upwind you use the edge, but fin avoids total looseness on chop

-thin rails, they really bite into the water to get you upwind (say 10mm if the center s 18mm)

-straight outline not too wide, I made mine 50cm it is too wide I feel at the tail, ridiing in chop gets a bit difficult - 46 is probably good

-bottom contours (eg concave; side rails) I did not bother and I think you can create more drag than good, it is difficult to plane a perfectly straight concave in a plank...

- wood type & glassing :
difficult to find paulownia (in europe), glassing on wood is not that easy (it does take in unevenly the resin, and can be quite heavy)

I used spurce and only varnished it with marine varnish.
But : I put ash veener (22x 0.9mm) sideways to prevent splitting.
That is after iit splitting in two a good bit away from the shore aha

[RalfsB]

On the web there are lots of images and videos of alaias; here you can see how a classic bottom looks like:



I have built a couple (both wooden and composite), you can actually get pretty creative with the bottom shape. Some have it quite flat, some have narrower or wider single concave.
In my experience a completely finless board with straight or pulled in rails slides too much, it is fun for some time but then one starts wishing something more controllable. So on my boards I ended up adding some small keels or fins in the back.

[nixmatters]

I’m about to build a tiki from a 220 cm long, 50 cm wide and 1,8 cm thick paulownia plank. I've got inspiration from this page: http://wooden-stuff.com/english/ and I’ll think I will make mine 220 cm long and 46 cm wide.

I need some advice on the bottom side, can’t find any info or good pictures.

Anyone know if it’s the same principle as the alaia, with a concave ca 2/3 of the board?
Is fins and a bent nose really necessary?

Tom, I know Chris from Wooden Stuff and I'm sure he would give you some tips if you reach out to him. He was talking in one forum about a DIY tutorial he's working on.
I've had a chance to demo few of his boards and for a reason he calls them differently (KILAIA) - they are much more than just a tiki!

[merl]

- wood type & glassing :
difficult to find paulownia (in europe), glassing on wood is not that easy (it does take in unevenly the resin, and can be quite heavy)

I'm not sure exactly where you are, but a number of countries in Europe have a hardware store called Bauhaus. https://www.bauhaus.eu/

They sell paulownia wooden planks 2200 x 500 x 18
e.g.
https://www.bauhaus.info/leimholzplatte ... p/14084266

[Sencillo]

Hi, this is Chris Middleton from Wooden-Stuff - I can help you with building a Kilaia for sure.

The name is different simply because when I've been over to Maui the local kiters there strongly advised me to drop the TIKI name due to the simple fact that it could offend people who worship the TIKI gods. I do not want to get involved in a dilemma about the rights and the wrongs of a name but thought a 'Kite specific Alaia' should be known as a Kite Alaia hence our boards are called KI - LAIA's out of respect for a culture that may well find the misappropriation of a god's name offensive, this seems only logical & correct to me.

I've shaped & produced over 250 of these types of Kilaia Kiteboards so I have a reasonable understanding of what does and doesn't work

If you're after Paulownia 9 or 10mm sheets I can put you in touch with an EU producer of flat sheets or pre-curved blanks but the shipping will be expensive from the EU obviously. Have you considered using Red or White Cedar as they have similar hydrophobic qualities and the weights are not dissimilar? I'm thinking you can get this directly in the US of A which would make a huge difference in DIY board building material costs. Cedar is a wood used in numerous Surfboard building projects, hence the reason I know its widely available over in the states.

[Mikey]

If you're after Paulownia 9 or 10mm sheets I can put you in touch with an EU producer of flat sheets or pre-curved blanks

Chris, I'm in the EU.....yes please

[Sencillo]

OK Mikey so here you go:

iPaulownia, who are in Spain - your direct Contact is Guillermo Estevez : guillermo@ipaulownia.co.uk and he speaks good English

or

Miquel Coll at Paulownia natural Growers : info@wood-alaia-surf.paulownia.ws

You can order Paulownia sheets or blanks with rocker - if you need any further information regarding the deck shape just let me know and I'll happily share further information with you guys

[alpaia]

Thanks so much for sharing contacts of quality sustainable paulownia suppliers.