I Got Your Alaia, Right Here

I Got Your Alaia, Right Here

Flat Wooden Planks as Function Instead of Fashion

March 14, 2009, 12:20 PM

By: Jon Coen

So we all know how incredibly popular this Alaia surfboard movement has become — basically hand shaping a rockerless, finless, piece of redwood, cedar, or pine and riding a wave on it.

If this economy keeps tanking, we might take a lesson from this guy.

One one hand, I think it's a cool movement toward being a more minimalistic part of society. But I doubt we'll see the day when anyone's quiver consists only of a 6 foot plank of cedar and an old front door.

On the other hand, dudes geeking out unnecessarily over them is just weird. I tried riding one last summer when my friend Ben McBrien and his family stayed at my house. He's an actual woodworker and built a sweet 5-foot cedar ride with a big swallow tail. We had a blast in two-foot beach break, but soon the phenomenon will get out of hand. (Plus SIMA can't be too jazzed.)

Anyway, I checked this cool little spot down here in the Caribbean yesterday, a mellow reef with a peeling right, and there's a dude out on a piece of plywood. This wasn't some traditional Hawaiian revival thing, nor a labored-over precision 9'0 Wegener wannabe craft. It was a piece of plywood like the kind you use to sheath your house.

No one was filming the next Woodshed Films release. The dude simply wants to ride waves and a plank is the easiest way to do it. It was much cooler than those of us milking each section on foam and glass or bodyboarders who ride this wave of no consequence. He had it planing, and stayed in the pocket all the way down the reef.

I started calling this guy Jimmy Splinters. He thought that was funny. I asked if he ever stood on the board and he said indeed he did.

This 'aint some hipster retro model. Think they sell wax at the lumber yard?

Didn't talk much, that Jimmy Splinters. But man, could he ride that piece of plywood!