Surfing in the ancient style on a finless wood board has been overlooked for many years now. In Hawaii the board was called alaia. In Japan it was called itaka. There is evidence of early surfers riding this style from all around the world but in the early 1900’s this style vanished.

I visited Hawaii’s ancient surfboards in the Bishop Museum in 2004 and was very impressed by the craftsmanship and the beautifully subtle shapes of the boards. I went back to Australia and made some replicas and I was amazed at how much fun they were to surf. My enthusiasm was contagious and soon my friends were riding them too.

It has been several years now since I started riding them and my shapes have gone through many evolutions. It has been great fun experimenting with the infinite variety of shapes. I often start with a big board and continually reshape it after every surf to learn about how the different shapes ride. Eventually the board is too small for me and it is given to a grom. I recommend to fellow board builders to try this.

In my experience, I have never known a surfboard to be as successful as the Alaia. Everyone who tries one really enjoys the lively feeling of the board. The popularity of the boards is growing fast and many well known surfers ride them often including David Rastovich, Tom Carroll, Mike Stewart, Dan Malloy, Derek Hynd, Thomas Campbell and Dane and Belinda Peterson. These surfers bring notoriety to the boards and this helps me get the word out, but what is most important to me is that any level of surfer enjoys them.

How it works:
The thin, flat rockered board moves across the wave very quickly. The hard edge of the rail bites into the wave like a long fin and the gentle curves on the bottom hold the board into the face of the wave. The board is as light as possible so it accelerates quickly and the wood is sealed with oil which is slippery in the water. This makes the board move faster through the water like a fish.

The thin board flexes as you ride the wave. When in trim or when catching the wave, you push down on the nose giving the board a reverse rocker. This makes the board go faster. When turning you pull up on the nose making the board flex the other way. This makes the board turn quicker and then bounce out of the turn as it comes back to its natural shape. The right combination of flex, thickness, hard edge on the rail and the oiled surface makes for a very light, lively surfboard.

How to surf: The Lala
The ancient Hawaiians had a special word for how to surf the alaia. It was “lala.”. It is the controlled slide in the pocket. The way you do it is you use the edge of the board to hold in across a wall, then break free for a controlled sideways slide in the pocket, then grab the wave again to gain forward momentum. When you want to continue with forward momentum, you put weight on the inside rail and the board grips the wave and takes off again.

Alaia Boards: I make four styles of Alaias

1) Peaches: for lay down or prone riding

It feels like bodysurfing except you are going very fast. You really feel a part of the wave.

Length: 3’6” to 5’5”
Thickness: ½ to ¾ inches
Width: 15” to 18”

Peaches have a slight roll through the bottom and on the deck. The roll makes the rails thinner, gives the board a better flex, and holds the board into the wave better. Paddling out is effortless because you can easily push the board under waves and whitewash. The take off is easy because you can reverse the rocker by pushing down on the nose. This lets you into the wave early. They are very quick to accelerate. The oiled wood is faster and the flex more lively than foam. In the tube you can flex the board to get the best fit. When the wave closes out you can easily turn into the wave go through the back just as if you are bodysurfing.

I often ride peaches in bigger surf, especially closed out beach breaks. I can stay in the impact zone and duck dive under the sets with no problem and pull into tube after tube without getting pounded. I just pull through the back of the wave as it all shuts down. However, I have had some of my favorite surfs with my kids in tiny surf on peaches. Many boogie boarders don’t ride small surf because the foam is too slow - not peaches, you can still generate great speed on the tiniest wave.

I named this model “Peaches” after my wife. On the first experimental board of this shape, I wrote “Peaches” across the deck for Margie. The name has stuck and since then all the laydown boards of this design have been called the peaches model.

2) The Finley Model (Japan Hina)

This is my favorite style alaia because it works great both for lying down and standing up. It is for just about any wave, from huge to very small. Where I live, the surf is mostly small.

Length 5’5” to 7’8”
Thickness: ¾ to 1 inch
Width: 15 ½ to 18 inches.

It has a light roll on the deck and a concave running from the nose all the way to the tail. The concave is 3/8” deep. This really helps keep the board from sliding sideways too much and gives the board more traction in the face. The goal of the board is to give the board just the right amount of flex. With a good flex, catching the wave is easier and the board is very responsive to turning.

The Finley model is also great to ride prone. It is very fast in small waves and makes them very fun and exciting to ride! Because the board is so thin, you control the flex and fit into the wave.

I think this is most all round board imaginable. It rides tiny waves, midsized and massive. I went to Taiwan expecting to find small surf and I only brought a 6’ and 6’6” Finley models. To my utter surprise, the surf was very big on one side of the island. In the morning I rode the big surf prone and was able to handle big drops and a dangerous impact zone on the 6 footer. In the afternoon on the other side of the island, I rode small waves standing up on the same board.

Recently I was in Japan on a promotional trip. The weather was beautiful but the surf was very small. With regular boards, even the long boards, the trip would have been sad. But, with the Finley Model I had an absolute blast and surfed 6 hours a day. I visited many beaches where the locals were waiting for surf. I let them use an alaia and they were with me catching lots of little screamers. One local said, “This is a lot more fun than a boogie board.” I think so too.

3) Classic Gun shape for stand up surfing on bigger waves.

These boards are thicker, narrow, and have a deep concave from nose to tail. They are for catching over head plus waves and standing only.

8 to 10 feet long, 1 ½ to 2 inches thick and 15 to 16 ½” wide

The goal with this board is to hold into the face of large fast breaking waves. On the edge of the concave there is an edge or a chine that digs into the wave. In ancient Hawaii, there are legends of people surfing big, hard breaking waves like Sunset Beach. None of the ancient boards have survived and their shape is unknown. I think that this board could be like a shape that they used. This winter 2007/08 there will be some top surfers trying Sunset on this shape, so we will see how it works.

4) The parabolic shape.

These boards are all customs made for specific waves and surfers.

8 to 10 feet, 1 ½ to 2 inches thick and 17 to 18 ½” wide

They are made for people who want a longer board for paddling or for more rolling waves. I rode one at Waikiki and it was great fun. The shorter boards would be difficult because of the long paddle out to the break. The narrow middle and wide tail gives the board a great flex in the wave and this holds the board into the face. Also, the wide tail goes into the wave face and holds in like a fin. They are not easy to ride in smaller beach type surf. Because of the length, they pearl easily and you have to take off at an angle to the wave but on full waves, they are easy to maneuver and can trim way out on the swell, much further than you could ever go on a finned board.

Philosophy of the Alaia: Step light but stand tall

The Alaia is a very environmentally friendly board. It comes from plantation grown trees, often organically grown. The unused parts of the tree are mulched and on-sold and the leaves are fed to cattle. Manufacturing uses a minimal amount of fossil fuel energy and the only petrochemical by-products are found in the small amount of glue used. The board is sealed with linseed oil, gum turpentine and bees wax. When the board has come to the end of its use it disappears back into the earth. In this way the board steps lightly.

In ancient times, kids learned to ride waves on the shortest boards. This way they learned swimming skills and how to work with broken waves. As the surfers progressed in skill they moved to longer boards and learned to stand on them. It is unlikely that anyone of our time will fully comprehend how good the ancients could surf, but from what I have seen in three short years of riding the alaia, I suspect that the ancients were impressive, to say the least.

Now, people start surfing on long boards that are very easy to ride. Angling is a given with a finned board and skill is thoroughly compromised with the leash.

Riding the Alaia, the surfer is in a totally different mindset. You feel so much closer to the natural environment. The surfing is on a more universal scale. On modern equipment you may catch more waves and “rip,” but are you surfing better? Better than what? Riding the alaia brings a new level of difficulty which turns most people off. But lots of the world’s best surfers find that this brings more excitement and joy to surfing. When surfing the alaia you are more eye to eye with nature and standing tall.

The board itself:

The alaia will last so long that each one should get a name, but it disappears without a trace in the end. The shape is so simple that it is hard to see how it works, but each curve is of maximum importance. Each millimeter of roll, concave, thickness and curve makes a big difference to how the board rides. The board needs care with oiling and sometimes some sanding or repair work, bit it will take a lot of abuse and can last a lifetime. A good board is of great value because you can get so many years of enjoyment from it but relatively inexpensive at the outset.