I made a Alaia recently for a customer who wanted a round tail. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work , but he wanted to try it. As I was making it, I was reminded of an article in The Surfers Journal, vol.15 issue 5 called Aloha Washington. The article describes the formation of a logging camp spearheaded by Ralph Emerson and Wilfred Dole (of the pineapple family).  Dole, being raised in Hawaii  was an avid surfer and knew how to build boards. So he built some, similar to the one’s he was using in the islands and he and Ralph surfed them in Washington. All of this happened around 1902, before George Freeth and it got me thinking, maybe this shape is a lost branch of alaia design.

This is a 5’10″ double wing quad made for someone in Hawaii. It’s basically the same template as some of the modern fish type shapes I’ve been making, but more foiled and rockered out and now with wings. It’s all balsa skinned w/ charcoal tinted birch ply fins. It’s finished with a sanded gloss that’s been further sprayed with acrylic (really slippery and fast).