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My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

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Dimitrios
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My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby Dimitrios » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:37 am

Hello everyone!
As you understand im new here, as this will be my first board!

I recently tried kite surfing on a strapless board and it was really fun. However as i just purchased a new Twintip recently and thefore i dont want to spend money on a strapless surf board as well. Hence i decided that building one my self is a good excuse to spend same amount of money, if not more, and get one while i enjoy the process.

So! I have a lot of questions, and many more will come up as i go deeper into planning this, but for the time being my question lies on the core material. From what i understand EPS foam is good for surfboards, however in kite surfing forces are higher and foam is no longer preferred? (yes? no?) :?:

Goal is to have a ride-able board, either for light winds or for normal freeride/cruising. No straped-in jumps if thats the problem for Foam...

Pleased to hear your feedback and advice! :thumb:
Peace - Dimitris
Last edited by Dimitrios on Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

alexvych
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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby alexvych » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:43 am

Hi Dimitris, I was in same situation and built my own strapless board. now I can tell u that better solution is to buy second hand board around 250 eur than trying to build your own. total budget of ur build would be around 200 eur + u wont make shape as good as proper surf board.

Dimitrios
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My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby Dimitrios » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:54 am

Hey alex, i would like to see the process and make an estimate of the cost and time before i decide to do that. I think i will quite like the process of building and might end up building several boards. Thus i would like some guidance on core material, as i understand foam is not strong enough and will bend and brake.

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby downunder » Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:41 pm

If I may,

The problem is expectation. Very rarely the first board is great. Very very rarely.

After 7 years of building and numerous failed attempts by many people I can say only persistent attempts succeeded.

Hence, you might be way better off with building an Alia. Look for Zob user thread.

An Alia is super simple and super fun. Infact, I have customers constantly asking for them but I'm lazy recently :)

The wood for Alia varies. Get whatever you can, glass it slightly and off you go.

Remember it is not about the final result, but the journey, building new skills all together. That is the aim well worth investing in.

And enjoy.

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby Dimitrios » Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:17 pm

Hey downunder, thanks for your tip. Will definitely look into starting from a simpler shape like an Alaia, but for my reference, is foam usable or not? what kind of coating would require to make it withstand the forces?

Shall i forget foam and move into wood? why is that ?

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby downunder » Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:40 pm

I do not work with foam, so can't tell. Well, I just finished some work on my HF board and the foam was 'eaten' with a polyester resin. The top of my board is a bamboo veneer, hidden below glass. It's a production board, just making it smaller, so that's a tip for you.

99% of TT are wood + glass fiber. Nothing to loose and it will never break.

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby Dimitrios » Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:54 pm

:thumb: Cheers, will go ahead and investigate further on wood + glass fiber. Reverting with further questions :D

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby phuqit » Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:09 pm

I tried making my first twintip light wind board using wood core and carbon fiber: viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2399912

For a strapless board, you can just fiberglass+epoxy the whole shape, your only worry are the fin mounts, which you can simply pour using epoxy and some kinf of fiber reinforcement. You also need a vacuum bag+pump to get rid of the bubbles... If it's a one-off project, simply buy a cheapo used one, I think your budget for fiberglass, decent epoxy, core material and vacuuming consumables will be no less than 200-400€, depending on what you can source locally.

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby phuqit » Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:13 pm

For what it's worth, Flysurfer Razor uses a 1.2cm AIREX core, not sure if it's the Airex C70-75 or C70-90 one, Divinycell has HD-100 or some such. Lookup PVC foam cores, there are more to chose from.

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Re: My first kitesurf board! Eps Foam okay ?

Postby TheJoe » Sun Jul 22, 2018 3:58 pm

The reason traditional surfboard design is not well suited for kite is lack of reinforcement. Most traditional surfboards have very little fiberglass which helps keep them light and aids in the flex of the board. Kite surfboards use more layers of glass and heavier cloth. They don't flex as much and are little bit heavier. EPS is fine if you reinforce it with enough glass. I have only made twintips using divinycell foam and one wood core as my first test.

If you want to make a strapless board I would recommend trying to do a skimboard first. A surfboard will not be an easy task. I have watched videos on it and it is a long process and not easy to tackle for your first board.


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