Unbreakable Wave Board.

[barelhunta]

A Call for help from serious waveheads. HELP!

Heres the story. I live and kite in Cornwall (UK) and have just broken my second wave board which was an airush converse 6'2" x 18.5".

Apart from the FCS fin system whic isnt great in a kiteboard i really like the board but now it has a crease for the full width and cracks throuh the rails i think it will be two board soon.

I simply cannot afford to keep breaking boards. I have just bought three rebel 08's and going through a board every 6 months isnt an option.

At roughly 6'2" tall and a 83-85 kgs (85 after christmas) i am looking to get a custom thruster made but i dont know what shape will best suit me but more importantly i am unsure about the best and most durable construction.

I started out with poly boards and have obviously surfed epoxys and i understand that there is a trade off between flex and durability but i need a board that can handle fighting its way out through the surf and last. I.e. it needs to go as hard as i do.

I do not intentionally jump my surfboards, but do pop to climb wave faces and sometimes fall of the back of swell, i..e recently in portugal the wind was on my bad side from the right and technique is noticably weaker in this direction resulting in some minor free fall and harder landings.

Can someone please suggest a construction technique that will prevent the crease from forming between my feet i.e. glass lay up and/or additional stringers etc. Suggestion for construction around fin boxes, rails and foot strap inserts would also be helpful as i thin a custom is the only way to go.

I have met a guy that does custom epoxy boards locally, remain open to options but need to know how to specify a board construction that will be durable.

[scklandl]

Stringered EPS and then skinned with divinycell or corecell, make sure they dont skimp on the glass either (9+ oz longitudinally)

[El nino]

yup - that's good.

my new board that is currently being shaped is stringered EPS with high density foam under the key foot spots. Bamboo wood veneer on top of that really helps with dents (and looks!) without effecting too badly flex or weight.
It's a big wave kiteboard & "small"wave towboard for me though, so I asked him to make it kinda heavy.

or you can get a tow-density blank. That helps a bit.

[ian c]

I have a polyester (pu core) board with triple layup top and base. I glued 10mm (less thick ok too - down to 3mm) high density pvc foam where my feet go on the deck - it has lasted real well.

[kitesurf66]

Save yourself the trouble and go with a proven, custom board by Dereck Camacho. Check them out. They are the best I have seen so far.

K66

[surfingwithkites]

The funny thing here is that all the construction methods and boards mentioned are the same. The converses, camachos etc are all variations on the eps core with stringer or partial stringersand divinicell and or wood skins. Variations on this sandwich theme are pretty much the best you can do right now for strength to weight ratio. You could get a custom eps blank with multiple stringers and sandwich it with carbon and 6 mil (1/4") divinicell on the bottom (instead of 3mil like all the above boards) and do carbon/1/8" divinicell/wood deck and it would last forever (except for fins ripping out) but it would have no flex at all and be very dead feeling.

It's a trade-off between flex and strength that cannot be escaped unless some new materials come along.

The new converses are stronger than the old but still light and have decent flex and are probably the best production strength/weight ratio out there but since I shape the masters I obviously have a bias. But try the 6'4" if you get a chance as it is more your size and a better shape than the old 6'2" (again a bias since the old 6'2" is not one of my shapes). They are still breakable, everthing that has a decent flex will be breakable. That's just life.

[Kevin Salter]

Save yourself the trouble and go with a proven, custom board by Dereck Camacho. Check them out. They are the best I have seen so far.

K66

Yes Dereck Camacho has full wrap double skinned PVC sandwich boards which is basically windsurf construction for his top strength boards and he appears to know how to compensate for the loss of flex with board design so it would be worth checking him out.

I have a custom 6ft 1" NZ Carbon Art ,that is full wrap epoxy PVC with a 5mm sandwich on the bottom and a 3mm sandwich on the top and it is awesome. It has a lot more rocker and concave than a poly board , so in the end it rides very similar in a fully jump and loop construction. Best board Ive ever ridden to date. Planes early , turns on a dime, doesn't bounce in turns and has heaps of range.

So get a custom from some one who has a proven concept working, but a word of warning, these type of boards are labour intensive so they cost a few bucks.

[surfingwithkites]

There really is no way to compensate for weight and lack of flex by adding more concave or rocker or anything else. You will still feel the construction just as all surftech boards have a similar feel due to flex and weight so will all heavier construction sandwiches like converse, camacho, etc. It is just the trade off you make for durability. You will always feel the construction in the way a board rides. It doesn't mean you can't find a heavy duty sandwich construction board that you like but it will never feel like a light flexy board like a firewire or a 4oz glassed poly blank.

[nab1000]

I would say its pretty much impossible to get an unbreakable wave board however you can get a super strong one. I have worked at a surfshop that gets over a hundred repairs done in a month, and have seen everything from epoxy punch outs, Top strength epoxy stringer boards, Hand shapped epoxy laminated vacum bagged boards, to tripple stringer 9 oz glassed longboards. Most all of em broken in half.

What i would recommend with my experience with theses boards is to get a size you would normally surf, and you could actually got an inch or two smaller. Bat tail/swallow tail (depends if you like a tight or loose board where bat is a tight more like a barrell board in surfing, while in kiting the tightness can be better for setting your edge), future quad set up, and go with a hand shapped/ epoxy sandwitch laminated vacum bagged board. This creates a much more flexy board than regular surftech punch outs, while still providing super strong (i sell these by walking on them while flipped upside down so they flex to flat on the floor) light weight boards. The cool thing about the epoxy sandwitch vacum bagged boards is that you can target the flex where you want it However even with this super strong lamination i have seen one broken in half out of the dozens i've seen go out the door the past two years, and i'm pretty sure it got ran over by a truck. These boards are also some of the best surfing boards that i have ever riden with out a kite. I can stand short epoxy punch out boards(long board punch outs are pretty sick though), and even regular epoxy stringer boards for regular surfing feel kinda weird for me.

Dereck is the man at doing custom surfboards/kite surfboards, and he offers the exact same construction that i just mentioned. I saw one of his epoxys and its pretty freakin sweet. He's super personable, and is quick to reply to emails. And even if oyu dont buy a board from him he will tell you what you need. www.dcboardz.com

hope that helps....

[scklandl]

SWK how much glass is on a converse? the 6' my buddys got is pretty darn light? cant be more than two 6 oz if that, a 6 and a 4?