Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Forum for kitesurfers
Gpet78
Medium Poster
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2003 1:00 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Greece
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 0

What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby Gpet78 » Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:56 pm

Ok maybe equipment failures can be considered normal in an extreme sport with huge powers involved. I can understand as normal that my first boards 2002 and 2005 models broke after a while as they had some kind of foam core inside which meant that they could not stand much of abuse and hot landings. But I thought that board technology has progressed and boards don't break that easy any more. And actually that is true for my Airush boards, which are the only boards I did not manage to break wet . Unfortunatly I had my beloved airush TT stolen this summer, and I made a quick desicion to replace it with a TT of another brand (which I don't want to meantion wet) that was readilly available so that I don't lose any summer sessions. Now after 2mounths of use and just 14 sessions on the board it has broken in half. Vertical break in the exact centre of the board means that it was caused by the pressure during hot/hard landings, and I actually I had quite a lot of hot landings since I like kiteloops and was doing them with a new kite which I was learning it's looping behaivor. So inevitably some kiteloops went wrong and I had many hot landings. I am not a heavy rider (85kg) and I dont have any knee injuries due to my hot landings (I don't even feel any pain after a kiteloop/megaloop session). In the past I had broken Takoon, Naish, Xenon and Axis kiteboads. So what am I doing wrong? Stop kitelooping is not an option since that's what I like most in kiteboarding and I still have not hurt my self seriously doing them.
Low quality mobile photo:
20201013_200817 (2).jpg

User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50533
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 842 times
Been thanked: 2404 times
Contact:

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby Toby » Wed Oct 14, 2020 5:50 pm

choose a board that is not the lightest on the market?

Not sure if your boards are, but maybe it could be a reason.

Choose a heavier board and see what happens.

Wrong/correct?

SWO_kite
Medium Poster
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 11:57 pm
Kiting since: 2011
Local Beach: Belle River, Ontario, Canada
Favorite Beaches: Yes
Style: Foil/Freeride/Big air
Gear: 11m Reedin SM V2, 8m & 6m SS Raptor
128 Shinn Sunburner + 75 AL-mast + K wing
140 Best Spark, 133 Cabrinha Caliber
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 12 times
Been thanked: 21 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby SWO_kite » Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:09 pm

Is the fracture in the image on the top or bottom side of the board?
What direction is the fracture? (if you were to fold the board, would the bottom surface ends meet or the top surface?)
What is the position of the fracture? Center, off-center, under the foot strap?

Supplying board make and model would DEFINITELY help. Knowing board style, construction year and materials used will be a huge contributor to an answer.

How many boards have you broken?
Did they all break the same way? Similar ways? Different ways?

For reference, I'm 85kg, I've been using a 2009/10 Best Spark 140 for almost 10 years before the footpad strap failed. I've done hundreds of jumps with bad/hot/fast landings and never once did the fiberglass shell or plastic core show any form of damage that you are describing.

User avatar
Soleas
Frequent Poster
Posts: 457
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:42 pm
Kiting since: 1999
Style: BIG AIR
Gear: Epic Screamer, Flysurfer Soul
Brand Affiliation: Epickites Cyprus Rep/Rider, Kiteflex team rider
Location: Cyprus
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 43 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby Soleas » Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:29 pm

I had the same problem for years. I snaped about 6-7 boards all at the same place ( backfoot heel side ) after hard kiteloop landings. The only board that lasted on me and got the most abuse is the Epic Spartan. When I got it Dimitri asked me to abuse it as much as i can and try to break it. This thing doesn't want to give up, still goes strong and performs the same like when i got it.
These users thanked the author Soleas for the post:
Gpet78 (Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:37 am)
Rating: 3.03%

longwhitecloud
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3676
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:15 am
Style: Master Baiter. Oracle of windsport.
Gear: 2 sets of Flysurfer VMGs 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 15, 18. Foilboards ( Masts 75 90 110 125 Wings 880 950 1100 1350 1750) all with Ronix Ones attached. Soon to retire to Wingfoiling.
Has thanked: 108 times
Been thanked: 175 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby longwhitecloud » Thu Oct 15, 2020 1:28 am

the compressive strength of the core was not enough for whatever you did, or less likely the core was not well bonded to the reinforcements very common to occur where fins end under the board so all forces are directed to this point.

seems to happen to very thin boards more, maybe because they bet closer to their elastic limit faster... but the flex saves your ACL

My duotone board did this. Try and find the old board you had. All boards have a maximum force they can handle

TheJoe
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1740
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:13 pm
Local Beach: Texas city levee, Galveston, El Jardine and Crystal beach.
Style: Freeride, Foil, Surf, a lil freestyle
Gear: North Reach 7,9,12
Brunotti TT
Moses 633/483
Dwarfcraft Micro
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 120 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby TheJoe » Thu Oct 15, 2020 2:13 am

Go wood core. Way stronger and less likely to break that way. This is one of those trade off you have to give up light for durability.

User avatar
edt
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 7329
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:27 am
Kiting since: 2010
Local Beach: Michigan
Gear: ride hard, no regrets
Has thanked: 533 times
Been thanked: 668 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby edt » Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:13 am

There's a huge difference in board strength. Some brands snap on any hot landing others you can crash into a buoy with.

salvatoreone
Rare Poster
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:40 pm
Local Beach: Sandgate QLD
Gear: twintip/hydrofoil
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 12 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby salvatoreone » Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:06 am

Cabrinha CBL boards are indestructible, can't imagine you'd brake it so maybe that's the go. But keep in mind they are also a bit heavier than other boards

thewindego
Frequent Poster
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:13 am
Local Beach: Wolfe Island
Gear: core and windego boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 32 times
Been thanked: 38 times
Contact:

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby thewindego » Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:21 am

From the pic I can see it is a wood core board. Probably a fairly light layup so its not a knee buster. So Boom no strength except the wood and there ya go. Wood is good but not a cure all.

Gpet78
Medium Poster
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2003 1:00 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Greece
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 0

Re: What am I doing wrong and I keep breaking my TT boards?

Postby Gpet78 » Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:55 am

thewindego wrote:
Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:21 am
From the pic I can see it is a wood core board. Probably a fairly light layup so its not a knee buster. So Boom no strength except the wood and there ya go. Wood is good but not a cure all.
Yes it is a wood core, not very thin either and a bit heavy I could say, it has less flex than my previous board which also was wood core but with a bit more flex and I had abused it a lot and did not manage to break till it was stolen. The board that I broke back in 2017 was also wood core and a stiff so maybe a stiff board with wood core is not a good combination.
SWO_kite wrote: Is the fracture in the image on the top or bottom side of the board?
What direction is the fracture? (if you were to fold the board, would the bottom surface ends meet or the top surface?)
What is the position of the fracture? Center, off-center, under the foot strap?

Supplying board make and model would DEFINITELY help. Knowing board style, construction year and materials used will be a huge contributor to an answer.

How many boards have you broken?
Did they all break the same way? Similar ways? Different ways?

For reference, I'm 85kg, I've been using a 2009/10 Best Spark 140 for almost 10 years before the footpad strap failed. I've done hundreds of jumps with bad/hot/fast landings and never once did the fiberglass shell or plastic core show any form of damage that you are describing.
The fracture is on the bottom side vertical to the axis of the board and exactly in the middle / centre of the board. The cracke is facing out. 2017 model bought it new , wood core. I dont't want to reveal the company till I listen to what they will say about this. This is the 6th board that I break but in an 18 years period and the first 2 board were not made storng so they actually dont count.


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Blackened, Brent NKB, Da Yoda, droffats, edt, Google [Bot], Yahoo [Bot] and 331 guests