Carbon wave mutant

[plummet]

Ahhhhh!

After months of tinkering away in the shed my wave mutant is out of the press and ready for a test trial.

It has 55mm of rocker with 5mm of concave
A micro "kick" at the front.
radiused rails
3mm bamboo ply, tapered 4mm foamcore.
200grm unit carbon at 0 deg and 200gram matt carbon on the 45's on the bottom.
The top sees 200gm matt at 0 and 90 and plus 200grm matt through the mid section at 45's
stringsers of 200grm uni carbon at 0 and diaginals 15 deg

dimensions 145x45

[plummet]

oh yes. This time i used a mechanical press and vac bag at the same time!

[downunder]

Nice one Plummet

How is flex and weight? I guess quite light being 3mm bamboo and foam:)

Looks great

D.

[plummet]

Yes its very light compared to my vlam 5mm core bamboo mutant. But it is 145x45 so its not super light compared to normal tt's.

Flex is stiffer than expected it but to be honest its a perfect amount of flex.

[downunder]

Yep,

I thought so. The only thing I would add on is some foam under the foot pads. I hate seeing abraded carbon by sand and sheels under. 3mm semi hard foam really helps.

No rails? Heh, I can send you some pre made PU 1/4" wide if u like. This was the best thing I've made.

D.

[plummet]

Nope. I don't believe in plastic rails. Bamboo works just fine. You just need to make sure it's sealed up.

[rynhardt]

Looks real sweet.. as an aspiring board builder I've got some queries about the rocker..

I assume you measured the 55mm rocker from the centre of the board to the tip? So tips on either side are 55mm higher than the centre?

Do you consider this fairly aggressive for a kiteboard? It's almost in wakeboard territory..

And if the static rocker is 55mm, any idea what it is once your weight is added to the equation?

[plummet]

Yeah it is pushing the limits of rocker for a kiteboard. Yes tip to center section.

I wants to be able to get a lot steeper of big wave faces and my previous board with less rocker would catch the nose if I got too steep.

It remains to be seen if its too much rocker. IE Too power hungry.

No I have no way of knowing what it flexes too in the water.

I can say that it is the smoothes kiteboard that I have ever ridden.

[rynhardt]

Well your micro kick at the front should certainly help prevent the nose catching.

If you get a chance, could you measure the rocker with your weight on the board?
You could place a couple of phone books under the board between the fins, so you don't need to remove these and so they don't touch the ground, and stand on it.

Most of the bending should occur right in the centre of the board between your feet. In fact, while you're riding flat, the waterline is probably close to the centre of the board as well. Which means the back half of the board is carrying all your weight, with the front half being cantilevered into the air.

So depending on how much flex you've got, your 55mm of rocker may be less and the board would be faster as a result.

[plummet]

tip to tip flex with nothing in the middle is not an accurate test. When you look at the water line on the board it is typically on an angle and water force pushes the center section also. I'm fairly confident that my center section wont move much (its 10mm thick) and the tips will flex 4mm thick.