Air screw - do you use it?

[Peter_Frank]

Like on our light sandwich windsurf boards, wingsurf boards also has the air scew so the board can "breathe".

Do you use yours?

I dont, would if I were travelling with plane, or if storing for winther - otherwise not.

As I KNOW for sure, if I open it, I will forget to tighten it the next day, and go in the water with an open vent

How about you?

And have anyone experienced issues, when not using the screw?

I havent, on windsurf boards, but still interested in other experiences.

Peter

[Dwight]

never used it on windsurf boards. All my boards today have gore-tex vents.

[windmaker]

I always use it ,.. in the summer. I live in a hot country, the temperature in my van can vary from 20 degrees at night to 40 degrees when parked in the sun. Had a custom made Wing board a few months ago (70l) which didn't have a vent, after a few weeks I had bulges in the skin when the board was hot. This is more likely to happen with larger volume boards.

Guess it is not so important in colder countries unless the board is brought in out from the cold into a hot house?

[slowboat]

Current state of the art is self venting screws. No fiddling needed.

[Herman]

I use mine just a little more than you (windsurf boards). If my Gas laws memory serves P1/P2=T1/T2 where T is an absolute temperature assuming constant volume. If I am correct, if the board has 15psi at 0 C and you warm it by 20 C then 293/273 = 1.073 and so 15 x 1.073 = ~16 psi. Be warned this is just of the top of my head and I am by no means current!

The only problems I have heard of with seams splitting was due to air travel in non pressurised holds.

Regards Herman

[Greenturtle]

Very hot sun, while sitting on a roofrack for example, can and will blow a hollow board without its vent open - how much it will handle of course depends a lot on the construction / condition / volume of the board, and under what condition the vent was sealed- if you close the vent when the board is full of cold dense air and then subject it to hellish hot sun you are pushing your luck.
Ive never heard of a board having an issue with vacuum? So, close vent plug when board is real hot and maybe its good to go ???

To answer your question, I use the vent every time on the one board I own that has one because it is a cedar strip construction with exactly 1 layer of 6oz glass over it. Not pushing my luck with that.

[phlow]

Yes I use it every time because I keep my board (F One Rocket V2) in the car 99% of the time and it gets warm in Florida. I keep a penny in my toolkit to open and close it.

[Herman]

Thinking back to my windsurf days when I took things a little more seriously I used to use the air screw to make the board blow rather than suck. Difficult because it is usually going to cool when it hits the water. But if I had opened it I would choose to close it when the board was cool. I go back far enough to remember hollow div2 boards that used to have a schrader valve to pump a small positive pressure before a race to make sure they did not take on water. It is also useful to manage a sucking pressure when you are doing board repairs.