I have been using a cork product for about 5 months now and I am really impressed with the stuff. I am a board builder and specifically a vacuum bagger. I have been doing it for 26 years making sail boards, surf boards, rescue sleds. I have been on the sup bandwagon since the beginning making and selling eps blanks in the early days when clark closed. I have always been vacuum bagging wood and other high density foams on foam for board manufacturers on Oahu.
As a disclaimer, I do not work for "Corecork" and I am not compensated in any way by the Corecork distrubutors.
The product I have been using is called "corecork". It is a engineered cork veneer that has different densities and thickness for different applications. I have used both the NL-20 and NL-10 densities. The rolls are 48 inches wide and 100 plus feet in length depending on the thickness. I have been using the 2mm thickness.
Intuitively I thought he lighter, less dense NL-10, would make the lightest product but it actually sucked up more resin and came out at similar weights as the NL-20 higher density cork(12 lb density I think).
I made 20 plus surfboards and 1 hybrid sup/longboard windsurfer. I did full rail wraps on all boards. The boards all came out super nice,strong and light.
I used 4oz cloth between the corecork and foam during the vacuum bagging and then glassed with 4 oz over the cork skinned board. I did two tow boards and I used 6oz instead of 4 oz cloth for desired added weight. I personally think this product will be the next new thing in composite SUP construction.
Advantages:
Wayyyyyyyy cheaper than carbon fiber, herex and divinyl cell high density foams.
less expensive than wood veneers and replaces any of those applications.
Build time to skin board is 1 day(bottom and top in 6-8 hours total time/2hrs actual work time) Full wrap wood veneer could take 3-4 days
Easy to wrap difficult contours/rails
Relief cuts sand to a seamless finish
Easy to store in 4 foot length rolls
Very environmentally sound product, made from tree bark
Waterproof, adds an extra layer of protection to your board
Disadvantages:
Looks- plain brown package is not very attractive. Can easily add color or brushed carbon look to boards.
I just wanted to share this information, because if you just go buy any cork off ebay or from a office supply store you might be getting an inappropriate density for what you need. Google Corecork and check out their composite website for more info.
warmest aloha,
Charlie
Loving this stuff! These are done using NL-20 with a 4/cork/6 oz sandwich on the decks. 2x2 carbon fiber rails and 4/4 oz bottoms. These are 8'6 and weigh 16 lbs.
The cork is not only cheap, readily available and easy to work but also has great dampening properties and is light and bullet proof. That and you can pin your grocery to it!
Hi Charlie/L41 and welcome.
That was one of the most interesting things I've read on here and it makes a lot of sense. I am waiting to get some info' back from cabrinha about the type of cork and construction methods they use so I can post it and get some comparisons with all the awesome information you guys are putting up about the product. Ok I suppose someone had to ask - What exactly is "cork" as used in surfcraft manafacture ? Is it like the bark off a tree or a composite material made into a useable roll of laminate - kinda like wood is turned into paper - or what ?
You may have to dumb it down a bit because I am no CMC (he would be loving this construction stuff)
I think it's great that we are talking about construction for reasons other than trying to make a board lighter - it's refreshing to hear people talk about how to make a board "better" (better weight, better performance through more shapeable materials, beter to work with for the shapers and in some ways better for the environment maybe)
B
Amazing post, almost a little swaylock esque. Stoked.
Interesting about the porosity of the cork with density. Will check out the corecork availability in Aust.
Cool!
Thanks for the great posts guys.
Not sure about the look of the exposed cork though. I can imagine everyone trying to squeeze them to see if its soft!
I know its strong but when you first see it you think "cork? cardboard would be stronger"
Those 8'6's look really nice. 
.... I can imagine a good handful of Pearl Fleck dust being thrown on that cork before the final top coat ....
Hey,
L41surf I saw your stuff on swaylocks and your boards are very nice. I would love to try one.
I will however disagree with you on the cost of corecork. I got 131 feet x 4 FEET wide x 2mm thick for $232 american dollars.(shipping not included) My 4 INCH x 150 feet carbon 5 oz tape roll cost $327 american dollars. I am doing my taxes now so my receipts are in front of me.
Consider your next SUP leaving all the carbon fiber off and replacing it with the corecork. My savings per board would be $40 dollars and an 8'6" x 18 inch piece of corecork left over for a surfboard. Spray your rails black with the CF netting to give the same look. You should also consider just wraping the whole board with 4oz cloth above and below the corecork.
Also the 1.5mm corecork is about $180 per 131 foot roll. That is what I am trying next.
I could be wrong about the durability because I am only in this a few months. So far no returns and my tow boards are taking lickings with no problems. When you see the corecork website what they use this stuff for I am pretty confident this will make boards more durable at the least and strong and lighter with the right combinations of foam core and lay up recipes.
Hi Foxsup, cork is made from tree bark. It is water proof also. For those environmentally conscious, corecork means even more of this renewable resource (tree)was used with the initial harvest. Also I suggest this will increase durability and longevity of the boards made which means a quiver lasting a lifetime.
Corecork has a long history in canoe and kayak building. I think the carbon fiber saved on the clubbie ski pictured in this thread would buy a couple of 131 foot rolls of corecork,
For me it is great for another reason. Corecork is a little less expensive than a full balsa wrapped board. But time spent working on the board is 3 times quicker for the total skinning of a foam core. Because of the ease of wrapping rails, blending relief cuts with no effort, makes this product valuable for the back yard builder to the biggest asian factory making boards.
Stundupper,
I totally agree with the aesthetics of this product. Unfortunately I am unskilled in the area of tints, colors and pin lining. Bulldogpup's suggestion with the pearl flecks makes great sense to me. I am just getting some experience with the product in the lay up recipes. The aesthetics I will leave to the pros. I was thinking the brushed carbon look might do ok with this. Brushed carbon is certainly functional but ugly as hell in my opinion It also lets everyone know you spent twice as much as everyone else on their SUP. I think if the right surfer used a full brown board and was ripping on it, brown might be the next cool thing. For me, cutting costs and time with a superior final product is my goal. Wish I could predict fads, coolness and other factors that have nothing to do with performance and quality.
Below is my feeble attempt to color my fully corecork wrapped SUP
warmest aloha,
Charlie
I made a test panel at work a few weeks ago with 5 cork panels, 3 Soric and 2 PVC cored panels all had different reinforcements (Carbon, Kevlar and Glass)but all were infused with VE resin supplied by Summit , All the Cork cored ones were S..T as the Cork inhibited the VE bonding. epoxy seems like the go !
The latest offering from Cabrinha in cork laminate construction.
Just a shame that they didn't have a clear coat on the deck so you could see the cork underneath - I'm kinda hooked on the look after recent posts 
