I was reading an advert in Windsurf for the latest JP boards. the text basically said that they had carbon/carbon Kevlar boards and that you could see this through the gel coat. They also went on to say that "other" boards have black glassfibre to look like carbon. I wasn't entirely sure if this was the case until I went to fix what i thought was a small "problem" with my new board*. It turns out that my "double sandwich" board has absolutely no divinycell on the rails in the nose area - it's straight fibreglass over foam! So what could have been a small crack ended up in a 20 cm long split that i had to cut out and re-glass over. My concern is that this will happen everytime the mast and board comes together. Not ideal for a wave/freestlye board!
Not sure if this is a common thing with boards, but i know my RRD FSW was a lot better constructed. Anyone else had this situation with their boards?
Anyway rant over.
*for liable reasons i won't mention the make.
That's criminal!
Nose rails should be the most reinforced part of the board imo 
I hope you put a decent number of layers of glass over it so you don't have to redo it too soon...
the pro model JPs are carbon construction, the normal one aren't, had to repair a few in the past, i haven't come across a board with carbon or anything since the old Fanatics, the new waves use kevlar as well as most of the older modael wave boards and i know this because it's a bitch to work with.. even the formula boards don't have any, just wood with a thin layer of glass.. just finished repairing 2 this week..
Hi crash , I am a bit confused about what I am seeing in those photo,s . The pink stuff is definitely PVC foam , be it divnycell or another brand . I am not sure what foam I am seeing along the rails , I would say it is also a high density foam not the EPS core , is it a light green colour ?
I don,t think you have a board that just has glass straight over the EPS foam core , I would be very surprised if that were the case .
Remove your breather plug and look inside , pretty sure the EPS core will be white . I can,t see any white foam in the photo , so I,de bet the stuff on the rails with be a high density PVC ,but I may be wrong ????
The brand you don't wish to mention don't make boards at Cobra , they have their own factory in Eastern Europe ( I think )
Black glass to look like carbon sounds dodgy , but I suppose that unless they are advertising that the board is real carbon , which would be fraud, then thay can make the glass any colour they like . Still dodgy if it is genuinely happening .
Good luck with the repairs.
Looking though boardlady.com (great site if you are thinking of doing repairs) she uses both grey and green pvc.
I had a "Speed" slalom board which used "coremat" instead of pvc and it is a bit like chopped strand mat. Maybe that is what you had. I was of the impression when AHD stopped making in Switzerland they move production to Tunisia. I think they now get Cobra to make them.
Buying a board is like buying a pig in a poke. You never know what's inside till they break. I also have seen a major brand's top slalom board which stated prominantly on the deck "carbon sandwichwich" broken clean in half and not a black fibre was visible in either the inner or outer skins. But the you have to ask. Did they know this? Maybe Cobra was charging them for carbon boards and giving them glass. Maybe Cobra specified carbon but the worker put in glass? The fact that it broke in half whilst sailing through chop, was only a few months old and never jumpered suggests something (a layer of carbon) was left out in manufacture and it was not the brand but Cobras fault.
That foam you can see is the divinycell 
dig deeper and you'll find the soft expanded polystyrene foam blank 
Pure carbon boards do tend to be fairly fragile in certain aspects because as mentioned above it's impact resistance is pretty poor. I've got an F2 Maui Project and it's almost all carbon, I know this because i've repaired/hacked fair sections of it ;) , and to be honest its impact resistance is pretty poor. My RRD wave board on the other hand is made from a Carbon/Kevlar weave and it's pretty much bomb proof. The difference is phenomenal.
Even though almost every board comes out of the Cobra factory it's the manufacturers who specify the construction/layup and that makes a massive difference. From my experience RRD, fanatic, tabou are some of the better ones, Starboard, JP some of the sketchier. I think JP went through a bad period a few years back because I saw a lot of snapped boards, they seem to have stepped it up though. I seem to recall AHD have a reputation for light boards, maybe they've been taking a few shortcuts :o
If you want something done right, get Bluejuice to do it. 5mm thick D-cell rails ! and real carbon fibre.
JP tend to use wood in there boards, this makes them stiffer and usually lighter.. yer the coloured foam looks like anything but styro, would be high density for sure. chop mat is usually in all the tuff skin boards like the F2 rides from a few years back..
Yes the current model JP's due use carbon/kevlar constuction in their pro models but this comes at the cost of durability as they are built to be light and stiff, i found this out after having 2 slalom pro editions fail after only 9 months of use (the fin box broke in the first one and the second one creased and fractured across the deck just behind the mast track) So beware if you ever think about buying one 
You'll know as soon as you ride a carbon board thats it,s the real thing . The ride is noticably "crisper"and livelier . Wood boards are more passive and also quieter .
Having ridden *starboard wood boards for quite a few years and now sailing full carbon boards the difference is really noticable . You do need to treat carbon boards with alot more care , but the reward is that super stiffness that you cant get with other materials .
You know what? My first AHD, a Race 300 (140 litres), developed a crack across the board about a foot and a half back from the nose, and it eventually became so soft and soggy in that area that the board didn't seem safe to use anymore.
Many of the other AHD boards at the Singapore club from that era had long since been thrown away due to delamination, etc.
My current (secondhand) AHD Free Diamond 65 (110 litres) had a dodgy mast track which broke twice and has now been replaced.
BUUUUUT...
The two AHD boards I've owned (both made in Switzerland) have been a sheer pleasure to use, especially the Race 300, which ate up chop like it wasn't there, and gave me some smooth, exciting overpowered rides through some crazy storms in Singapore. Including a couple of Sumatras, which are badass storms indeed...ah, those were the days...
Not sure why I wrote this...kind of to stick up for AHD and yet run them down at the same time? What?
dig deeper and you'll find the soft expanded polystyrene foam blank
Wonder what construction this one was...
windjunky.blogspot.com/2006/12/oscar-grouch.html
The AHD factory was moved to Tunisia in 2005 along with Thommen1. But T1 has moved to china to produce boards in the factory that makes the America's cup boats.
Definately with the higher prices being charged for Carbon less is being used in boards and there are very different specs going around out there. Tabou is using double full carbon for their Team addition while the STD construction uses Carbon only in high stress areas under the deck pads and around the mast track.
Not sure if I believe the following info from the website, unless things changed after my board was made!
Interesting , You can clearly see there that the grey/green stuff in the photos of your board is high density PVC . There is no section where the EPS core does not have a sandwitch layer over it . It,s only double sandwitch in a small area though .
Mr Love have a look at this latest photo with explanations - it clearly shows the area where the divinycel stops and where you can see the EPS core:
I also found this photo on Board Lady which I think is very similar to how this board made:
Same type of damage as well.
And this photo shows what it shouldn't (top) and should (bottom) look like if you want a decent strength rail:
Yep , you are right , I stand corrected . Certainly not what is shown in the cross sections on the website . I cant understand why they would not have high density PVC on the rails . You want the impact resistance that the high density gives plus if it does get damage it will only expose the PVC ( unless it,s a huge whack) and won,t take water .
Hit that AHD hard on the rail and you are through to the core , sponge city ???
Again , good luck with the repair and make sure you put plenty of glass there , even some kevlar , but it,s a prick to work with .
Regards Martin
Construction I guess, It's a lot of work to get the cheaper high density foams to bend round complex curves.
It takes me several hours to heat bend 3mm herex to fit a deck and rail shape.
5mm airex on the other hand is much easier.
The alternative is coremat, doesn't need prebending, probably as strong, but a bit heavier.
I made a couple of boards from closed cell styrofoam, the blue stuff. about 30kg/m3 I think, this is much stronger than the normal 13 or 16kg/m3, so I didn't bother bending the top sandwich foam round the rails. Both these boards are still fine after about 10years.
They have recently changed the make up of Divynicel. The old stuff was a pain in the arse to heat up and bend around the rails but doable with time and patience. The new stuff is heaps more flexible and way easier to bend around tight complex curves. It also seems more dense and less likely to soak up resin. Only down side is the new sheets are slightly shorter than the old ones.
Thanks hoop, haven't used d-cell for years because of that, but looks like my supply of herex is drying up, so next time I may try d-cell again.
Why dont they use EPP foam for the cores ect?
Expanded poly propylene or x-cell i think it is also called , doesnt take in water doesnt rot and it springs back to shape if its bent?
the only reasone i can see is that its a lil bit heavyer than regular foam. probably a bit more expensive too?
Touchy subject that one. I had some issues with my vacume pump. I'm too embarrassed to talk about it publicly so I'll pm you or catch up down the beach some time. (nearly got one finished though)
I won't say what Eva (the Board Lady) said about my board, or recent boards she's repaired by the same manufacturer, but I will let you into a little secret she told me.
Eva has repaired a lot of noses of boards and fits Nose Padz to a lot of these boards. She has not repaired one board with a Nose Padz fitted. These Nose Padz made by North Shore Inc are postable from the US.
It sounds like I need to get one and will let you know what i think once i have tried it a couple of times.
www.northshoreinc.com
