Select to expand quote
Seajuice said..Has Sunova changed from bamboo to balsa finish? Or can we choose between both? The rails have changed too from seeing the older Skate. It didn't have the kick pad either. But heard it has now.
The rails I believe are of a silver titanium. The earlier boards had the neat looking criss cross pattern compared to the scratchy looking criss cross rails now with like a black undercoat as well. These I believe are the XXX Tech boards now that are the rustic look with blackened joins between the balsa slats.
I am assuming that this is a cheaper way of making the boards. That is no neat patterns in the rail. But unsure of what is the difference in cost between the balsa & bamboo. I heard the Bamboo is the strongest. But the balsa probably flexes better & absorbs the chop which is great for a paddleboard getting towards a short board feel.
But if the boards are just as strong, light & perform just as good or better. Then I am not complaining.
Some like the rustic look.
Hi Seajuice,
Let me help you with your questions above. There is a lot of assumptions in there and we are happy that our boards make people wonder how they are made. So lets dive right in. I hope you are ok if i keep your structure as basis here:
Question: 1) Has Sunova changed from Bamboo to Balsa finish?Answer: yes and no.
Most of our line is now the XXXTec construction which is BALSA.
We still have a small range of EcoTec boards, which come in BAMBOO tech.
Last year we have had a small range of SUP boards in the market, which were all with BAMBOO finish. But Bert and I were still working on our ultimate construction then which is based on Bert Burger's Balsa Flex Surfboard construction.
We now call this new BALSA SUP construction triple X (XXX). This construction with BALSA is SUPERIOR to BAMBOO in almost all points. Which are:
STRENGTH | WEIGHT: Due to the thicker sheet of the balsa we get the sandwich effect, which allows us to make the boards lighter and stronger. The composite sandwich works like this:
- 1) Use a thick super light material in the centre as core (EPS 12-14g/l)
- 2) then add a layer of fiber glass with resin around the whole core with several reinforcements finer in different critical places like fins area and standing area. this is create a bond between layer 1 and 3, but also to add strength. we usually use app. 80-100gr/sqm here.
- 3) add another layer of very thin and high density material to cover all of the inside core and the fiber glass. Most of the time this is 3rd step is "vacuumed" to layer 1 and 2. To really get the sandwich effect this layer should be at least 1.5-2mm thick. the thicker the sandwich material the stronger as the physical formula behind this effect links the thickness squared to the rest. Meaning: if you double the thickness, you square the strength.
- 4) now in an extra step we laminate as any custom shaper would do a surfboard. 1st the bottom, then sanding, then the deck, sanding, filler coating sanding and so on
In a way this explains right away why a BAMBOO "sandwich" is not as good if your intention is strength and weight. As we explained above it says that the balsa we use is app. 2mm and 80-100g/l. Bamboo on the other hand is app. 600gr/l, which means we (in fact anyone out there using it for boards) can only a very thin mostly 0.6mm veneer sheet, or else it would simply be too heavy. The advantage of the Bamboo is that it comes as 1 single sheet, which is very easy to use, and it is super hard so for direct impact it has some advantages. But compared to the extra thickness we can use due to the 6 times lighter Balsa its more heavy.
PRODUCTION DIFFICULTY:
As mentioned the BAMBOO is way easier to use than the BALSA. If you had a look at our boards you can see a bit of a patchwork going on (on both deck and bottom). Its in fact exactly what it is, as the BALSA wood comes to us in 10x100cm sheets, which we then "puzzle" together into a large enough sheet to fit your boards. This allows us a few more advantages over any other sandwich material or in fact even over the BAMBOO:
- we can chose different density sheets for different areas, and thus "patching" the deck with strength exactly where we need more or less. On the nose for example we use very light weight density sheets, while under the feet, we chose ONLY above 120 gr/l density sheets.
If that sounds like a lot of jobs to make a board, you are exactly right.
PRICE:
BAMBOO is probably also due to the easy re-growth one of the cheapest wood material we can actually use. It grows all over china and other areas. BALSA on the other hand ONLY grows on the Equator. Ours mostly comes from Indonesia. It is probably one of the most expensive material that actually enters our boards, and possibly more expensive than any other sandwich material that can be used, like PVC. We still prefer the BALSA, due to its superiority in strength and flex. In contrast to PVC the wood has its strength in a linear way. And like the needs all its strength from the ground up in its stem, the board also need more strength from the nose to the tail, than from one side to the other. That exactly allows boards to have flex or pop. it also allows us to use less dentity wood, because we do not waste weight in the "wrong" direction.
Question: 2) Can we chose between Bamboo and Balsa?Answer: yes and no
All EcoTec Bamboo boards can be ordered as BALSA XXXTec construction. However, no other boards are available with BAMBOO.
As i mentioned above. Our goal is to ONLY present our customers with the best quality boards with the lightest weight and the best strength ratio. This unfortunately doesn't allow us to sell the cheapest boards. I have tried to outline you how complicated our processes are. However, we use efficiency, ability to plan ahead and order further forward by reducing the BAMBOO range to only 3 models to be able to offer them with all our standard options like pads, super UV clear coat, wind surf track and they same processes in production to allow us to offer a little bit lower prices for an easy entry. A bit similar to what apple does with still offering its last season iPhone.
Question: 3) Rail have changed?Answer: The rails have stayed the same on the EcoTec boards. Its a fabric called Titanium cloth. Its basically a very strong fibreglass that we add in an extra step to the rails to do the following:
- add extra protection to the rails
- create a beautiful layer that does not need to be painted over and somehow means "strength" as the word Titanium suggests
- design our boards without using paint or if necessary with the littlest qty of it.
If you take any modern SUP boards at app. 10'6 with paint, you can be sure that app. 1-2KG of its weight is that paint. We try not to design boards like this.
Question: 4) Kick pad?
Answer. Last season no boards had kick pads. This season ALL SURF style boards have a kick pad.
Question: 5) The black rails with the Silver paint brush job. Why that? Is it cheaper?
Answer:
The black on the rails is a full carbon cloth wrap. Just as we use the Titanium on the EcoTec for extra strength we use Carbon on all XXXTec boards. It does the same things, exactly. More fabric = more strength. The Silver paint brush job solves 2 things. 1) to add a bit of look and make it more exclusive, as it is clearly hand brushed. We do that on every board by hand. But it is also THE best way to add the lightest quantity of weight to a paint job, while making it SUPER STRONG to not crack. The rail is the worst place on the board, because the paddle constantly hits it. We found out that that hand brushing the rail in this way protects it the best.
In Summary: The boards became more difficult to make, thus more expensive, but lighter, more different from the rest. Bert has outdone himself with shapes, which we haven't spoken much about yet, but you can see that on such special shapes as the Acid, the Speeed and the Skate. These are absolutely unique and we are happy to see the feedback.
So. I hope this did not get too boring. We are happy that you guys are so interested. Send us your questions, and allow us a bit of time as we unfortunately cannot spend all day here we will come back often.
Best Regards,
Tino
