Good to see that finally the general sailing public is at last bring into question the build quality of boards coming out of Asia. It is definitely helping Custom board builders gain more sales here in OZ .
While I will not disclose any of our building techniques gain over 26 years of building and selling boards, there is many ways to skin a cat, and to say you must use product X, Y, Z in a certain way to build the best board is BS. There is no reason why you cant use only 4 oz E glass for a wave board that would last for yourself. The problem arises when you start asking money for you labour of love from some one else. It then become paramount what you are building and selling ,will out perform,both with on water performace and construction, everything in the market place, with the numbers of satisfied customers to back up what you are saying.
This only comes with trail and error, so see what works and holds up for you, give it a go.
If you still cant get what you want, contact your local custom board builder for his expertise .
^^^ I can't see 20-30x stronger in the heel area. 20x stronger would mean a 500kg man could jump it daily for years.
Is this your "calculation" or the result of destructive stress testing on a jig with measurements taken?
Then of course plenty of Cobra made boards never get heel dents, so obviously double sandwich and decent pads / heel bumpers IS enough if it is made right.
NO insult intended but about 20-30x sounds like salesman not engineer.
^^^ interesting. I saw it is 55 - 70kg/m3 if my maths is right? So a bit less dense than divinycell / Herex etc, but not much
So it may be useful.........
If it is cheaper and as strong......
The sign pvc I have seen has a smooth outer coating and to me looked to stiff to bend it also
looked to light and brittle..Why not buy a small bit and make up some test panels.
I got some from Damowest in Osborne Pk in a few densities...you can see a bit of it sticking out the tail of my board(edit) before it snapped off on its first run at Cervantes..its brittle and takes a lot of heat to bend. I used the last of it as a tool to form a repair on the bottom of a concave'd board..without release agent. Worked nicely.
Good morning, Mark,
Not sure if you know, but Witchcraft (Bourke) is a highly-respected board maker in a hard-hitting wave area of Spain. He contributes regularly here http://forums.boards.mpora.com/forumdisplay.php/5-Equipment and is one of the few designer/manufacturers who actually replies to comments about his products.
His thoughts on board materials, board making, fins and carbon mast extensions show years of experience.
He is definitely NOT a sales rep.
I find your own thoughts on board materials enlightening but hope I never have to use your info.
guys,
Thanks for the advice re: Ex-cel PVC foam board. Looks like I have to purchase a large sheet of klegecell for a small A5 repair piece unless someone has a small piece they can spare???
PS - I have to agree with Mark that without empirical evidence Witchcraft's empirical claim does have that "salesman" feel about it. I don't think Mark was being disrespectful but unless Witchcraft can back their statement "about 20 to 30 times stronger" with test results then it just another meaningless sales pitch.
If that guy in the pic is 110 kg and doing back loops like that on the same board. Then that pretty much backs up bourkes 20x claim. At some point I'm sure there would be a flat landing and from that height and his weight normally result in catastrophic failure and a rather awkward swim in.
I knew I should not have said it. Yes Windman I know who Bourke is and I know his boards are beyond great. I'd love one (or 3)
In my very humble opinion though, 20-30x stronger is a big claim. For example how much can you put on the footpad area of a normal waveboard before it crushes? About 200kg? So Witchcraft can show 4 tonnes on that small area.....? Sounds a bit rich.
If the engineer calculated it, all good I will shut up.
No need to worry about hammer testing your board round here with our glorious golden sandy beaches. Makes for a lovely stroll when it's gusting 40kts and hundred+ foot of plushness to walk over on a low tide. For some reason we don't get many sunbathing beauties which is a bit disappointing
Seabreeze might have more input from industry sources if you guys behaved yourselves..
According to my calculations this site would be 35x more informative.. And my desk would suffer 15x less forehead dents..
Start a thread on board construction, one of the most established custom board manufactures personally signs up and offers an opinion and ya'll try and bite his head off..
YO QUARTRO/Keith, I know you're reading, can you PM me your reasons why all the pros are apparently using S-glass boards? I won't argue with you..
Hi Bourke, why do make the comparison between S-Glass, Innegra and Carbon/Kevlar? They are all used, if used properly, for very different reasons/solutions. I agree about carbon/Kevlar though I'm not sure why you would not make more relevant comparisons for example comparisons between Innegra and Dyneema or E-glass and S-glass. Or the benifits of minimising the use of Carbon wherever possible and to maximise high modulus fibres and resins in impact and repetitive load areas.
The two materials I would like to be eliminated from a(short/wave)board construction are carbon and eps.
Thanks Bourke, I disagree about carbon performing well under compression. E-glass has about the same compressive strength.
From what I understand about carbon in relation to masts, the work the carbon is doing is more about controlling the flex characteristics and optimising the strength to weight ratio - the saving in weight albeit marginal, and more dynamic reflex is at the sacrifice of some strength and durability.
No?