From Surfersvillage Global Surf News
When
it comes to enhancing the ride, the board builders' quiver of tools has
never been bigger. Thus for surfers today, there have never been as many
options to choose from. Board builders keep tweaking traditional
surfboard shapes, re-inventing new out-of-the-box shapes, designing
smashing graphics, engineering with material nuances, and exploring
dynamic new material combinations. The old standards have been tossed;
surfboards will never be as simple as they once were.
Our
industry is notorious for setting trends, abandoning them and then
reincarnating them. One trend that is experiencing a renaissance is
custom board design. The distinguishing points of custom board building
are of course the shapers' total control over size and shape, materials
used, and even (at least partially) over the creative direction of the
way a board is made. For the purposes of this article, custom board
design describes the high degree of customization and involvement of the
surfer in the production of the surfboard. Even sandwich construction,
with the inherent pop-out moniker, has been taking advantage of the
broad range of construction and designs options available today.
The Next Increments of Custom: Seen and Unseen
Thruster
and quad shapes-the staples for performance surfing-have stabilized, as
far as rail configurations, rocker and volume are concerned. And with
surfers' individual input, the finished shortboard works great, but
shapers aren't satisfied with just "great" anymore, and are searching
out and finding unique ways to pinch the next increments of speed, flex
memory and performance by using composite materials in ways never before
considered.
The surfboard is an integrated amalgam of parts and
personality: deck, bottom, rail, rocker, blank, stringer, fins, nose,
tail, weight, stiffness and flex. Each component is uniquely
customizable and shapers finally now have the tools to make measurable,
consistent, reliable engineering advances for each component, resulting
in better than great boards. Many renowned shapers and pros have already
implemented these new, advanced composite materials into their
boards-some of these are obvious to the eye and some are invisible,
buried within.
The Surfboard as Surfer to Wave Interface
The
deck of a surfboard is where the surfer to wave interface begins, thus
is under increasing scrutiny by board builders. The deck is always under
foot and under attack in the form of front foot hop, rear foot power,
launched then landed aerials, and lip compression via a range of
critical maneuvers. All this impact pounds down through the fragile foam
blank to the wave beneath us, over and over again. As a result, we
dent, ding and delaminate this crucial part of the board. New solutions
(other than another patch of fiberglass fabric) are emerging to keep us
connected, foot to board to water, with livelier surfing for much longer
periods of time.
Reinforcements We Know
These
new solutions are well-known natural and synthetic materials that are
engineered into the decks of boards in novel ways. Many brands are
implementing localized patches or tapes. Thin silk fibers woven into
lightweight fabrics are either pre-printed or custom brand printed to
add color and enhanced graphics. Black carbon fiber is a good go-to
fashion these days, and at 0.5 ounce per square yard it adds
reinforcement to rails and tails without adding weight. This carbon
veil, sometimes referred to as tissue, reinforces the weakest part of
the composite reinforcement, the resin. A third more robust
reinforcement is hybrid composite tape using carbon and fiberglass to
add unidirectional black and white stripes with measurable strengths.
Reinforcements We Have Never Seen Before
For
the more adventurous, there are two never before used reinforcements
now available to board builders: one with a bolder look and one with
invisible flex enhancement. Both are engineered to catch the impact and
spread the load, and to provide the Z-axis columns of strength from your
feet through to the foam. Bold in design but costly is the exotic
composite fiber Technora. Black with incredible tenacity and break
strength, the Ribz Vector Net range of reinforcing fabrics looks like a
net and the fibers act like springs.
Skinz is the first nylon
microfiber used in surfboards. Bright white with protective UV chemistry
and tenacious toughness, Skinz is an inexpensive compression cloth that
ads heel, toe, knee, etc. protection without adding board stiffness or
weight. Skinz nano-honeycomb flexply cut in chevron shapes, 3/4 deck
shapes, or full inlay are popular alternatives to the other, more
expensive solutions.
Getting to the Bottom of Things
The
bottoms of our precious wave machines, where the rail hits the water,
are less obvious but equally as important. Although the bottom of your
board doesn't have a body bashing down on it, it does have razor sharp,
powerful fins biting, carving, and slashing relentlessly in various
degrees of severity. Advances in fin technology are real. The added
drive, pivot and bite that modern systems command of the board place the
tail in jeopardy. To add drive and reinforce this crucial area, Skinz
and Ribz Vector Net are the lightest of the new breed of reinforcements
and are laminated in the rear third of the board.
Finally, A Comparable Alternative to Wood
As
cores keep improving so do stringers. A composite stringer without the
weight or brittleness of traditional composites has been introduced.
Powerline Stringerz has riders claiming a more responsive feel-the best
part of which is proven lively for 100-1,000 waves without all the
inconsistencies and irregularities of wood. At a premium of cost yet
reproducible in exact flex pattern from board to board, the ability to
replicate a magic custom board is now within the realm of the custom
board craftsmen.
Board "Personality"
Flex
memory and resonance are newer terms used to describe a surfboard's
performance. A board's feel is a more generic expression of its
personality, as I described it above. Is it twangy, noodly or bogging
down in the water? Too much flex. Is it stiff, boardy, corky or
skitterish in the water? Too little flex. Some boards we want to ride
like a log, carrying momentum through each turn and cutting a deep path
through chop. Others we want to rocket over flat sections, hack off the
lip, drop down then accelerate through a trough, and launch over a
section to land in the flats... and start all over again. Vibration
dampening coupled with the resultant speed at which a surfboard returns
energy from being weighted/unweighted is the magic feel we describe to
our shaper. This flex memory, how do we get it? And now that we've got
this magic resonance, how do we get more?
More Magic Feel
More
magic feel is only accomplished through a convergence of ideas with a
blending of components. Board builders are taking out the stiffer
fiberglass and adding nylon thermoplastic Skinz for its vibration
dampening to both decks and bottoms. They are adding carbon and aramid
rib structures in every vector and axis imaginable, placing spring, flex
and responsiveness where they want it. Add carbon on the rails, down
the center, 1/3 at the nose, 2/3 at the tail, 3/4 in the middle, in a V
shape, in an X shape, 45 degrees, 75 degrees... you name it, board
builders are doing it.
When considering all the advancements in
reinforcements, we can't leave out the other half of the composite mix:
the resins. Traditional polyester resin has not changed much, so it's
good to have a baseline with the reliability of the tried and true glue.
Finally, after years of experimenting with epoxy resin, we are now as
an industry cool with the cleaner, greener, stronger matrix. Custom
epoxy laminations are a dirty little secret that the major brands don't
want you to know their top surfers are riding with more and more
frequency. Custom epoxy boards are historically stronger and lighter,
and yet at retail are perceived as being dingy, drab, and flat next to
the popping PU/Poly standard. That has all changed dramatically with
advances in chemistry. For some world champs it's all they ride...
Next Generation
More
new, next-gen stuff is happening every day in the world of custom
surfboards. All these advancements are available in the names you know
and trust and in many more brands you should check out. Inquire at
Firewire, Channel Islands, ...Lost, Rusty, JS, DHD, Solid, Plus One,
Kazuma, Vernor, Stamps, Fiberflex, Estrada, Dewey Weber and of
course-because my list has to end somewhere-Infinity.
Hank Johns, SIMA Board Builder Committee Member, Industry Supplier Takes Pulse of Board Building
Posts
