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Surfing Explained: Ep11 Surfboard Material Innovation

In this week's episode of Surfing Explained, we go through some of the new innovations that help to make surfboards stronger, lighter, or enable more performance for the rider. We cover some of the new materials being included in the construction, as well as a construction method that is helping your boards reduce weight! Transcript: Considering the interesting materials available nowadays, it's surprising that surfboard manufacturers still often default to using the traditional wood stringer, foam core and fiberglass/ resin wrap. There are a few companies however playing around other options, and in this episode we’re going to explore those modern innovations. Outer Skin More commonly now at your local surf shop, you can find surfboards with alternative materials visibly layered within the outer skin. As well as the Glass Fibres we spoke about before, there have been experiments with many other fibres, including wool, Hemp, woven bamboo, coconut fibres and of course Carbon. Carbon fibre has a huge strength to weight ration, it’s incredibly stiff, but can be brittle when compressed – sometimes it's mixed with kevlar to reduce the risk of shattering; becoming carbon kevlar. Weight for weight carbon soaks up more resin than glass fibers, but because it is so much stronger, you can use an infinitely lighter weave of cloth to get the same strength. There are a couple companies that make pure carbon boards, made with clear resin so the beautiful carbon weave is visible. However, there are a number of problems with carbon; its very expensive and it is very stiff, meaning a pure carbon board has almost no flex, though again some people like that. Also, while its appearance may be aesthetically pleasing to some, the dark material can melt your wax off in warmer climates. Therefore, carbon is not commonly used as the sole material; typically you see strips of carbon being added in strategic places to help control the strength and flex of the finished board. The other construction that we see very often is what the surf industry calls a “Sandwich Construction” Although technically all modern boards are sandwich construction, surfers generally reserve this term for boards that have a skin made from layers of several different materials. Surftech and Firewire were the first to find commercial success with this method, and more recently companies like NSP and Torq have used this method to create enormously strong boards, making them popular with surf schools around the world. There is one type of skin material that is not a composite; our old friend wood. Wooden boards look strikingly beautiful, but it’s a heavy material when used in quatity. FireWire have recently brought out TimberTek; a very light 1lb per cubic foot EPS core, with a thin veneer of paulownia wood on the deck. They are not solely wooden skins as they still also use layers of fiberglass and resin to strengthen and waterproof them. Air Inner Core Another material worth discussing is…air. Quite a few companies have played around with making hollow composite surfboards; George Greenough and Solomon for example. This is an interesting direction because obviously if you make a hollow surfboard then it will be extremely light, but you loose all the strength that would come from the core. This means the skin has to compensate most likely by being thicker or more clever, to maintain the overall strength. The problem with a hollow board is that if or when you pierce the skin, you may sink. With no neutral buoyancy, as soon as it is compromised, the board (and you) will drop below the surface. An interesting feature of a hollow board is the plug or valve system. When under pressure from temperature change, or if you take one up into an airplane, then you need a pressure release valve, a feature of some of the original FireWire and Solomon boards, and most hollow wooden boards. Wood Frame On the subject of wood, there has been a recent resurgence in truly wooden boards. Originally all surfboards were made as a solid piece of whatever native tree you were plentiful of. For the ancient Hawaiians it was the Koa tree, for the Californians Redwood, and more recently the lightweight fast growing Balsa and Paulownia trees. Innovation somewhat outgrew wood as polyurethane foam became a much lighter and easier to work with core material, but Wood has made a comeback recently, in part due to advancements in computer aided machine design and cutting but also from a desire to replace the crude plastics that have been the status quo for the last half century. Modern wooden core surfboards can be divided into roughly two categories: chambered solid boards and hollow skin-on-frame surfboards, both of which were first trialed by Tom Blake in the 20s. Chambered boards are usually carved from either a solid single piece, or from laminated planks that end up a solid piece. Material is then removed or holes drilled in to reduce weight. Word limit reached.