Advice on making an EPS board for an 8st child

General Discussion
1

Hi Guys,

If I could get some advice that would be great. 

I made myself a fish years ago using a commercial blank and epoxy resin and now my kids (10 & 12) are older they want to make their own boards too.

The idea is for them to shape as much of the boards as possible so I would rather make some homemade blanks using boards of EPS insulation foam from the local DIY store, that way if they mess it up it’s a lot cheaper to junk than replacing a commercial blank. I’ve made an EPS blank in the past and I know there is a wealth of posts of this forum that I can refer to so I’m good there.

The advice I need is on sizes and glassing.

Size

Neither of them have surfed for years and so are very raw; for reference they are both around 5’ 3". The local break is a beach break and ranges from mostly small and crappy to sometimes decent. If anyone has shaped a board for kids around the ages of 10 & 11 and 5’ 3" then what did you go for.

Glassing

I’m around 14st and so when I made my fish I glassed it heavy - 6oz on the bottom and 2 x 6oz on the top (full length deck patch + top layer wrapping around the rails on to the bottom) and with the expoxy it’s pretty much a tank and heavier than it should be.

I want the kids to be able carry and handle their boards so 6oz and 2 x 6oz seems overkill and they only weight 8st ish. However it’s EPS so will be softer than a commercial blank so maybe it needs glassing heavy.

Thoughts?

 

Thanks for reading if you go this far and thanks in advance for any advice given.

Cheers

Wal

 

 

2

Hi Wal - I'd go with a good quality commercial blank.  The biggest part of the cost is in the glass and resin.  No point in wasting it on junk foam.  Your commercial blank is likely 2 lb/cu ft density.  (32 kg/cu meter)   Standard insulation foam in the US is .75 lb/cu ft density (12 kg/cu meter) 

The light density stuff is very soft and most use it as a core when doing compsand construction.  Standard hand lay-up will take so much glass and resin for adequate strength that it will end up weighing quite a bit anyway.