I Swaylock’s members we are two guys from Italy, we developed a new teknology based on alluminium and cork. We don’t sand our boards so it is safer and faster to work with!!! Please watch our facebook and instagram page and tell us what you think about it !!!
We would be glad to know what the Swaylock’s community think about these surfboards !!! cheers Filippo and Mattia
… .maybe adding the links could be a good idea …
I found them on instagram - just a few vague photos. Couldn’t find anything on facebook.
https://www.instagram.com/al_surfboards/
Great thinking outside the box, but I wonder how the aluminum will hold up to the salt water. It does corrode slowly & when the part breaks(suddenly), it snaps with a sharp edge ( just ask any windsurfer why they don’t use aluminum masts out in the ocean).
More info on the type/grade of aluminum and its thickness, and interior structure would be appreciated
Also the board volume/ Size and how much it weighs.
The board weight is the same as a standard pu board but we can make surfboards lighter and stronger … we solved the safety problem but till now we can’t tell you the details of the construction even if the tecnology is patent pending
Can these aluminum blanks be purchased by the general public and hand shaped / glassed at home?
So if you can’t tell us anything now about construction, how could Swaylock’s members can write what they think about it as you wrote on the first post? No info about materials, thickness or technical specification, no details on shapes or final price… so it’s just advertising…
You could call it “advertising”, but not in the typical sense, because I don’t think they have anything to sell at this point. Do they?
Just advertising in the sense of publicity, I guess. The Instagram and facebook pages I saw had next to nothing on them.
Since I am a part of the surfboard backyard “underground”, i.e. surfers with some creativity and craftsmanship exploring surfboard design and production on a personal scale, as a hobby and not as a business, I don’t have a high estimation of efforts to shift the industry over to corporate controlled proprietary mass production methodologies. That’s just my personal bias. So if these aluminum blanks are available and viable for the general public, I would be interested in learning more. If this is just a proprietary corporate secret that will be controlled by the patent holder alone, then I would have less interest.
But still, as a surfer, there is always gonna be an interest in how these things look, how they flex, how they perform, how they hold up, how they are repaired, etc. But right now I’m not seeing much of anything along those lines either.
And speaking of proprietary, I imagine Drew will have something to say about their use of cork on the deck, if they plan to market these things in the U.S.
I’m sure the aluminum is just a very thin skin on a lightweight foam core
nemoz_z wrote:
“So if you can’t tell us anything now about construction, how could Swaylock’s members can write what they think about it as you wrote on the first post? No info about materials, thickness or technical specification, no details on shapes or final price… so it’s just advertising…”
Al_surfboards wrote:
“Please ‘watch our facebook and instagram page’ and tell us what you think about it !!!”
Is this thread different than the typical “secret sauce” threads from respected pro custom builders who have posted regularly at Sways over the years? Their secret sauce posts offer(ed) no substantive information but are/were clearly teasers for advertising and/or promotion.
I know one very creative designer/builder at Sways who has been generous about posting his technology. We have communicated frequently. Like I have done in my professional career, he often posts 95% of the core information but holds back the critical 5% for himself.
Plenty of vultures lurking here at Sways who wouldn’t lose any sleep captitalizing on somebody else’s technology.
Al_surfboards is introducing a new concept/technology, giving builders something new to consider. More power to you Al_surfboards. Share what you can and protect what you must to stay in business.
I cannot read Italian. But I did not see any obvious sales links for placing orders or pricing…
thanks stone burner for your worlds,
i would like to share with you why we started nine months ago to develop concept.
I worked for three years in a surfboards factory but i had to stop doing my dream job for health problem. I worked with all needed protection in a really clean workshop. My lungs problem were caused by resin and fibreglass sanding… But i still loved to make surfboards, so with Mattia a life long carpenter we started deveping the construction. The puorpose is to get a better life for any surfboard manifacturer in the world (maybe to big?)… after we discovered that fibreglass sanding may produce cancer and other patologies …
http://www.naturalnews.com/035686_fiberglass_lung_diseae_cancer.html
we ended up in creating this method of construction that avoid fibreglass sanding . we patented it and now we are trying to undesteand what to do…
we will translate every italian content in our facebook page as soon as possible…
thanks
Filippo
What is the weight of one of your boards (e.g. 6 feet long x 21 inches wide: 1.83 m long x 53 cm wide)?
Does the core contain foam? Or are the boards entirely cork and aluminum?
Can these aluminum blanks be purchased by the general public and finished at home by a garage shaper?
Can you post some better pics?
They only began development 9 months ago.
I suspect they have not had time to scale up to any commercial-scale level of production (blanks or otherwise).
They talk as if this is a product designed to be utilized industry wide, so I’m curious to know how and to whom it will be marketed.
Also like to see some better pics.
“They talk as if this is a product designed to be utilized industry wide…”
I am certain this is what they hope to do…
If The OP whats to avoid cancer using aluminum is not the way to go. I have worked a number of Aluminum boats and Yachts up to 120 foot. In one case painted an 80 foot boat that was built in San Diego. sealing and painting Aluminum uses some nasty chemicals such as Strontium Chromate . a known carcinogenic. the first step is you have to sand profile into the aluminum. without proper care you might breath in some of that dust. next it has to be cleaned with a mild acid wash. then sprayed with strontium chromate. then apply an under coat then you top coat. With out those steps the top coat and primer will not have a good bond to the Aluminum. E have all seen cheaply made Boards from china painted with auto paints that after short time start peeling and cracking. It would be worse with a cheaply painted Aluminum Board. Imagine this a near new 70 foot Aluminum Yacht that was not properly preped and painted. within a year the the fairing compound was cracking and peeling in some places it was lifting in large sheets that we we cut away from the hull. The yard had used a ploy auto body fairing compound. to fair the boat and no under coat aluminum bond then under coat. a few cuts and we were demoing sheets about 5 foot long from the Hull the whole boat had to be stripped from radar arch to the keel. The owner had to sue the builder and the builder that had been in business for more then 75 years went under.
That’s all I can say…