Keen surfer Ron Hasted is very familiar with the damage that the sun and ocean can cause to surfboards. So instead of sitting idly by, Ron set about designing a stronger and durable surfboard. The result: aluminium coated surfboards. The 0.6mm thick aluminium skin increases toughness but keeps an ability to flex, creating a smooth and comfortable ride. They have a higher resistance to impact and do not suffer fibreglass rot, delamination and ultraviolet degradation. The rider also gains greater speeds off the crest of waves, providing a more responsive board. The boards, thanks to the highly polished chrome-like appearance, also look out of the ordinary. This provides the user with a completely novel and “radical” image. One of the keys to the invention has been the perfection of a secret technique to apply molten aluminium to the foam core without melting the foam. And importantly the skin forms a mechanical bond, rather then a weaker chemical bond as is the case with fibreglass.
Development has spanned 10 months and has only ramped up seriously since the Gold Coast surf expo in March. Ron and his team are now putting in long hours on the development of the product and it should be ready for a launch in the coming months. Ron’s day job as a marine engineer requires him to fly-in, fly-out to various seas around South-East Asia, working on a five weeks on, five weeks off basis. He has found this to be an ideal arrangement as the job pays the bills, while allowing him plenty of time to immerse himself in the development of the surfboard. So far the project has cost Ron more than $24,000 in research and development, as well as obtaining patents. It also involved about 780 hours of work. The retail price is expected to be about the same as normal boards, but it is envisaged that the superior performance characteristics of the new boards will eventually make it the board of choice for surfers.
Ron is keen to pick up a major sponsor for his board company, and also would like one or more high-profile users to check out the boards for themselves. Email Address:
Are you sure it’s only two years? And not maybe twelve?
I heard about an aluminum/titanium skin board back in 1997 and it was old news then. The Sun Bums (Gorilla Grip, Mistral,FCS) were behind it as I recall. A friend of mine from OZ/Asia said he hit it against a wall and jumped on it. Said they showed it to a young Mr. Slater and he laughed. I heard that his reaction and the cost killed it.
Or, maybe that was another aluminum board. Althought, I heard that it was stashed in the Phillipines.
In either case I wouldn’t want to get hit by one.
Hello. Im in NZ. Recently I have worked on building my own hollow chamber aluminium surfboard with wooden Paulina rails. I have quite a lot of photos and construction info. It is glued with construction glue. Performance shape 7.0 long. About 50 litres. FCs2 quads. Taking a long time. Nearly done. Maybe someone here is interested. I think it might turn out about 9kg
Ok. Glad to share anything. I am just messing around for the fun of it. I’m at the point of putting the top deck on. Which is 0.9mm alloy. It weighs 1.9kg so not light. I wonder if I should go 2mm polycarb or something. But I want to stick to the plan if possible of entirely alloy. 1.2mm thick is 2.5kg so I have dropped some weight. But then it becomes a compromise if the structure will dint between the frame lattice. What do you think. If I used polycarb it might be just as heavy anyway. But you could see all the powder work and craft. Could be super cool. Here is the board on the scales with fin boxes in. It weighs under 7. So still quite good. Seems a shame to put another 2kg of weight into it but no where to go for weight reduction. It is what it is. Still 9.3 lg including glue etc might be ok to surf. It’s a very nice shape modern rocker.
9.3 kg (20 lbs.) definitely on the heavy side for a 7 footer by today’s standards, but not out of line with many hollow wood surfboards. It seems surfable for sure, but only way to really know will obviously be to finish it and try it. If the skin is aluminum that sounds like a really interesting build, wondering how you will attach the skin, and where you got the sheet aluminum. And the process. It does look like the bottom skin is sheet aluminum. Are you going to vent it? Keep us posted on this interesting project.
Interesting project. If you had a friendly welder it may reduce weight having the skeleton tack welded? Where in NZ are you, it would be great to see it in action one day!
Hi again. As predicted I did have some trouble to get the sheet metal to stick to my scant framing. I put it on. Then spent a day taking it back off. Also if you go with construction adhesive you then have trouble when coming into contact with epoxy. So what I did is decided to fill the interior with expanding foam and then use a 1.2mm deck glued onto that with epoxy as that will have some surface stick. So I went with the heavier 1.2 instead of 0.9 which I used and pulled off. It was to thin. But to save weight I have come up with a very unique plan. I cut out like 50 percent of the top deck with nicely made patterned slots. Then I will glue that on with epoxy to the expanding foam. Then I’m going to fill the slots with custom shaped pieces of paulownia and sand them back flush. So it will loose 1 kg of weight. But still maintain the strictural integrity of being an alloy board. From there I will go over it with 1 or 2 layers of glass. ?? A shame but I think I have to properly tie in the paulownia to the alloy properly on the deck. It will have a very cool look. And the way I hade done it has quite a purpose to maintain and see what the feel of alloy will be like in the water. It is kind of a shame to have to fill in the the hollow board. But I just couldn’t get enough grab on the glues. Anyway it has turned into something even cooler I think. It has taken quite some work to cut it all out but hand and using a nibbler. I have already made the matching Paulina laminates to fit the slots ready to glue in on top and sand. I’m hoping to do that on the weekend and get it sanded back ready for glass next week. Here is the top deck. I didn’t get time to photo the paulownia patches but will do tomorrow.
Have managed to complete the top with the wood inserts. Yet to glass it. I choose to stain the paulownia with water based stain. Hoping this is ok with glass over the top. I haven’t polished the alloy deck but rough sanded it. Was thinking the glass will key in better with a rougher surface. But maybe it will look alot better polished first. I wonder how much glass it will need given it is quite solid. Maybe just one layer ??
Hello again. Yes the top and bottom sheets are standard 5000 series sheet aluminium. Which can be bent worked freely and does exhibit some corrosion resistance properties. These have been attached in different ways. The bottom was done with silicon type construction adhesive. The top I ended up using epoxy and it has been attached onto expanding foam which was added around the internal pockets of the alloy skeleton construction. I wonder how the alloy and flex will feel with the silicon adhesive. The top and bottom sheets are 1.2mm and were quite heavy. That’s why I did an elaborate pocket design with paulownia insets. This allowed maybe nearly a kg of weight to be removed. But did take some time. Adds some artistic design and uniqueness. I don’t know how it will surf. We will see. I have a little glassing to do to bind the wood to alloy to rails. Then I will take some pictures. It will be interesting for sure.
I think it’s getting very close to 10kg I’m nearly ready to test it. As I’m not a surfboard maker it has been difficult to blend all the edges of wood alloy and the various glues used in different ares as well as getting it flushly sanded and looking good. It has been a struggle. The bottom has tidied up a little bit. I think this board will suit just another top hot coat over the last one which I sanded and polished but I think it lets it down. Somehow more raw with the alloy just hot coat and leave. Thoughts ??
