I’ve made a few Clark and Walker Epoxy’s with RR. Whenever I tell someone I’m using epoxy on their board, the first reaction is: I hate epoxys, those things suck. Here in NC (and perhaps elsewhere) epoxy is synonymous with surftek/boardworks in the minds of all but a few surfers. This perception is a big problem in my mind for the development of the epoxy surfboard industry.
Naturally, the clark epoxys don’t ride anything like a surftec, which people soon realize.
I’ve also built 1lb eps epoxy boards. They ride nothing like a surfteck either. In fact, I don’t notice a significant difference between them and any of my similar pupe boards, except that they are more flexy-but I attribute this to the lack of stringers. Granted, I only surf in local conditions–meaning relatively small on the global scale–so I’m sure that is important to factor in. The boards are also thinner than most of my pupe (less than 2 inches) and have concave decks.
The point: It seems to me that most uninformed surfers identify epoxy with surfteck. When someone gets negative feedback about ‘epoxy’ I feel it is generally meaningless and out of context. Maybe this is only regional. Perhaps surfers in California and Hawaii are more sophisticated and appreciate the distinction, but I doubt it.
As an aside: I shaped my last Clark blank last night. I appreciated every second of it, every stroke of the sureform, the sound of every good planer cut, every curl of stringer through my block plane. Oh well, I suppose there is a ‘last’ for just about everything in life.