A few weeks ago, i gave my 3yo daughter and 20 month old son an unfinished cut up blank as a “surfboard”. It was surfblanks red foam, ready to glass, but the rocker was all wrong, and i cut the nose off to make a handboard.
I went outside to feed the dogs an hour ago and saw the blank on the concrete. Looked a bit brown, but i thought i’d check out how it was holding up to the abuse of 2 kids and 2 ( manic ) dogs.
It looked great, if i gave it a sand, im pretty sure it’d come back to bright white. I stood on the deck to see if it would dent. Nope. I sort of jumped up and down on it, without my feet leaving the ground. Nope. Hmmm, so i then jumped on it properly, and finally it dented. But even then not that much, Pretty happy with that.
My 2+ year old fish is made of surfblanks “red”, plus 66 deck, and its hardly got any deck compressions ( i ride it 85% of the time ). It should last a few more years yet.
I have a 6’3’’ i’ve just finished, which is red foam, but 4oz bottom, and a 44 deck, with an extra 4oz tail patch. It’s lighter, but so far still feels fairly tough.
Just my observations on a beer soaked monday night.
Still remember what my Clark blanks were like so I’m pretty glad there are companies like South Coast & Bennetts around. Haven’t got around to making a dXTR board though and I have heard that they hold up very well. Kind of makes me wonder why you would bother with just straight EPS / fibreglass though, as it requires more fibreglass for the same compression strength and the blanks are more expensive than PU as well.
When the Clark thing happened here in the US; I was able to secure a few blanks out of a container of Midget’s Surfblanks Aus. that was in Honolulu. If you search the archives you can will probably find that other than Robin Mair on Kauai and Matt Ambrose in Pacifica. Ca. I have been their biggest supporter and proponent. They are now established on the Mainland(Calif.) as a franchise. Perfected their pour, process, distribution etc. Came up with a formula that is a little easier on the shoulders of handshapers. Reality is that ALL Australia foams are harded than previously known US foam. I’ll say it again -----------“Duable, Hard, White and Light”. Takes paint super(the best I have seen of any blank). I don’t understand what’s up with people in Calif or Maui. Other than convenience, why would you “buy” or “try” any other foam? I think it has do to with distribution in out-lying areas and the convenince of being able to go down to your local supply house and purchase a competeing foam. Great foam. Hd McDing AKA Lowel -----Little Hawaii --------Maui
