I was at a GLSA laua and i say this black board and i went up to it and it was carbon fiber. Ive never seen one of these before its so awsome and light very light. I was wondering if anybody have seen one or even made one. I would like to know more about these there awsome!!
Been making carbon fiber surfboards for 15 years, windsurfers for a little more…and I mean 100% skin laminated…painted white for cooling.
You’d better catch up with the times.
They get hot, can break as normal, good against dent resistance, can delam, are really lightweight.
If you need lightweight, then it’s for you.
Me, I don’t know. I have to wait for the board to drop to the bottom, I know I"m hittin the lip, and have plenty of time to decide what to do next.
I also saw an Epoch Tek board at the Converse Longboard Magazine at the Queens Surf in Waikiki. The board was 9’1 and about 2.5 in thick, it was tough, had a venting hole and considerably lighter than epoxy boards. The board I looked at sells for about $1000. The Rep mentioned that Al Merrick and Dick Brewer were going to use the technology for thier boards.
Slick looking brochure pic…
Now if they knew anything at all about surfing, they’d NOT make that board black, they’d paint it white!
But sadly, all the engineers in the world always like to leave one detail out…so they can fix it later.
Later, after your board heats up, delams, and gets so fricken hot you can’t touch it in tropical surfspots.
how would it delam if there is no core?
I used to put graphite powder in the resin with our first batch of balsa boards because it is reputed to have an electrical charge which repels water. You could feel the charge with your hand after it had been polished, like static, it would raise any hairs on your arm. I stopped doing it because the heat buildup was so bad, it caused delamination and warped boards.
With no core, air volume is at least 30 times more, so expanding and contraction matches that.
The skin is a monocoque, meaning it’s thicker than 3/16". The inside and the outside, when pressured from the air, is stretched at different rates, so the skin itself delams within itself. Also, the expansion and contraction occur at different intervals, rates, and amounts at the re-inforcement bulkhead area, so it gets ruptured from various forces that are hard to determine in labortory testing.
Just a reality. You should really buy one and find out for yourself.
Nothing like a hollow board to get broken by a hollow 4’ wave.
From the Pope website...
[/url][b]· Why are the Stealths all black?
· What's "pre-preg?"
Because black is the color of the graphite fiber prepreg called “carbon fiber” we use to make the board… After molding, the Stealth is coated with a clear epoxy gloss coat (only) to minimize weight.
It’s a raw carbon fiber woven fabric (like fiberglass but ten times stronger for the same weight) which is pre-impregnated with epoxy by compressing the rolls of graphite fabric through rollers after dipping it in epoxy, limiting the epoxy resin content to 37% by weight. This gives the final material the highest strength to weight ratio possible. In the pre-impregnation process, the epoxy in the fabric is partially cured then frozen. When a roll is pulled from the freezer, it’s dry to the touch and can remain at room temperature for about a week. It can be cut like cloth. When the cut pre-preg plys are placed in the mold and heated (under pressure) to 265 degrees, the epoxy liquifies, flows, then hardens, resulting in a strong, lightweight , finished part.
[/url]· A black board? Doesn’t the wax melt off?
It would if you left your Bisect on the beach deck up. In the water or in the travelbag, no problem. We recommend that if you have to leave the board in the sun, you turn it bottom up or cover it. As far as heat goes, no problem. Your Stealth was cured at 265 degrees and there’s no foam core to delaminate in the sun. Plus, all Hollowcarbon Stealths have a vent in each faceplate which passes air but not water (like the gill of a fish) which limits internal air pressure. (It’s also a drain plug if you ever get water inside.)
[/url]· What about color? Can I get a white deck?
Yes. It will cost extra. Custom decorations also take longer.[/b]
Like I said, if you really believe in personally funding the research and design project for those guys, you should buy one of their boards.
The air thru, but water sealed theory is pure hogwash…always fails.
But if you must, please please buy one of their boards, so you can satisfy your craving for having the highest tech new toy on the block.
Me, I’ll just go surfing to have fun. I get little fun from merely possessing hi tech state of the art prototypical EQ.
a custom spray job…
gets em every time…
thought the prepeg comment was ambiguous…
the glass weighs 37% of the resin content , thats how it should read…
thats almost a 3 to 1 resin to glass ratio…
with a decent vacumn process and a few other techniques you can get resin to glass ratios of 1 to 1 …
so while its not the latest tech…
at least there doing something different and opening some doors to inovation…
something better may come out of it …
i wonder how stiff they are???
ive always wanted to do that but have the top and bottom connected with tiny wires , then pressurise it …
how strong would that be ???
either way , new is always good …
learning and progress cant be a bad thing…even if we learn what not to do …
im not going to bag it tho till i get a closer look …
it could be something great …
i cant tell from this angle…
fully agree about the colour tho leedd …
full carbon is a disaster waiting to happen…ive had them myself…
regards
BERT
I used to play a lot of golf.
What does that have to do with surfboards?
Golfers are ALWAYS looking for the latest gadget or technical “breakthrough” to improve their game, but they always come back to the game’s fundamentals. It isn’t the clubs (within reason). It’s the player.
With surfboards, the shape, of course means a lot, but a good surfer can make a well-shaped 9 footer perform whether it’s made of stryofoam, poly, or that carbon stuff.
Plus, those high-tech guys aren’t going to keep it any longer than they would a poly board. They will trade or sell it within two years.
A well-made longboard can last decades.
Personally, I won’t ever buy a surfboard that has a drain plug. And that’s the key. If it has a drainplug, then the manufacturer knows what you should know. It’s going to leak (or, uh, take in water).
Hello Abe, a vent in a surfboard does not mean that the board is going to take on water.
Quote:
I used to play a lot of golf.
What does that have to do with surfboards?
Golfers are ALWAYS looking for the latest gadget or technical “breakthrough” to improve their game, but they always come back to the game’s fundamentals. It isn’t the clubs (within reason). It’s the player.
With surfboards, the shape, of course means a lot, but a good surfer can make a well-shaped 9 footer perform whether it’s made of stryofoam, poly, or that carbon stuff.
Plus, those high-tech guys aren’t going to keep it any longer than they would a poly board. They will trade or sell it within two years.
A well-made longboard can last decades.
Personally, I won’t ever buy a surfboard that has a drain plug. And that’s the key. If it has a drainplug, then the manufacturer knows what you should know. It’s going to leak (or, uh, take in water).
If golfers are looking for an edge in their equipment then why not surfers? All else being equal wouldnt you want an advantage even just a psychological advantage?
Any fine-tuned wave craft is like a skillfully played song, the separate elements must all add up inorder to create an appealing synergy.
Almost anything can be made to “surf”. Coaxing the crudest, lowest common denominator design down the face of a wave doesn`t prove (or disprove) anything about more advanced equipment.
The devil`s in the details.
Have anyone seen a carbon fiber short board?
Hello Abe,
It’s interesting to hear your comments about golf clubs. According to an article which I read recently, the latest golf clubs have given golfers such an advantage in the length of their drives that pro golfing is now about chipping and putting rather than long drives. Exceptionally long drives are now the norm. So it is not just a matter of it all coming back to the golfer (or the surfer). Given a competent operator, equipment will make a difference. I have seen an old movie of my Grandfather teeing off during the 1920’s in South Africa. He was a plus two man, and the swing that he had to produce to make his rigid wooden shafted clubs work was quite a radical contortion compared with the swings we see today. His body had to provide all the ‘twang’ as the club was not springy. It was obviously harder to produce a good drive with the rigid equipment.
One of the reasons that flex is so nice in a surfboard is that it makes the board easier to ride, less bodily contortions are necessary.
Regards, Roy
Quote:
One of the reasons that flex is so nice in a surfboard is that it makes the board easier to ride
How’s this for flex!
The sport of racing DN iceboats rose to a whole new level when the class legalized use of composite spars. The attached photo is an extreme example of what a composite layup is capable of with standing. Also, keep in mind that these masts are bent to such extreme while being exposed to below freezing tempetures not to mention wind chills. As one who has experience utilizing a mast capable of the bend shown in the photo I can tell you that the forward surge in speed when the mast comes back into column is like having a turbo charger. Yes, carbon is strong, durable and stiff. Not indestructible as I have seen masts bent like that one too many times and have failed when the fibers were elongated past there breaking point. But for the DN class iceboat it moved the class forward as the failure rate for epoxy & wood layups (which was the previous standard) was very high. Some of the newer pre preg masts have now gone to a mix of carbon and glass as all carbon can be too stiff. Something to keep in mind. If you like a little flex in your board especially a longboard you may find the stiffness of an all carbon board (never mind its unbelievable lack of any weight) a little too stiff and strange feeling.
Roy,
Sorry to be the one to point out flaws in your golf analogy but wood shafted golfclubs flex at least twice as much as graphite clubs. There is NOTHING rigid about wood shafted golfclubs. The reason that wooden shafts arent used today is that anybody with a swing speed of over 90mph will break a wooden golfclub in the downswing. Ive done it before.
I think that the same properties that lead golfers to grapite (quicker recovery and vibration dampening) would be interesting to have in a surfboard. The board would still flex but would recover very quickly. Might feel alot different, who knows?
Terry
white carbon fiber is available. Bianchi bicycles from italy uses it in their most expensive frame. what happens to a carbon fiber golf club shaft or carbon fiber bicycle frame/fork if it is deeply nicked or scratched? it splits or snaps. and i know my carbon fiber bike frame i USED repeat USED to ride had a warning about heat exposure, one of the reasons i sold it. any military vets out there on helicopters that had carbon fiber on them may have some insight, but from what i’ve experianced from other applications carbon should be left for competitive use.