EPS or Poly

General Discussion
1

Hey everyone,

My girlfriend recently asked me to make her younger sister a board for her sweet sixteen birthday. i designed a shape (attached) that i came up with for her. Shes a really small girl, maybe 110lbs, but i am unsure about whether to use eps or poly foam. i have a little bit of experience with both, and dont have much of a prefrence on either (other than how easy it is to shape poly).

i was thinking eps just because i could make it a bit lighter for her, and it will be nice and strong, but im not sure. any insight you guys could give me would be great.

2

i should also add that she is a beginner. she has only been surfing for a summer. she can stand up a little more than half the time, but she has a blast.

3

Since you live in the northeast and it’s winter I would go with the poly and use sun cure. Epoxy and cold weather are a bad combo. I’m into about three hours with no end in sight trying to clean the uncured epoxy of the deck of a board laminated during a cold snap. I knew better,too. Unless you have a temp controled environment I would go polyester-vomit resin-sun cure. Mike

4

Ah good point, although i wont be glassing until march-ish, but that might not be any better.

Temperature aside, will there be any benefits using one rather than the other?

5

I’ll chime in too… for a total beginner, a 6-foot board is too short. It won’t have sufficient paddling glide to get her any distance, and when/if she stands up she’ll have to be in just the right spot, even at 110 lbs., or the board will be squirrelly and she will eat it. Six feet long means it won’t take off either, unless she’s right there - and no beginner “gets it” as to where to sit and which waves to choose. Moreso if she’s trying to learn on a little shorebreak, where things happen pretty quickly, she will need length for glide and stability, or she will quickly become frustrated and this board will very quickly become a dustcatcher, forgotten and abandoned.

No shame in that - beginners abandon boards all the time.

Note too, at sixteen she’s more impressed with how cool it will look than how functional it will be for her level of ability.

How big is enough? I’d say at least in the low 8-foot range for stability (longer is better), and suggest 21 inches wide with a full nose and tail. One fin is enough; more will be more than she will be able to comprehend or use. Glass that fin on good and strong, too, because she will surely ride it right into the sand where box fins will snap off, and three of 'em means there will be more than one to replace.

This subject has come up before and Sway’s does have a search function.

6

thanks!

i did do a search, but it yielded nothing with regards to the materials.

I will take the advice and use it to modify my design, but i dont want to make a board that is too much for her to handle (in and out of the water)

its tough to compromise between all these different aspects, but ill definitly make it a bit longer. Thanks for the tips!

7

make a 6 ft

20 to 21 inch wide fish

that has a thickness of around 2 3/4 thickness

it will be stable/light and easy to manouver around a lineup

it will catch waves well enough

and her surfing can progress to a quite advanced level on it

i think beginners on longboards are a nightmare

8

I’ll agree with your there, beginners on longboards are a nightmare. They run into you. But they can paddle out without falling all over; then they can catch a wave or two.

Beginners on boards too short aren’t a nightmare – they’re just plain ridiculous to watch as they ineffectively flail and hack at waves you KNOW they haven’t a chance in hell of catching, cuz the board’s too short, thay can’t paddle near fast enough, and they can’t control when and if, by accident, the wave catches them.

But yeah, make her a really short board. Then the rest of us will only see her in the water once.

Seriously, a wide fish may well be sufficiently stable, but a tiny girl beginner won’t have shoulders wide enough to paddle with her arms except from the elbows out. And that doesn’t get a small board going near fast enough either. I watched a beginner last week on a surfech or some such big plastic job, and when she asked for tips, I told her the board was too wide, she wasn’t able to paddle with her arms. Course, by that time she couldn’t do anything about it, too bad.

There were occasional overhead sets, and a LOT of quite shallow very corally reef inside. She wasn’t going to be able to do anything better than straight-off, so I sent her “over by that guy way over there” and soon enough, I hope, she went in, without significant damage.

9

he he

okay charlie you got me!

but seriously

go surf snappers

and when you been run over a few times by begginers on 10 ft boards

you may change your mind

a world class break ruined by begginers and kooks

at least when it was Kirra the locals kept things real

begginers on longboards in empty 2 ft closeouts is okay with me

but on a point or good bank

no way

if they cant swim a few laps and have the strength to catch a wave

they shouldnt be in the surf

most begginers cant catch waves cuz they lie to far back on there boards

cuz its easier to balance

if you move the wide point forward the board is more stable

so they are more inclined to lie further forward

and catch waves

besides

the more people that give up surfing the better

its only the ones that dont give up

that will get the stoke for real

why make it easy for them

it was heartbreaking to see empty 3 foot soft peaks all up the beach

and yet all the surfschools were taking the begginers to snappers point

there you go snapper locals

theres the tyres you should deflate

10

hey waverider

that design looks good for a begginer

and you can borrw on small days

11

Sit outside of them on a 9’6" and go around or over them.

Works here - never been to Snapper tho.

12

John,

That looks like a sweet mini-mal shape, but I would extend it out to about 8’ maybe. Not too big, not too small. It is hard when learning to get your arms around the board to paddle, but you’re going to have to learn at some point. Also, a 6’ is gonna have a small sweet spot, whereas with the 8’ they have more room for error.

And I’d go with EPS, but I think I’m a bit biased.

13

im a pretty average surfer even after 20 years

i learnt to catch waves on a mat and body surfing

i stood up on a 5 10 single fin when i was 13

and was going along waves by my 3 or 4th session

learning on longboards is a crutch that is unneccesary

and doesnt teach good watermanship

if someone learns on a shorter board

they will progess faster once they overcome the standing and going along aspect

if a begginer is not willing to develope water skills by body surfing and catching waves on mats etc. they hardly will relize the stoke that comes from developing skills that enable them to paddle into a good line up with confidence .

if there confident and know the rules

and are riding a board they can duck dive and manuver

they might not get in any ones way and may just catch a few waves as well.

if you stick em on a long board and paddle them out into a break

they willl be labeled kooks and disrespected by other surfers

unless that is shes wearing a G string

in which case she maybe tolerated

but only if shes HOT :slight_smile:

hell

the thought of making a new board for a begginer is pretty laughable anyway

just go and buy a 50$ dunger

and see how she goes on that

or lend her a mat or booger and see if she can catch a wave

if she gets the stoke bodysurfing

it will go from there