I just finished my first board out of EPS: 5-11 x 20 x 2.2 quad fin hybrid fishy thing. The rocker profile was taken from the old Clark 6’0"R. Bottom contour is flat in the 1st 3rd, single concave through the middle, with some V out the tail. The EPS is 2#, and I glassed it with double 6oz E on top / single 6 on bottom using RR epoxy. I just moved here from Oahu and shaped this guy for use in the usually mushy local beach break conditions; however when I took it out for it’s maiden voyage yesterday I was very disappointed.
The waves were shoulder high close outs, but pretty powerful and long enough to get a maneuver or two in. Every time I pushed on the board to drive for speed it seemed to sink into the wave. There was no push back. Whenever I went to snap it on the open face, the tail would sink and I could not regain any speed after the maneuver. It was like you had to surf conscientiously light footed the entire time or you would loose position on the wave – this made the session very anti Zen and severely frustrating.
Everyone I spoke to before shaping EPS said to go extra thin or at least really dome out the deck so that the rails are thin, but this board seems too thin to me. I’m 6-0 and 160 and used to riding boards in this length range (and not much thicker - say 2 1/2 - 2 5/8), but sadly, after surfing for 16 years on lots of varying equipment in waves all over, I know that this board does not work for me. Honestly, after feeling the buoyancy / weight in the water, I think that typical polyurethane thicknesses might be in order.
Was the advice I was receiving geared more toward 1# EPS? Has anyone had a similar problem? Any advice? Anyone know a light weight grom that needs a new board?
PS: I’ve been a Swaylocks lurker for years, but this is my first post. Thanks for any input, and hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes!
2# is a lot more like pu than the light stuff is. But you’ve probably held & paddled enough boards that if this one felt heavy - plain & simple - you’d know it even before surfing it. What other variables might there be? have you surfed or made other quads? Too much toe-in creating fin drag? Weight out of balance: too tail heavy from boxes & fins & resin? Not a hard enough edge on the tail & its not planing right? There might be corrections you can make without having to start over…
Thanks for the response. The board isn’t actually heavy, but once you get it into the water it doesn’t seem to have much buoyancy. I haven’t surfed or made a quad before, so it could be as simple as that; however, the water moving through the fins felt good. It wasn’t squirrely on turns and didn’t seem tight, it was more like weight on the back foot would sink the tail and take the board completely out of plane - and once out of plane the board didn’t quickly regain. The fins are futures done with a homemade jig – so there could be a weight issue there, but the router jig was made pretty tight due to my fear of excess exotherm on EPS. Fin set up came from a Sway’s thread something like ~back of front 11” from tail tip 1.5” from rail 1/8” toe – back of back 5.5” from tail tip 1/16” toe. The rail is pretty hard from the front fin through the tail, but I did put more tail rocker into this board than I have for previous “flat rocker” small wave boards.?
Yep - just like in that ‘most important design feature’ thread…its probably the rocker. Even from the photos it looks like thruster rocker. Quads (especially for mush) can be real flat, like a traditional fish rocker.
You might try trimming farther forward. Feet close together, near the midpoint or even a little ahead, kind of a Morning of the Earth stance…
You could also get a pair of the Futures keels and put those in just 2 boxes & see if the extra surface area helps drive the board. Try them in both the front & back boxes…
I did seal it with epoxy / qcell then laminated with ~14oz of epoxy on the bottom and ~16 on the top. I pulled out ~2oz on top and bottom with the squeegee. then 1 sanded hotcoat. It’s not very heavy - I don’t have an exact weight but it feels comparable to an off the shelf shorty - it just doesn’t seem to push back when you push on it for drive.
I’ve noticed one of my boards, that is almost identical to it’s predecessor, feels slow in small waves. and it has a flip in the tail rocker; that’s what I attribute the slowness to. particularly as it really comes alive when I get it in some juice…
A radical solution to rocker reduction, if you want to do it, might be to cut into the rails along the most vertical portion around the tail; This will loosen up the shear so that you can adjust it. Flip the board upside down between two supports at either end and apply weights until the rocker looks like what you want, then run some saturated roving in the slit and glass over the roving. Make sure it’s good and set up (maybe even build a little hotbox around it) before removing the weights. With a bit of luck, this will lock in a slightly diminished rocker. Because you’ve got a completely clear lam with no graphics or colour to worry about in that zone, if executed properly, you probably won’t even be able to notice the alteration without VERY close inspection.
note; I haven’t done this. I seem to remember it being mentioned in these parts before though.
That ultra buoyant feel is what I was expecting, but it doesn’t really have that. I’ve ridden a friends surf tech and it feels like it’s floating 2” above the water. This one feels like it is 2” under the water!
