EPS taking on water?

General Discussion
1

Any of you guys having problems with the higher densities of EPS taking on water? -Carl

edit: After dinging the board, small pinholes… cracks in the finbox, all that fun stuff…

2

Hey Carl- I was talking to Joey Thomas Saturday at the Lane and while we were chatting a pinhole in his EPS board was streaming out water, a lot of water! I had never seen anything like it. It must have soaked quite a bit of water. On the otherhand, Joey is really stoked on the performance of the EPS, he is really enjoying it.

3

if the water was oh , say , yellow ,

I would paddle away , if I were you …

4

I’ve seen that too, Carl. You can take a piece of 2# and put it in a bucket of water for a week and when you take it back out, it hasn’t absorbed anything. But if you glass it (encapsulated) and then ding it, and put it in the sun, & then put it in the water, the air & pressure exchange will suck in whatever the hole is in contact with, air or water.

I have not noticed this with skinned boards (balsa etc.) just plain glassed ones.

My last few boards, I started using Geofoam which is EPS designed for road bed and direct ground (and groundwater) contact. Supposedly, its sealed better than regular bead foam. Haven’t dinged any yet :slight_smile:

5

Clear evidence on why I seal my shapes with epoxy resin before laying them up, it at least reduces the chances of this occuring. Even doing this I have had a few “minor” blows I discovered before finishing the board