Blonds, or Brunettes?
“Maybe someday a good surfboard core material that is innocuous to our planetary ecosystem will be developed …”
Someday is here…Air core + wood skins = Hollow wood surfboards…
Neither. Redheads, by a long shot. No contest.
I disagree. The man said “good surfboard core”. I’d consider that to be a material that is easy to shape, not labor intensive, and not prone to leaking.
Wood may be more environmentally innocuous, but it has other properties that are major drawbacks. Plus, the risk of leaking in hollow boards is a negative
thing, IMO.
To me, the ideal core material would have the shaping characteristics and water resistance of poly foam, minus any environmental issues.
Redheads? Nature’s warning sign. Caveat emptor!
How about first we find a way to stop burning up dead dinosaurs and spewing them out of our exhaust pipe while looking for waves, replace the massive diesel generator complexes throughout Hawaii that produce electrical power ( fuel ship deliveries ever interrupted for more then 7 days, lights out ) for the islands that spew out carcinogenic stew…etc, etc…now that we’ve passed through the general atmospheric 400 PPM CO2 concentration threshhold, gonna be damn near impossible to reverse it unless enough countries united for one hell of a costly reclamation project…probably DNA modification will be mankinds best hope…and only the rich will afford it…how boards are built have less impact then a fly in a Category 5 hurricane…except on the health of those building them, which is the real issue…
You will get no argument from me.
Human population increased exponentially from 1960 to 2000 (3 billion to 6 billion). We accomplished in 40 years what it had previously taken several million years to do. Concomitantly, our use of fossil fuels increased exponentially in the same time frame, releasing carbon sinks that took on the order of over 100 million years to form.
Will we continue to expand like mindless bacterial colonies? Or can we adapt through self-awareness?
One must question whether humanity has the wisdom, knowledge or skill to manage ecosystems on a planetary scale …
EPS vs Poly Blanks - Which is better.......
Not save the world or hate the world....not big chem vs. wood workers.
Every single person reading this post is using a device made from modern chemicals. I love modern chemicals.
I have not made my mind up on the EPS vs. Poly debate....Surfing is fun.....Ray
Piss the machines off.
Make fewer and stronger boards from either foam.
…personally EPS
Humans being described as "mindless bacterial colonies’ while in some ways relevant is alarming. Let’s say the "one percenters’ had the ability to decide who lives and dies, and you weren’t one of them. How would you feel about that decision? Shifting gears, allowing legal abortion in the US for the last 40 years has only served to create more of a vacuum to pull undocumented’s or illegal immigrants from all over, but especially Mexico. One can argue that has had a major impact on our social condition, as well as, our futures. Who decides who breeds and who dies? Many around here will argue third world breeding bombs have been effective in overwhelming governmental safety nets. Real challenges exist, and hard decisions, not necessarily the best implimented, and like the aborted will die. It would take absolute world control to implement a world-wide population control; somehow another Moses will slip through the cracks.
Still, I agree with you and have thought of humanity as bacteria colonies, and your the one who always complains about threads going off track!
“allowing legal abortion in the US for the last 40 years”
we allow legal tobacco smoking which kills millions and cost billions in health care costs. we allow legal assault weapons that are used in mass shootings which kill our kids and drains our country’s soul. we allow political lackeys of the military-industrial hegemony to push us into unjustified wars that kills hundreds of thousands of innocents and drains our country’s treasure strictly for the profit of those who bought and paid for the politicians.
and the people who support all of the above? The loudest and most strident to Defend Americans Freedom to smoke, own assault rifles and start wars at will. The anti-abortion ‘right to lifers’ who vote against any form of tax increases to educate, feed and provide health care for the poor children they are most insistent be borne…to someone else.
hypocrisy at it’s worse…
Yes, I do.
Ride what you like.**
At night from above, our cities look like bioluminescent bacterial colonies.
Starvation will terminate many more than …
There was a very interesting comment about EPS vs Poly over at the Design Forum of surfermag by Wayne Okamoto-
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Good post Jeff.
I did a 1 lb EPS compsand years ago. It sat a few days after shaping, before glassing. Before glassing, I happened to lay the template on it again, and it has swelled about a half inch in width. Don’t know about Molded blanks.
I prefer PU foam.
US blanks Orange is about 2 pound fer foot. EPS, unless you are going to compsand it, is going to be between 1 1/2 and 2 pound. So the most you are going to save on a regular short board is 8 ounces.
Then when you consider what EPS does when dinged, PU is an easy call. Especially if you are traveling.
The advantage EPS billet foam has, is that it is half the cost of a PU blank.
One EPS advantage = uniform density (throughout).
Why is that an advantage? On a correctly sized blank, shaped with care not to take the dense foam off, Makes sense to have a denser foam on the outside. If you want the best, use a PU core with wood or d-cell or core cell skin on the deck.
The last PUs I had (now over 10 years ago) all ended their brief lives when the considerable denting under my duck diving knee delammed. The “defect” of EPS which Wayne expressed above, the expansion, is also what saves them from a similar fate. I’ve heard some say that they see dents after a session but the next day they’re gone. I guess if I glass the deck enough I wouldn’t have that problem? Someone also told me to glass a board light, get the dents, then do another layer of glass which now conforms to the dents, and then the dents won’t pop off (delam)… Seemed an extreme solution to me…
Typically EPS packing foam is 1.0 pcf with minimum compressive strength no more than 15 psi (likely lower) – and low quality for impact damping (not surfboard construction). EPS ranges from 1.0-3.0 pcf. EPS quality varies as is true for PU, dependent on how it is made.
PU blanks are not uniform density throughout. Good quality EPS is more uniform in density than PU blanks.
After 1.0 pcf EPS packing foam, try shaping low quality 1.0 pcf PU.
Use what you can get at reasonable cost that will do what you need.
I’d question most of that…the only lack accuracy with eps is any fine edges you got…you can’t get them right with 1lb , no way…but contours are no problem , if you use the correct grits for the foam you use…high density EPS can be shaped easily , when the right tools are used…it will never be as clean shaping , or as shaper friendly as a good PU blank , which is where the lamination plays a bigger roll , and in particular a very good sander , who knows the design and the edges…I see quite a few people using EPS in recent years that are totally omitting a couple of essential processes…you just can’t do that , and expect to build a durable board with the stuff.
