I surfed on the board in knee to waist high waves and I felt like I had been on that board my whole life.The board paddled very easy and I could really feel how the board was springing me from turn to turn .I weigh 145 pounds and the board is a 5 10 it came with the new fcs m5 fin.I can’t wait to surf it in some larger waves. The waves where I surf is a beach break and we surf a lot of windchop here in south florida also.I will post again after the next surf.
sorry it took so long to get the pix up. my truck’s engine died on me and i’ve been
dealing with that. these photos are from about 10 minutes at the beach…
(i hope i do this right)
here’s some more…
and the last ones… photo bucket works great!
i hope that satisfies… sorry there are not more. like i said, we were only there for
10-15 minutes. none of the surfing photos are me on the Firewire, they were taken
after i had come in.
Surftech boards have a much better 'snappage" strength that PU. Hence the Wise demo. To my knowledge Surftech’s were the only boards that did not break last Saturday. I was down there & saw at least 4 PU boards snapped in half along with the Firewire. Below is a shot of a friend of mine trying out one of the surftech boards at the Wise demo day. 
what is the black in the rail and on the are where the glass peeled off of the deck
the “black” is probably little more than a bit of water on the exposed wood; don’t over-think the product.
I saw a couple of broken surftechs last Saturday…wasn’t in SF OB though…
they all break…just a matter of time, place, leverage…they all gonna break.
don’t believe the hype; it’s a sequel.
Actually the black piece is a Hyper Carbon Power Rod or HCPR for short. The HCPR is inserted through the leash plug while the epoxy has fluid properties, but not after the OSIF stage. The ambient temp must be between 68.324 and 69.423. This is a very critical stage in the birth of the Firewire surfboard, and obviously this is why this particular board failed. Oh the OSIF stage stands for Oh Sh%t, I’m Fu%ked
Quote:
what is the black in the rail and on the are where the glass peeled off of the deck
The sandwich layers are not fully fused. Meaning, they are not totally epoxied to the foam. So that is the whole sandwich layer separation from the deck, middle third.
The black on the rail is a joint. Obviously done in a way that is inadequate.
Chris,
You did exactly what we sent you there to do. You were the perfect secret agent. Well worth every penny we paid you. Good work. Salty micrometer and all!
Last year I had one friend that broke three Surftechs,I broke one, and another that broke two at OB.
Having see this many broken epoxy boards I can tell you with much confidence that
the black spot is wet silicon dioxide with a large magnetite content.
OB’s(black sand)
Ian
yup, it’s sand
Nice one man, cheers for the photos!
So, am I seeing a thicker sandwich on the deck?
No sign of extra special internal ingredients!
Sort of what I was hoping to see.
I think that a great board may not have to use any materials or designs that are spectacularly different to what we’re using.
(Lets just assume Firewires are great boards, even though barely anyone has ridden them, just for arguments sake).
I’m running with the theory that our materials are good, but so much difference can be made with how they are put together.
Just think how different a PU/PE feels if you glass it slightly differently…
Then think how many variables there are in a compsand, each with their own tweaks you can apply - A million different combinations, each with different strength and giving a different ride.
So i’m concentrating on build techniques and combinations of the 3 major ingredients: Foam, wood and glass.
Keepin the materials simple, and evolving the process…
Kit
Looks like pretty fun surf. The Fire board broke? You can jump up and down on it and it does not break until you are in four foot surf? Failed the strength test. What else do they offer? Is the perormance worth the ease in breackage. I have surfed for over thirty years and buckled one board. Call me a sisssy, but I have surfed many days with heavier surf than the photos and I’m an addmitted small wave pussy. Am I missing something? I’m just a guy who’s been around for a while waiting for something that is truely better. Show me something that is better, not just different. Different is good. Just don’t tell me it is better. PROVE IT. Mike
I notice that the core of the sandwich skin appears noticeably thicker on the deck side.
thanks for the snap photo, Chris. Pity your girlfriend didn’t get shots of the wave you snapped it on …it would have been interesting to see on video, actually , in slow motion , just what DID happen to the board when you parted ways .
Maybe at the next demo day , [if there is to be another one ? ], the guys from the shop could maybe video the ‘Firewire’ boards being ridden , as part of the ongoing ‘R and D’ , as they say ?! [The footage could prove useful / helpful to Greg Wildy and the boys there , hopefully ?]
Now , I wonder if the one made for Taj , for the pro tour , features any deviation in construction techniques or materials to the board shown ?
Also , how thick was that board , please Chris ?
It may just be the photo [or my eyes , or both?] …but , that board , to me, looks thicker than I imagined them to be , at least in the middle of the board [ie: the area where a stringer would go on another board]
cheers !
ben
…I have mentioned this thread to Ian [‘sandgroper’] to check out …we shall see if he still is keen to buy one …pascal, too …
I still want to buy two of them, a flex fire and a fish. I love my sunova and i have no doubt about the strength of the firewires either.
I guess it also makes some people reconsider their idea of beachbreaks , too …ocean beach , some west oz beachbreaks , some new south wales beach breaks , and I’m sure other places world wide [france? chile? new zealand?] …more board snappers than people may realise .
Yeah,
As I said in my first post, i’ll vouch for OB’s power.
Man, i’ve creased poly boards in the stupidist waves…
Don’t wanna start a “my breaks heavier than your break” thing.
But, for those who don’t know, Ocean Beach San Fran happens to be a very swell-exposed beach, less than a half hours drive from a certain big wave spot, the name starting with M, and ending with averics…
Shit happens, doesn’t matter if you ditch your board right or wrong, occasionally the forces combine, and then it’s snappity-snap, regardless of construction strength and wave size.
That it snapped is of no consequence, happens to all the top maufacturers boards.
Whats INSIDE, now thats interesting.
Kit
I lived there for the last 10 years…
A 6’2" breaking under such conditions is EXTREMELY rare, even more rare on a nearly new board.
The suspicion HAS to be that the board had a problem.
Pictures of the board show it failed at a seam in the balsa on the rails. That makes it likely a structural design or fabrication problem, and not happenstance.
Of course it is a solvable problem. The Sunovas were not plagued with the snappage that is rapidly being associated with the Firewires.
But a reputation for snappage is DEADLY in the surfboard industry, they gotta get on it.