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I only recently came across this forum. What a great accumulation of knowledge! I need your combined brains and expertise for an interesting challenge. Kite-Surfboards are extreme surfboards: on one hand the board should perform exactly like a normal surfboard. The shape dimensions and construction are similar to a normal 6´ thruster, the board should have a lively flex and the weight should be as low as possible. On the other hand those boards are tortured. On a normal session the kiter stands for 2h on the deck constantly riding at high speed in choppy water (and jumping!). Heel dents in particular cause delamination on the deck and finally breakage. Some of my boards (Resin 8, Surftech, Bufo and Poly/PE) only lasted for a couple of month. I am now using a heavily glassed vacuum laminated epoxy XPS quad. Here we used carbon and Kevlar fibres threaded from deck to bottom before lamination. The idea was to connect top and bottom laminate and provide spikes within the foam that help against foam depression. It worked to a degree but the board still got depressions. A totally rigid and overbuild deck is impractical as it causes a horrible ride. Ideally would be an inbuilt shock absorber under the front and back heel. The material (or shape!) should absorb bumps but bounces back into the original shape to prevent delamination. EPS will not bounce back forever. Internal air pressure like the Hydroflex Supercharger is a good idea but the valve leaks if salt crystals build up rendering it useless. Any ideas??
Also the link between laminate and foam is crucial. Bufo / Hydroflex use “root elements” protruding into the foam. The bond totally prevents classic delamination but the foam breaks just under the bonded area. The effect is the same as with delamination. How about wetting the shaped blank with epoxy, sprinkling it with chopped fibre glass strands and then pushing resin and glass into the foam using a nail board (thin nails protruding at different length to prevent foam failure along one axis)? Anyone tried this?
All ideas welcome!
