I am thinking about making a classic longboard and curious what was the glassing schedule on some of the first fiberglass surfboards. As I understand it, those boards were using cloth and resin from the boating industry. What oz cloth were the original board builders using and how many layers? I’ve seen some of these old boards up close and the thickness of the glass is mind boggling. I mean did they wrap those things multiple times in 10 oz glass? I can see why in the original Endless Summer, those guys dragged their boards down the beach because there was nothing to worry about in terms of damaging it. I can’t imagine doing that with a modern glassed longboard. Modern surfboards by comparison live up to the fragility of “glass” in the word fiberglass. Lastly, how much did one of those boards weigh such as in the Endless Summer?
Very cool pic from the film and thank you so much for the reply. I think its common for modern longboards to have a 6 oz layer of glass on the bottom and two 6oz layers on the top. When you mention it’s two layers of 10 oz glass, is that on top and bottom? It’s just very cool to reflect on the history of these old boards and their riders. The weight of those boards also gives insight to why a lot of surfers of that time were built and had to be to carry and paddle them around.
There is no such thing as a “fiberglass surfboard”. It’s a misnomer, and people need to stop using that ridiculous term. Balsa boards of the 1950s had fiberglass on them. Modern boards made with epoxy resin have fiberglass, even Surftechs and other molded popouts.
Very early foam boards had a wide range of glass jobs, some had single 20 oz. A typical mid 60s board from most of the big name labels had double 10 oz with four layers on the rails.
While some very early foam boards were glassed with materials from the boating industry it wasn’t long before they developed surfboard specific resin that resulted in a whiter board.
Isophthalic resin was standard by the mid 60s and the cloth was typically volan finish. Many labels offered a choice of glassing schedules and quite a few were using 8 oz as early as 1964.
"1946- The first fibreglass board was built by a man named Pete Peterson. This surfboard was a hollow plastic mould, with a redwood stringer and sealed with fibreglass tape. "
Sammy,
Check out the caption on the photo. I think it was built sort of like a Hollow W.A.V.E. without the honey comb; Similar to some of Quigg’s later paddleboards. Like the last pic.
