What do you imagine beyond the WMD Compsand? What does the future hold for custom surfboards? Thanks
a monoque design. similar to formula 1 cars…no internal foam construction…only an outside shell,… if you will…higher deck which tapers down to thin hard rails allowing quicker rail to rail transfer…super light quick and fast …multi fins… beam me up scotty…
beam me up scotty…
and out…
Compressed air jets out the tail for super deep slabs
Just need some extra $ for a little R&D
That’s history. Aviso Carbon Fiber.
I’m wondering why no one has developed a paddle in flow board…
I’ve always thought that sandwich construction held the most promise for high performance. IMHO finding the correct laminate core is what will make this common place. A couple things needed to happen to make it reasonable to build.
First there needed to be and easy way to deal with the rails. The original idea for the WMD was something we did 20 years ago in the 80’s. When Bert appeared here with the compsand I decided to revisit the idea because it’s a simple way to reenforce the rail. The WMD makes it possible to do this without any extra building issues on a **custom **basis.
Second was figuring out the laminate core. After Corecel, Divynicel, Urethane, Rohcel, Coremat, end grain balsa, sheet balsa, spheretex, spherecore, etc, etc, etc, the one that works best for surfboards is veneers. The reason for this is it has the right strength and flex charateristics and it can be put on a custom shape without changing the shape. It is also stable to heat and cold, insulates the interior foam, and won’t delaminate. It’s the perfect laminate core.
The interior core … again many choices. Urethane, nice core, cheap, easy to shape. been around forever. A bit heavy though. EPS, also cheap, easy to shape, available widely, light. A bit heat sensitive. Hollow, cheap long used in many other products. Heat and cool issues and it’s difficult to bridge the interior … foam does this better. The other foams available aren’t really applicable and/or are too expensive. The combination of EPS and urethane gives the best qualities of each in a package that doesn’t sacrifice the aspect of custom shape.
So my choice at this time is an EPS/urethane core with a veneer cored exterior. Far and away the best combination of strength, performance and price. WMD compsand.
Future IMHO will use advanced versions of this tech. Epoxy/novolac high temperature backed veneers made in autoclaves under vacuum. Backing will be hybreds of multi directional knit or multi axis unidirectional fibers. Orienting fiber will give flex return well advanced of todays boards. Epoxy/novelac resin will allow for advanced strength to weight ratos, i.e, lighter boards. This is already being done in snowboards, skis, water skis, wakeboards, etc. Custom will still be applicable with most of the designing being done on computer using Shape 3d or similar software. Futher down the road there may be other advancments such as multi axis filiment wound exterior laminates, curtain coated finishes and epoxy/urethane UV cure acrylates.
Lastly, custom is the most advanced way to build this product. Nothing else is even close. IMHO no other sports product made gets the kind of advantages a surfboard gets from being custom built. This is why high end surfing equipment will always have that custom aspect. Without this, performance will suffer greatly. The advance of shaping machines and software ensures that this will be the direction of future surfboard production. The advance of WMD compsand working hand in hand with systems like APS 3000 will advanace the equipment forward giving better performance and value to the consumer.
I toyed with drilling holes through behind the fins to reduce the drag caused by the fins naturally wanting to seperate from the board under pressure. I think you could use this principle to make compressed aqua jets.
the future is, going to home depot, buy some plywood, shape it, then go surf it. already seen it happening. all the hot little sponsored kids are doing it. rippin’ and doin g floaters and slashing on planks. the future will be: if you surf a plank of wood, your real…if you surf a “surfboard” with fins, your a kook!