Bit like asking someone what’s the best kind of surfboard I guess. But I’ve never done it. Have you? Was it big, small, tiny? Do you find some methods of construction work better for not breaking (aka compsand) than others. Is it the reason you spend a lot of money on surfboards or is this why you can’t afford to buy another? Does anyone really give a shit when you can make another one, get it repaired or take up lawn bowls etc.
Funny you should ask (post) this … After breaking my second board I had about a six foot piece that started this whole garage shaping thing. And tapping into the knowledge center known to us as swaylocks. Breaking the boards was not that difficult it was a matter of the “wrong” board for the wave. They were longboards (9’ plus) snapped by pulling in. Typical PU construction.
But I would say that it was a bargain for the info that I have been given access to here on swaylocks. I think back at what people like Jim Phillips had to through back in the day to learn their craft, what if he was just starting today?
Thank you all for this …
Lou
Last board I saw broken was a board a friend had. The swell was 8’ @ 16 sec and hitting a normally fairly mushy spot. He turned turtle on a wave and it guillotined his board… Snapped clean in half. He never made it out that day.
We offered other boards to ride, but I think that did it for him that day.
easy. let me borrow your board, i'll snap it... i'm 3 for 3 borrowing boards. never again will i borrow a board if i can help it... each one has been in goodish surf. one was overhead hollow beachbreak, the other 2 headhigh beachbreak...
Bam...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just like that...it's over...........Dean,Dean,Dean....................................
I’ve broken longboards in thigh high shorebreak and overhead storm surf… both thin HP longboards. I think these things break easier than any other type of construction because they’re so thin and create a lot of leverage. I’ve broken a chippy shortboard in chest high surf doing a stupid floater and not landing it smoothly. Since then I’ve gone to nothing thinner than 2 1/2, because even though I can always build another one, I like to get some miles out of my boards.
I think shorter, thicker boards with heavier glass jobs and beefier/multiple stringers don’t break as easily.
That’s all I got.
I baby PU boards and I have spent 3 out of the last 6 years on some type of epoxy. Seen it happen in knee high wind slop, and 10ft beach dredging beach break, and everything in between. With PU it seems that the board just has had enough and goes with little rhyme or reason. Undoubtably epoxy is stronger. 1 7/8" thick epoxy a ton stronger than 2" thick PU
Only one board, out of the thousands I've made, ever broke. (that I know of) A 7' 10'' x 22'' x 3 5/8ths thick, in pitching 12 foot Sunset. The rider had straightened off, and was hit in the shoulders by the cascading wave, and driven through the board! Heartbreaking for him, as the board was his ''magic board.'' In the right conditions, any board can break, even robust guns with 2 inch solid RW stringers have snapped like twigs.
You realize, Chris, that people will now be very reluctant to loan you a board at Plaskett.
I snapped my unfortunately named “Red Snapper” at Malibu, second point (Kiddie Bowl) getting caught inside a wave with about a 10 foot face and hollow. The lip hit me square on the shoulders as I duck dived and that was it.
It’s been repaired and is still in my quiver’s rotation.
Can’t say I’ve abandoned PU, but most of my boards are EPS… and all but my classic log is epoxy. The whole idea for me with EPS/epoxy is to go stronger with the same weight or lighter. You can go thinner with EPS/epoxy to glass heavier and still have similar flex and weight… but a stronger board all around… snap resistance, dent resistance, ding resistance…
There is no way I would even try to compare my very unsignificant experience with Bill’s, but I’m glad he posted this because I was feeling abnormal with only TWO boards (that I know of) broken out of the few hundreds that I have made. One of those was probably the only one I ever glassed with 4oz cloth (2 x 4oz on top, 1 x 4oz bottom for a 7’4" is TOO LIGHT). To make a long story short, the board was made in Paris (yes!) and I used what I could find, i.e. definitely NOT surfboard material. Not even sure it was actually 4oz… The nose broke when an ankle-high “wave” drove the board into the shallow sand bottom at Bidart. Materials were hard to come by at the time (and money, too) so I repaired it (today, I would probably just shape another one, less trouble…): The board (repaired) is third from left:
The second was broken after two years of service by my friend Johann:
…although it was glassed strong and with a serious center stringer. But Johann rode some serious waves with it, too:
ha ha, yah, guess i outed myself. i've declined offers to borrow boards that i normally would have jumped at just because i was afraid of what might happen... i dunno what it is, when i'm surfing someone else's board, i even baby it trying not to hurt it.
my own stuff i'm not so careful...
i'm sure it's just a #'s game and those boards times were up, i just happened to be riding them. but, i can't afford to keep replacing friends boards.
on another note, my homemade epoxy junk daily driver, 6x6 and 6 RR, Marko foam hasn't had a ding in over 2 years. my previous PUPE, i was repairing dings at least every couple months if not more.
I actually managed to break a board jumping off rocks - misjudged, the back fin clipped a rock at the bottom and the board was broken before I was officially even in the water.
I’ve snapped a few over the years - rarely in big or heavy waves, and all sorts of glass schedules. It always amazed me how easy they went. A quiet “pop” and I was in the water. I’ve taken much heavier drops and poundings than the ones that snapped the boards - I guess it’s just a matter of applying the right amount of pressure in the right place.
One thing I learnt recently is that the quality of glass makes the world of difference. Almost identical boards, same glass schedule and epoxy, same (hand) laminator. The board with the glass where you could easily tear holes in the weave snapped twice in 8 sessions (well the veneer held the halves together). The other with good quality Colan cloth (where you cut your fingers trying to tear open the weave) has taken a hammering to date.
Uh oh Chris,
Have you tried my cockroach board yet?
Around here we have boardbreaking days. And judging by all of the snaped boards in the garbage cans on the Great Highway some days it is pretty easy.
I have snapped them duckdiving, riding, running up the beach out of the water, on the rocks, and by landing on them.
I snap at least 2-3 boards every year and have gotten much better at putting them back together.
ha ha Ian, i was wondering if you were going to comment =)... nah, i never rode it. i still need to measure it though. let me know when you want it back...