I Got Your Surf Fiber Right Here!

General Discussion
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The search for alternative materials and methods for greener surfboard production is gaining momentum. Various cores, lamming cloths, and resins popping up and being mentioned in various threads about other stuff.  Some of the more hardcore DIY guys have and are quickly discovering that the future isn’t only accessible by way of highly processed petroleum products and 1.21 gigawatt reactions, but already exists all around us in nature. Think about all of the amazing accomplishments that man has achieved in the last century alone, and the materials and technologies that made them possible - almost all mimmicries of materials and processes that have existed in nature for millenia and to this day are unrivaled in their intricacies and functional simplicity. 

Enough loftiness for now though.  Let me kick this thread off with something I’ve been quietly working on for a little while now.

Yep.  That’s freshly decorticated and dried bast fiber from the kudzu vine.  A non-native plant that has consumed millions of acres in the south, has been impossible to eradicate using chemical and mechanical means costing states millions of dollars annually, is completely free for the taking, and has been used in Asia for centuries as a valuable source of textile material, food and medicine.  My interest has been in acquiring the raw fiber to replace the carbon fiber tow I’m using to make bamboo bicycles. Here’s a shot of my own bike built from scrap parts, 3 types of locally grown bamboo, and the carbon fiber tow:

It’s a great little commuting bike and I’ve been riding it regularly for about a month now without any problems.  Also built another for the lady, using the CF tow, but started looking into hemp or flax to replace it.  In my search I discovered kudzu, and have been learning heaps about the process of extracting the strongest useable fiber from a number of plants also.  Here’s what a short length of roughly carded (combed) and hand plied (twisted) thread looks like from a single length of kudzu vine:

You think I’d be able to easily snap that with those fat hands of mine huh? - Nope.  That stuff is ridiculously strong.  In fact, nobody I’ve shown it to has been able to break that thread.  Useful? - Oh hell yeah - abundant, free, nitrogen fixing legume, and a simple week-long wet retting to be able to remove the best fiber this easily:

I know that plenty of similar scenarios and materials are surfacing around the world as a result of sustainable thinking, or simply a reevaluation of ‘old’ ways. 

What methods and materials have any of you came across lately that could concieveably change the way we build our recreational vehicles?

 

 

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very very interesting.  just don’t let it out of your garden.

Love the bike.  Do you think you will go into production?

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I wish you lived near me.  I have some board-bulding ideas for utilizing a fiber like that.  But my problem right now is that my reality can't keep pace with my imagination!

BTW, are we ever gonna get a ride report on that skin-on-frame board??? 

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looks very viable, mike! looking forward to more natural options for our HWS addiction " )

hmm this lady from alabama looks pretty stoked in her kudzu kayak hehe 

(from http://maxshores.com/kudzu/)

btw, that 'boo bike? i like!

cheers,

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Hey guys,  it’s been quite a trip here since the oil spill.  They say the water is safe here now and to ‘come on back to the beach!’ . . . I haven’t been in the water since about a week before stuff like this started showing up:

That was my favorite spot away from the crowded pier, where a family of dolphins would almost always show up and swim within feet from me . . . Now, researchers believe that nearly 80% of the oil and dispersants have accumulated to form a gigantic underwater pool in the Desoto Canyon - directly off shore from this beach.  And, the last of the cleanup workers are not allowed to scrape the surface of the beach any deeper than 6" now.  Why? - bcause there is a layer of oil not far below that looks exactly like the stuff covering that branch in the pic above.  A nice, slow death for this area for years to come.  So Huck, I sure wouldn’t mind living closer to you right now too.  I’m sure we’d have a wild time figuring out HWS build techs and probably put some good use to found materials too.

Needless to say I haven’t been and won’t be in the water in this area for quite a while if ever again.  Too bad, because I have a few new boards (including the SOF) I built that I’d like to get in the water, but will have to wait for a weekend trip to the east coast, or that winter trip to Mexico.

On the other side of the coin though, I’ve used that non-surfing time to go out and hunt down stands of wild growth bamboo for the bike project, build a couple bikes, research alternative regional plant fibers, go back out and gather kudzu, figure out how to process it into useable material . .etc, etc…    Huh, haven’t quite thought about it like that until now.  Maybe I used to spend too much time in the water . . . .nah!   

There are a few guys already building bamboo bikes on the west coast, this guy being the pioneer of the revolution (fist bamboo bike showed up in London in late 19th century):  http://www.calfeedesign.com/bamboo.htm. Actually, surfiber, I know Calfee set up a workshop in the Philippines through his “Bamboosero” program - http://www.bamboosero.com/locations-philippines.html     Oh, and it’s funny, but I thought the exact same thing when I saw that pic of the “Kudzu Queen” the first time I saw it too!

These guys also make a sweet bamboo ride:  http://www.pandabicycles.com/

I’m looking for help from the right people now to possibly set up a workshop building these things using only local materials and labor.  I can’t imagine there would be too much profit to be made considering the amount of work that goes into building a frame (about 35-40 hours), the availability of rideable pop-out bikes from box stores, and the unfamiliarity of the material to more discerning riders who don’t mind dropping a couple grand for a handmade frame without any components, wheels, forks - anything.  Yeah, it would be a long road to realizing profits, but just to get the bikes made from materials down the street and distributed in the region where the materials and skilled work came from would be a huge reward in itself. 

That being said I just got an email this morning from a local, successful textile artist who is completely stoked about the project, and about getting her hands on the raw kudzu fiber to see how it processes and if we can make some quality tow from it.  I know we can.  Can that fiber be made into a quality laminating material for surfboards?  I wouldn’t doubt it.

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The photo of the coconut husk material found on another thread reminded me of Cheech and Chongs Up in Smoke where they had the whole van built out of weed. Actually hemp is a viable renewable building material. Henry Ford was building car body panels out of the stuff back in the 40s. They have developed resins and plastics out of the stuff as well as cloth materials which may also have applications. I'm not advocating to legalize it. I haven't personally touched the stuff in over 10 years. The history of why it was made illegal in the states is also interesting and really has nothing to do with drug use. It has more to do with competition with the petroleum companies. The government was actually encouraging farmers to grow hemp during WWII for its textile applications. Sorry if this sounds like a disertation on the virtues of weed. I didn't mean for it to be but it is an alternative worth looking into in some areas

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yup woven kudzu fiber is definitely suitable for board-building. according to sri threads, “Kuzu fiber is flat and has a sheen; in this regard it resembles an elegant cousin to woven raffia.”

best of all, it’s free!   " )

cheers,

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Haha!  I was reminded of  Cheech and Chong’s van too when I heard about Ford building car bodies from hemp.  If it wouldn’t land me in prison I’d definitely grow a small patch to check out how much trouble it would be turn it into something useful.  And, if the whole process became too frustrating . . .well . . . I could deal with that - no problem ;)  The issues I’ve discovered with using hemp in the US besides the law and that it has to be imported, is that it would have the potential to become yet another plant doomed for monoculture production, using short-sighted, big business cultivation, irrigation, fertilization and processing methods to bring it to market. 

Also, when that hemp fiber hits the market in any of the forms that textiles take on, will it still be a natural fiber, or a viscose fiber (rayon) made from chopping up and chemically reducing the cellulose in the natural material and restructuring the liquid plastic byproduct  into fiber as it’s sprayed into a vat of fixative? 

Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Check out how bamboo (on an industrial scale) is actually turned into the fiber used to make the those ‘green’ fabric products sold at home stores.  http://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/348/   The exact same material (rayon) has been produced for over a century now using cellulose from other sources.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon

Here’s a cool little company in DC that has looked in thier own back yard for material and found a treasure trove:  www.alienweeds.com  That’s what I’m talking about! 

Surfiber- nice find on that kudzu shirt.  Heck, if the button wasn’t on the wrong side I’d wear it myself!  Just kidding, but the fiber is highly reflective, and looks like it could comb out to make some very fine material.  I have a date with this local textile artist tomorrow who’s offered to comb some out on her machine and give me a spinning lesson with the resulting fiber.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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that’s great mike, she’s got equipment! the stars are aligning just right hmm " )

more pics with your next updates pls hehe

cheers,