Anyone ridden a pastel blue colored Salomon S-Core and liked it? I hate epoxy (haven’t tried EPS though) and wanna know what people think of the S-Cores, if you’ve tried one. Are they tough? Are they better than epoxy? Are they worth my $800?
oy vey…where to begin …
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Anyone ridden a pastel blue colored Salomon S-Core and liked it? I hate epoxy (haven’t tried EPS though) and wanna know what people think of the S-Cores, if you’ve tried one. Are they tough? Are they better than epoxy? Are they worth my $800?
Ive heard sort of mixed reviews. Some guys like em some arent so thrilled. As far as strength they are made from XPS foam and are rather prone to breaking and ive seen several of them broken clean in half.
Hi Jason,
I don’t mean to lecture you, but epoxy is just a kind of resin. S-cores are made using epoxy resin. Some pro-surfers use boards made with Clark blanks glassed with epoxy. There are hundreds of different kinds of epoxy resins for different purposes. Unlike polyester resin it can be used with lots of different foams, woods, carbon fibre, Kevlar you name it. Most of the new technologies you are seeing now - Flexlite (Placebo) Aviso, Kalstoff, Futureshapes, Proctor etc use epoxy resins. So if you go into a surfshop and say you don’t like epoxy, you are limiting your choices somewhat. Same with EPS. EPS in higher densities can be used as a substitute for Clark foam and glassed in the traditional way (albeit with epoxy resin) or in low densities, as a kind of filler for boards with super tough skins. So when you say you haven’t tried an EPS board there are a couple of options there too.
Pinhead, well put! Excellent post.
The great surftech = epoxy misconception strikes again…
well, this just in from Hawaii …
…I’ll let you be the judge , eh ?
cheers !
ben
Chip,
Are you saying S-core surfboards break, poopee surfboards break, or ALL surfboards break?
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Chip,
Are you saying S-core surfboards break, poopee surfboards break, or ALL surfboards break?
i think he’s saying that they’re no more resistant to breakage than any decent PU board. in fact, they’re probably even more prone to breakage, from what i’ve heard.
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The great surftech = epoxy misconception strikes again…
precisely what i was referring to with my “oy vey…” comment …i just REALLY didn’t want to get into it right then. thanks, pinhead, for explaining the difference.
The only guy round my parts who had one snapped it in a big bottom turn - he went back to polyester after that
Yep, don’t like the way the rail-blowout looks in that one facing the camera, nor do I like the way the CF peeled off the interior of the foam sheeting. I wonder how much better the salomon boards could be with some sort of perimiter stringer and using corecel or some similar sheeting material instead of XPS foam.
a mate of mine , Drew, snapped four of them clean in half. He has also snapped LOTS of his other boards in half too, I may add. Surfing in contests, and surfing in heavy tubes, and even surfing small gutless beachbreak… maybe the question could also be : “why do boards break ?”
[The photo was merely to illustrate that in Hawaii , as elsewhere , ANY board may one day break , given the “right” [?wrong?] conditions , force , positioning , etc.]
cheers !
ben
They snap clean like a
dried old tree branch.
Not a new fresh branch.
That’s the first clue something is wrong.
I’ve got a grocery list of engineering and design defects inherent in the SCORE blank. This should be obvious to anyone with any engineering sense at all.
The only thing they got right was the name: Score.
Score with Score blanks.
Score waves with Score blanks.
Score chicks with Score blanks
Score points with the bros with Score blanks.
Score waves chicks points.
Another marketing scam busted.
take a geuss at what s in s core stands for. i believe it should stand for $h!t
Wow…sorry to report i’ve had a couple and they worked great! One was a MacCauley and the other an Arakawa and they were really light and ripped. I never had any trouble with them…then again, I don’t break boards…I’ve broken one in 21 years.
The Salomon allowed me to ride a thinner board that was lighter and more responsive…thats it. It didn’t feel stiff and it had way better flex than a surftech. I’ve seen a few used in Surfride and Pacific Drive for under $400. Try a used one, or borrow a demo form a shop and see for yourself…Just for the record, i’ve had an epoxy 6’4" that I HATED, the Salomon felt more like a natural PU board to me.
thanks
Ken
Hey pbken,
Im curious about your board experiences…
what didnt you like about the 6’4 epoxy?
and to this:
the Salomon felt more like a natural PU board to me
did the Solomon flex like a PU?
thanks
The 6’4" epoxy was a Stu Kenson gutter bottom. XTR glassed it. I rode it with different sets of fins, I rode it from 3 ft Oceanside to 6 ft cabo and it NEVER worked. It felt stiff, non responsive… so different from my regular clark blank boards. And to add shit to the shoe, it got a heat bubble on the deck in Cabo. That board can go to hell…sorry for all the epoxy backers, maybe I just got a Lemon, but it was enough to scare me off.
I got the Salomon boards from a buddy who rides for them. He let me try them for a few months and they went unreal!I ended up buying the DMAC. They felt like i was riding a thinner version of my normal clark foam shortboard. Would I buy one off the rack for $800? I don’t think i’ve ever been comfortable spending that kind of money, But it wouldn’t be because I don’t back the product. I guess i’m a cheapo.
hmmm…a mate’s got an akawa…
Goes ok but no better than a pu/pe from what I see.
Look at the vids on the s-core site…surfing shows nothing out of the ordinary.
I guess the vid that has impressed me is bert’s longboarder…that board seems different (course it could just be the rider?)…
How custom is this stuff so far … anyone know if this has improved?
thanks man. your comments on epoxy are quite common…too stiff and chattery…but hey im one of the epoxy guys and maybe yours was not well designed or made…its been mentioned here before that certain things need adjusting to make the transition…i wonder how you would rate a well made custom Loehr epoxy. Im working on some things to buck the common conceptions as well.
So then, seems like S-cores ride nice but may have some reliability issues…not yours per say, but comments previously made on this forum.
Cheers
i forgot to mention.
just a theory…the root cause of that nice flex and feel one gets from clark is the same root cause of rapid material fatigue, leading to that dead feel after a few months of use. a clark rides best at its very first session…then its downhill from there.
of course im talking lightly glass clarks here…everyone’s experience with them is different…mostly good tho