So I have been seeing alot of footage, and hype about these closed cell finless boards that don't need glassing. The design seems pretty rudimentary, and with no glassing they seem like endless fun on some of the bodyboard only beaches here on Oahu. My question is what kind of foam are they using, and if anyone has info on where to purchase on Oahu. I've been experimenting with my handplanes here, and just want to continue the process to these. Thanks.
If youre talking about the Lord boards on the Hydrodynamica blog , theyre just styrofoam, EPS.
Besides Point Panic for body surfers only… I was not aware of any “bodyboard only” regulated breaks here on Oahu.
interested to know what you got planned with the hand planes, care to share ??? I dabble in some finless and semi-finless stuff and always keen to hear what others thoughts are.....I have tried to surf on a square chunk of foam like you mentioned above, not easy at all, Birch and co. make it look much easier than it is.....
Makapuu is another beach reserved for bodysurfing and boards without fins. Not sure if that means bodyboards only, or if you could take an Alaia type of board out there.
We’d surf there before and after the lifeguards go to work.
Bud I’m a frequent lurker on your messsage board, and I’m thinking to use it at Makapuu after nine of course, as I’m not a early riser all the time. I was also going to use it at half point, on those days that connect to the shorebreak. The foam is EPS? Obviously a density that i need to go to fiberglass hawaii, not the eps I can grab a home depot. So any other opinions of the foam? Something more specific?
I would use wood for hand planes, and make it concave.
Foam would be OK for small paipos, but you’d want to get a heavier foam than Home Depot sells for an unglassed board. They have 1", 1 1/2" and 2" foam in 4’ x 2’ blocks. Perfect for a paipo, but I’d glass it, or I’d try various shaped until I get it to where I want it, then make a new and glass it.
Lowes sells blue DOW XPS, but it costs $54 for a 4’ x 8’ x 2" sheet. That’s a lot of foam for a paipo, but it’s water proof, so you could make paipos and not glass them.
Back in the mid 60’s we had little EPS surfboards that you could get at most stores for a couple of dollars. They would give you the worst rash ever. You had to wear a shirt or you’d have a raw stomach. Then they’d always be breaking, so we’d end up with about 2/3 of a board and use it for a paipo. Even the boards with stringers would break in front or in back of the stringers. That’s how a lot of kids started surfing.
Heck I bet you could get a large styrofoam cooler, then take the top and use that as a paipo. Turn it so the re-enforcing ribs become keels. You’d have a twin keel paipo.
Ahh didn’t think about Sandy & Makapuu shorepounds. Still didn’t realize they actually restrict surfboards there. Sorry to go off your actual topic! I’ll shut up now
DFB and Surffoils:
I'm pretty sure that the "yard possum" foam is not simply eps. I did a bit of research on this too because I was interested in the stuff for balsa skin boards.
They are using a product called I-foam. It is produced by Marko in conjunction with INT (the softboard co.) I infer that it is some sort of blended foam, like an eps/polypro mixture. I talked with the marko rep about it. You can get a few blanks from their catalogue in this stuff. It is water resistent, unlike regular marko eps.
Apparently it doesn't handshape very well, but works on the machine. Weird.
hunter
i thought they were using the foam that is in softops??? ie. kinda like boogieboard foam
Irrespective of the composition of the Lords Boards on Hydrodynamica, the' Elephant in the room' is that its possible to ride very competently on a square block of rubbish.
No rocker but a bit of nose lift, no intricate concaves and no fins.
No rails at all, god forbid a surfboard can perform completely without the magical coanda effect !!
But its clear that a simple square block can produce bottom turns, cutbacks and all manner of slidey tricks that finless craft specialse in. The surfers are good but theres a million of those on every beach in Burleigh/ Socal/ whereever..
Its irrelevant what type of foam theyre using-- the magic is in the unshaped design !!
If it’s iFoam, from Marko.
It DOES shape by hand ok enough, it just has a bit of a “furry” texture. Does not lie flat all over when it’s “shaped to final dims”.
Machines fine also, but you still gotta finish it up a bit and then the fur again…?
Anyone else see these pools of fur? on this foam when finished?
Surffoils wrote:
"Its irrelevant what type of foam theyre using-- the magic is in the unshaped design !!"
Its relevant if you're are wanting to build one!
But yes, the stoker is what those guys can do on them (pretty humbling to be surfing 'Suck Outs' on the board of my choice and have Ryan B literally surf rings around me on a anti-surfboard)
At that level of unrefinement I dont think it would matter what type of foam it is, just scarf a bit of nose lift in it and give it a light coat of resin to seal it. Sometimes we make things more complex than they need to be. I dont think the originals were made to last but you could always give it 2 X 6 oz all over.
It all depends what deathfrombelow wants it for, one off fun or a daily rider.
surfers with a ton of ability can surf anything ( almost ), this proves it....would love to see some of the worlds best give finless a go, who knows what would be possible....
many thanks for the ifoam info theboys, i’ll be getting a chunk and seeing what goes on from there…probably not going to be a daily driver, but you never know, could get fun. But, until then I’ll leave it unglassed.
I tried to make my own her in Australia with a cheap and nasty rectangular block of styrofoam. I shaped it pretty close to what I’ve seen in the Lord Board vidoes. It was so floppy and weak that second wave it snapped after nose-diving on the wave. It did actually work which was surprising. It was hard to keep the nose out of the water, but I could paddle, take-off and set a trim line really easily.
If you use styrofoam it seems as though you need to use the highest density possible. I tracked down one place that could sell me high density stuff, however they were an industrial wholesaler and thought I was very suspect asking for a single block of their highest density foam cut to small dimensions. Lots of trouble so far :\
Will get some I-foam if I can…
Cpt, I can give you a half dozen free blocks of eps. I got them from Polyfoam in Sydneys suburb of Moorebank. theyre 1120 X 530 X 90 so theyre almost 4 in thick.
Ive got generosity but no money to post them so if you can pick up from Manly 2095 or arrange a courier, theyre yours.
I use them for prototypes and just put a generous coat of epoxy resin on.
And some on the boards as well. ha ha
Or call polyfoam, contact Judy McMahon, who can do custom density and sizes and delivery is free.
Let me know if you need any more info...
reckon you can spare one for me SurfFoils???