Never name a board after a fish with a name like “snapper.”
I’m back after a month dry docked in Italy, just in time for a south swell.
Malibu, dawn patrol, snagged one shoulder high wave. Then a set comes. I get a head high one but there’s two people in front of me so I kick out. Take the rest of a five wave set on the head. The last wave, the biggest, I’d estimate at 2-3 feet overhead and I’m watching it form and I’m right in the wrong place, right where it’s bowling. Last thing I see is the lip coming at me as I duck dive. Then the feeling of the board crumpling in my hands. I think the lip hit me right on the shoulders and just transferred the energy straight to the board.
I was almost as bummed I didn’t get to surf as I am the board is broken. It was one of those magic boards.
I did learn one thing from this. I don’t know if you can see it in the picture but the glass peeled cleanly off the balsa but stuck to the paulownia “stringer.” The balsa is dry, like no resin penetrated it at all. The paulownia , even where the glassed did peel off, is saturated. I’m thinking paulownia is by far the better wood for board building. OK Paul, if you’re reading this, now I believe you- balsa sucks!
Also did the vent have anything to do with the snappage or just coincidence?
Hard to say for sure from the pics but the way the glass peeled on the bottom, it's tempting to speculate that the deck separated from tension (rare) and that perhaps(?) the Paulownia 'stringer' was helping hold it together. The void in the Paulownia at the vent may have been a contributing factor but sometimes they're gonna break regardless. Maybe that was just the first place to let go?
Think it is a result mainly of the vent being located along the stiffer of the two materials (paulownia is about 2x stiffer than balsa). This makes the stress around the hole even greater. But, maybe it would have snapped anyway…
Perimeters were balsa- 3 layers of 3/16" (5mm?). Rolled with epoxy and taped on.
The paulownia was not a stringer in the true sense of the word. It was just an element of the skins- 1/8" deck, 1/16" bottom. I considered it mostly cosmetic- a way to make the butt joins of the balsa strips cleaner.
I’m curious if anyone has experienced balsa’s “epoxy phobia?” Where the resin does not impregnate the wood? Is that a known fact that I just missed? Or maybe my balsa was cured or treated in some way?
Anyways, I busted my favorite stick. But to look on the bright side- it’s back to the drawing board. The fun begins…
ps Durbs- saw Larry yesterday. What amazes me is that the guys been making fins for what? 30 years? And he’s still totally stoked and enthusiastic about it, always experimenting and tinkering. Inspirational.
Thanks for sharing your pain with us. I know there is a lesson to be learned hear somewhere. I do not think it was a coincidence that the break was at the vent. What I am surprised at is that the break was realatively clean and happened while you were duck diving.
My experience has been that they usually crease the deck and put hairline fractures in the rail wood.
I have creased three of these boards in overhead dumping beachbreaks none of which broke in half.
All were sub 5lb 6’8"s glassed very light and had 3/8 balsa perimeter rails.
Would like to hear josh’s take on it.
Are you going to put it back together? If not I would like to see it when we are down that way in a few weeks.
I’m not 100% convinced it was the vent. It was super low tide first point/kiddie bowl, a set wave 2-3 feet overhead and I just knew I was in the wrong place. I knew I was going to get worked. When the lip hit I could feel the board crumpling in my hands. I’m pretty sure it broke right where I was pushing down to duck dive and was coincidence that the vent was there. Anyways I’m switching to “timberflex” with 1.5 lb eps, so vents are history for me, for now. Also, I’m going to be using hickory- nice looking, tough, springy and inexpensive.
I’ll PM you my number. If you’re down here I’d love to meet you. Bring some of your boards.
Come to think of it, I inaugurated the board at Malibu and it ended it’s life there…
How does the break on the deck look? Is it compressed or buckled inwards? I find it hard to believe that the board failed in tension on the bottom, I would like to think it broke on the deck first and then the trashing resulted in the glass on the bottom being peeled off. Did you seal the balsa with thinner epoxy before laminating? Hopefully there is a lesson to be learned here somewhere.
Absolutely no sign of buckling, no lifting, no denting of the glass on the deck. Just a straight cut. And, as you can see in the photo, the bottom glass peeled. My feeling is the culprit is somehow the glass not adhering to balsa. The inside of the balsa was sealed with epoxy before laminating. The lesson I’m walking away with is a doubt about balsa’s compatibility with epoxy…
vents, dings etc are targets for failure.
All my buckles and snaps occurred right along where there was a patched rail ding or something similar
Balsa is a sponge has alot of air in those tubes so if you seal the bottom the epoxy can’t replace the air in those “tubes” unless it vents out. Those dreadded air bubbles you know.
Hey man, that is shit, especially for the waves that never come back.
forget about it, you are now into T-flex, right?
they look better, just lammed up some vertical and horzizontally pressed caramel bamboo, looks just great!! goes well with pastel blue, green and pink.
repair the board though, so much money and time went into it.
and as far as my 2 cts… it didnt flex enough, and all the load went to where your hand + vent were and then broke the board. was it a thick board?
Damn Jeff that sucks. Snapper may have not been the best name yeah?
One of the most prone sections for breakage is just ahead of the front foot. That also happens to be where you put your vent. The board was proly pre-strained before the final blow. Hey you win some, you lose some.
I saw your new board on the WMD thread, very nice. I made a 7'4 compsand rocket style in Jan that weighs 7.5 pounds. But I dont surf heavy waves with it.
I had found an article about finishing softwood for max resin penetration. Surprisingly, it said to finish smooth with 320. Maybe that and a combo of diliute resin would have made a diff. Ironically, balsa sucks water like no ones business.
I did many test panels and peel tests were very poor. With other materials you couldnt peel the stuff w/o the glass breaking apart first. A few years ago I was tellin Silly how much balsa sucks,,,do I get any credit too? ;)
Thanks Crafty. You get a lot design credit for that board- reducing the tail rocker. I think that had a lot to do with the speed of the board. I’m going to make another and I’ll take another of your design suggestions- thinner rail. But not too thin. I don’t want to repeat my paulownia bonzer mistakes.
I don’t know how you guys get your boards so light. I weighed the 7’-5" and it was 9 lbs with fins. Much lighter than the 8-0 but not that light. I was thinking about just trying to push the limit of light weight and then I go and snap my board which is giving me second thoughts.
