All the boards I have made show a few dents after a week or two of use. Is this normal? I know dents are normal with lightweight boards but I have been making them a lot heavier and stronger, doubling up on glass at least in most cases. I let them cure well for 2 weeks min. Still a few dents here and there under feet, so is this just totally normal and no way to avoid, or does anyone make boards which are firm enough to resist dents?
Thanks
Simple steps like s cloth help a little. If you really want to stop dents, you have to thicken the deck. Adding corecell between layers of cloth is the best option I’ve found. It will stiffen the board, so to keep flex, reduce or remove the stringer.
Interesting thanks. I haven’t tried S Cloth yet, maybe I will give that a go
I will offer you a way to ensure no pressure dents but it will add weight. I surf a lot of long boards and I dont mind the extra weight myself. I glass my boards as normal, deck - 2 x 6oz, bottom 1 x 6 oz. Hot coat, sand. Now in the area where you would get pressure dents you add an additional glass patch, hot coat, sand and gloss if you care to. Works but as I say it will add weight.
Interesting topic, but finally more glass helps, but it is not the problem behind it.
If you check my experimental “Hot Lucy”, https://www.woodboardforum.com/forum/design/workshop-tool-ideas/3730-8-2-hotcurl-translucent-hot-lucy/page3 , you can see what I will explain.
In this board, there are in total more than 4kg of glass and resin, partially 3 layers of 7-8 oz of glass and you still can feel it moving under pressure (by now it does always spring back). Below the glass, there is nothing but air, no foam no wood. Where there is the wood, its hard.
My other hotcurl is made of 6mm Balsa and glassed from inside and outside, forming a sandwich. No pressure dents…
Since glass has its advantages on longitudinal forces, and almost no perpendicular, you need to concentrate, whats behind or below it. You need heavier foam or wood or something else, but just glassing another layer helps, but finally does not solve the problem. You may be able to get an even lighter board if you use something underlaying, which is lighter than glass.
In the moment I’m experimenting with veener over foam. https://www.woodboardforum.com/forum/design/workshop-tool-ideas/6169-new-bodyboard
I do not have ridden the boards by now, but it already feels pretty stiff. The veneer is not really heavier per syd, than a layer of glass, but supported by foam it looks thats its good against perpendicular forces, or lets say it looks that its better than glass…
That’s interesting, thanks Mickey, might try that on a longboard
Great stuff thanks, will have a read of those threads
The bodyboard for example isa hollow wooden core with stringer and ribs at 25cm distance. It got a balsa deck and bottom with 4mm balsa planks. I filled it with “Würth Purlogic Top” can foam, the specs give a 15g/liter or dm³… After the foam hardened you just cut away the outsplling foam (no EPS sanding! necessary) I veneered a 1mm Larch Veneer on top and bottom and then glued the rails. Already a very stiff deck and bottom. I just overglassed it with 5oz (160g/m²?) and the bottom with 2,5oz (80g/m²). I do not expect any dents here, but its a bodyboard of course. Actually I should have tried it without any glass at all, just with some natural oil, but I did not…, finally due to the collapsible feature, which is an experiment and miracle itself…
If you search here on Sways for “4piece collapsible” you get some information on that one. Here I did a wooden stringer and rib core, but no deck and bottom wood. I veneered directly onto the foam and glassed finally. Veneering onto foam resulted in some uneven aereas. This boards surface is definitely not that stiff like the bodyboard. I do expect dents here, but it gave me finally the way, how I will build my boards in the future…, like the bodyboard, maybe without any glass at all, which will be another experiment worth to try…
Some seriously beautiful work there, just gorgeous!
Yes just a fact of life. A 6&4 oz deck helps. Warp combined with E helps. A 4 or 6 S- Cloth deck cut to the rail helps. But I have found the most durable to be a full Vector Net deck with 4 oz over it cut at the rail apex to be the best. Takes some pretty serious rock dancing to dent that. 4 oz and double 4 don’t cut it for durability.
Thanks, never heard of Vector Net but sounds worth a look. Yep even 6+4 I find dents pretty easy, even with just kids on board!
My best boards all have footwells crushed into the deck over time.
Dents feel good underfoot.
Like a favorite pair of shoes or gloves.
Dent occured because skin flex under pressure and foam crush. So to reduce dent you can use a stiffer foam (heavier density) and you can use a stiffer skin. To increase stiffness against flex of skin everysurfer give you solution: sandwich skin. I do some that don’t dent anymore but they feel hard under foot.
They make you surf better. A board manufacturer told me Luke Egan would get his new board put it on the sand then jump on it to put foot wells in the deck.
I have heard the same about Mick
A good guess is Mick and Luke are not shaping / glassing their own boards, and prob not paying for replacement boards either.
I find boards glassed with epoxy dent differently than those glassed with poly resin. Poly gets these little dimples, and the glass cracks at the stringer. Epoxy just gets footwells.
Some crazy people even get the foot wells shaped into the deck of their boards.
HAHAHAHAHA. I should impress a dent on the bottom from the rocks at my local beach, if we are in the business of going for the “aged” look 
I did that recently. Shaped a spot for my back foot.