I searched for an hour and haven’t found anything about this, so I thought I’d ask around.
I have heard rumors about guys stripping off the outter foam of costco wavestorm foam boards and reshaping them to ride finless. Basically and alaia that actually floats. The rumor goes that you can shape the core, then use a torch to melt the foam a bit to seal it. (very green, I know)
I happend to find one in a dumpster and have a heat gun, so before I risk putting a hole in the ozone and burn my apartment complex down, I wanted to now if anyone has given it a shot.
I’ve tried sealing that kind of foam with a hot knife. Open flame works better, I couldn’t find my torch, so I used a long BBQ lighting stick.
May be better off, gluing a new skin over the reshaped foam. I’ve been thinking about doing just that, reshaping the wave storm and resealing it with a new skin, but I don’t think it’s worth the hassle.
I saw a kid riding a “beater” board finless, and he was having a great time.
Those beater boards look like a blast so I wanted to cut the wavestorm down to that size and maybe get the rails a bit more round. I think the new skin would take ages and be tough to get a confident seal on the glue down. I found the wavestorm and have a torch so I’m not too concerned about life span. I may try it as is finless to see how much foam I really want to loose.
How did the hot knife work out? I have an old clothes iron I use to wax my snowboard that I was thinking about using as well. Might get a smoother melt to avoid eating my skin.
The knife got dirty and I didn’t get too far before it automatically shuts down. I don’t recommend it.
A torch with a steady hand and a little practice should be good. Maybe both the flame and something to smooth the melted foam would be the best. Get a good mask cause there will be toxic fumes.
I believe the core is extruded foam. I am just going to test it out on some scraps. Have you guys had a problem with breaking them? I weigh 180 and am keeping it thick, hopeing i dont put my foot thru it on the first day. From what I feel thru the outside foam there isn’t any stinger, so we’ll see how well this works. I’ll just keep widdling down the bigger of the two pieces till I have a hand plane.
Alright, so my friend Lee and I cranked this little guy out last night in my outdoor parking space. Luck for us my Toyota headlights are the perfect level to check rails and my orange catamaran gives a nice contrast, haha. I stripped the skin off a wavestorm i found, shaped it, then sealed it with a torch. In hind sight I may have wanted to try the iron, but with free materials and too much stoke we were antsy. We are going to try it finless today at 15th street to see how it rides, then if it’s lame, pop in the fins as a twin and see if it’s any cooler. Looking forward to it since I haven’t tried anything too far from the norm in a while.
Ride report to follow. Here are some build pics, hope to get a few ride pics tonight.
[img_assist|nid=1054628|title=The stripped Wavestorm|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=285|height=216][img_assist|nid=1054629|title=Poor mans shaping bay, toyota head lights are the perfect height|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=283|height=217][img_assist|nid=1054630|title=Sealing the foam with a torch|desc=The otrch started to putter and flair, so I had a friend hold the board on rail to get a vertical surface.|link=none|align=left|width=290|height=218][img_assist|nid=1054631|title=Finished, I dub Thee, The Toasted Marshmallow|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=290|height=219]
After reshaping, seal by applying heat with a heat-gun and seal with a damp oven-mitten by a deft use of your hand. This technique will lay down rough edges left on the core. However, the core foam is weaker than the skin.
Super fun to ride. Paddled great, fun sliding around with no fins, but tragically I spun out on a shoulder high drop and put my knee into it right over one of the stringers. Two waves later she split vertically along the stringer. I was pumped on a construction that could be reshaped after use, but is easier to use than wood. dlock, have you had problems splitting boards along the stringer when you build like this? It could be that the “blank” had internet stringers, so the impact split the foam and there wasn’t any glue to hold it together. I have heard about other la Jolla guys surfing foam blocks like this. I know it was in the last surfers journal but havent seen a copy yet.
Thanks Chrisp. I saw quite a few videos on Korduroy TV and youtude of ryan burch. I’m heading down to have dinner with the family tonight and my dad get TSJ, so I’ll get to peek at it. It was definately too fun not to try again. I think the foam ryan uses doesn’t have stringers. I know he breaks them too, but I’m thinking the stringers gave a weak spot, and it may have lasted longer without. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more trashed soft boards and will post sucess and failure.