Shrunken Foam Issues

Aloha all

Danny Nichols dropped by my shop to show me something interesting! And asked me to post this photo for him. Pretty cool double barrel concaves don’t ya think? Even better since they automatically shape themselves, saving loads of time and effort! Danny will log in and answer your questions or comments, so please address them to him. I am just the photographer this time around![:)]

Deepest concaves I’ve ever seen.

vac bag on steroids produced a new finless design???

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Pretty cool double barrel concaves don’t ya think? Even better since they automatically shape themselves, saving loads of time and effort!

That’s hilarious. I’ve seen some shrinkers before, but this takes the cake. Can’t wait for the full skinny.

Mike

Mike, you’ve been around a while. Did you ever shape any “Florida Foam” (at least that’s what I think it was called)? I met some guys from FLA in Mex back in the late ‘70’/early '80’s that had boards made from that stuff. Nifty arrow shaped concaves around the nose where the foam shrank at the stringer and rails! Didn’t matter, they still ripped!

this happend to the first board I shaped. The blank came from a start up company and I don’t think they had the formula right.

Bill,

That looks like someone used too much water in the blowing of their foam. Some, can be good, more is not necessarily better! That may well be the most severe case of shrinkage I’ve seen.

Hi surfthis,

I believe you’re referring to East Coast Foam, and boy, that does bring back some memories! They made

nifty pastel-hued tinted foam as well as normal white stuff, and would do things like glue up bi-color blanks

(left side color A, right side color B).

The first fish I ever shaped (1972) was out of a yellow tint blank I bought from Bill Feinberg at Oceanside.

I still have what’s left of the board, and yes, it shrank a lot. But they made plenty of good ones, too.

Mike

Mike I probaly shaped 5,000 of Brents East Coast Foam, they never shrunk until Tom Dooley bought the co. and started blowing lighter foam.

Big Steve Oulette took one to Equador and when he took it put of the board bag, it put the shinkage in the photos to shame. The bottom almost was touching the deck in the center.

He walked into my factory and threw the board across the floor and said “here’s your shitty board back”. 7’10" double wing swallow that was his fave board, before that

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Pretty cool double barrel concaves don't ya think? Even better since they automatically shape themselves, saving loads of time and effort![:)]

And those ripples make a great speed finish. Awesome!

Hey Jim,

Thanks for fillin’ that in, I remembered Brent was the mastermind but, hey, I was just a kid

garage shaper at the time and didn’t know jack-shit (some would say nothing has changed).

I was hoping you or GL would come in with more details.

I do remember Big Steve from the Magnolia Street days. Always had fun when he came to visit.

Mike

Billy, thanks for posting the photo for me, and sharing the fun of the situation for a few minutes.

The story: I bought about 30 blanks from the Bennet foam dealer here on oahu in Feb. after the Clark shut down, i was thrilled to have some foam to work with… never used Bennet before. This was one of the first blanks i used, when installing the fcs plugs i noticed some shrinking around them when i came back later to sand the board, i thought i’d done something wrong , so i just filled in the shrunken part , sanded, pinlined the board for cover up… board was sold about a week later, then resold to a used board shop in pristine condition… board was bought by the cousin of the owner of the shop as a gift for her brother coming back from Iraq to help him unwind… they used it a few times, then always stored in an apt. a/c, in a sock… then he went to the beach to surf, no surf so hung out on the beach with his wife for about 3 hours, and OUALAH!!! double concaves!, the shop owner asked me to look at it and see if i could get anything done for the customer…The Bennet foam rep told me they had no responsibility for the failed board, it was too far removed from them and they didn’t know how the board was cared for, but said as a personal favor to me he gave me a replacement blank, also a funky 6-6 chinese blank…We’re trying to do a replacement board for the customer because it’s my name on the board, and it’s my industry at stake here, otherwise we have one more faithful wal-mart customer i’m afraid… thanks for looking … danny nichols

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The Bennet foam rep told me they had no responsibility for the failed board, it was too far removed from them and they didn’t know how the board was cared for, but said as a personal favor to me he gave me a replacement blank, also a funky 6-6 chinese blank…

That’s bending over backwards to please the customer…

Does anyone think that Bennet foam has no responsibility to replace the whole surfboard?

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Does anyone think that Bennet foam has no responsibility to replace the whole surfboard?

Make advocates, not adversaries.

I definitely think they have a lot more responsibility than just giving you a blank that cost them $10.00.

My ‘‘bending over backwards’’ comment was directed (sarcastically) at them.

Mike

Biil,

Is that blank from Australia? I have been shaping Bennett USA with no problems. I also use KM, and US but I’m having some gassing probelms with the US the last few days. I’m wondering about the blank as it looks to have a laminated stringer, correct? The Bennett US blanks I have been using have bass or red cedar none are laminates. Please let me know.

I e-mailed a link to this thread to Marty Gilchrist at Bennett USA so he could reply to this thread.

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Hi Allen,

Didn’t come from our factory it came from Australia. We don’t sell Hawaii. I don’t post on this site can you advise them for me? Thanks.

Marty

As far as i know the foam came from Austrailia, and i’m not sure if they even know about the board, kind of don’t know if i can trust the rep here… he said they wouldn’t do anything, but still don’t know if he asked them… i sure hope someone from the austrailia bennet foam sees this mess and steps in to make it really clear how much they back up their products, or not…I had a gun blank that i glassed about a month ago that was blowing air, it was a purple tint lightning bolt custom board, the foam was a us blank, i asked Ted at fiberglass hawaii about it and he said he’d had some problems recently with the blowing… told me he’d make it right… AND HE WILL, i trust the guy, known him for 35 years. thanks for looking, danny

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Biil,

Is that blank from Australia?

Aloha Cuttie Please direct your questions to Danny Nichols. I only posted the photo for him. [:)] thanks

I have been shaping Bennett USA with no problems. I also use KM, and US but I’m having some gassing probelms with the US the last few days. I’m wondering about the blank as it looks to have a laminated stringer, correct? The Bennett US blanks I have been using have bass or red cedar none are laminates. Please let me know.