Anyone out there tried one of these? Seems like a neat idea for a travel board. If you travel enough, it could pay for itself in a hurry. I mostly ride long boards and have had at least one occassion where the airline refused to take my boardbag to PR. Also tired of getting jerked around on fees. One ticket agent wanted $320 R/T from Chas. SC to Elbow Key for one bag!! I’ve ridden a surftech once - didn’t like the “feel”. It seemed too floaty and kinda corky and a bit stiff. but given time I think most guys can get used to almost anything. I re-read the Rennie Yater piece in an older SJ last night. His take was interesting. He thought all boards would eventually be hollow! PU/PE boards are like an apple, the core provides the strentgh and skin is weak. Surftech-style molded boards are like an orange, where the core gives shape but the strength is in the skin. Next step is hollow with all strentgh in the skin!
Here’s an interesting story. One of the surf shop owners here made his own bisect from a 7’something PU/PE board. Cut it in two, installed a wooden or PVC dowel (haven’t seen it, just heard the story) and held the two halves together w/ metal strips and drywall screws!! Carried it on board the flight to Tortola in a cardboard box!! don’t know how long it lasted, but how sweet to carry your board on with you?
Karl Pope was nice enough to allow me a visit to his shop in Ojai last year.
I’ve not ridden one of the boards. I was able to see the inside and he explained in a basic sense how it is done. Picture a big inflatable bladder squeezing the prepreg carbon fiber cloth against the inside of a mold and the whole thing heat cured.
The board is cut and hardware attached later.
I thought they were really nice boards - beautiful black high gloss finish with the carbon weave showing through. The had the Yaters and the 6’10" fishes. They’ve also come out with a new model or two since I was there.
Any ride characteristic that wasn’t like your normal board would be offset by the convenience. The two-piece concept appeared to be well thought out and executed. The hollow fin was pretty trippy too.
If I had the dough, I’d buy one.
I own and operate a Bruce Jones 9-0 Bisect. I have traveled several times to Hawaii, once to Spain and Italy with it. I does travel well. On the nameplate display of the case I have the word “DISPLAY” printed and when asked to what it is I state its a display and have never paid a surfboard charge. The Italians loved the “Table de la surf”.
Due to the weight of the connecting joints the board is a tiny bit heaver than a fiberglass model. In a way I like this as I can duck dive the board fairly good. Weight with case, board and few surf items is about 45 lbs. One the first day of ownership I pearled on a head high wave and snapped one of the clamp screws. The original screws have a middle shear point machined in. Thane gave me a set that was not machined and I have not snapped another one “yet” 
I would like to try one of the graphite models but at the cost of two boards that is hard to justify. I do know that they take trade in’s and sell the used boards on their web site.
JohnF
I’ve ridden Wayne Rich’s 9’0” Pro Modified Stealth bisect. W/O the bisect hardware it weighs in at around 9 pounds. With the bisect it comes in around 12 or 13 pounds. The board rips. Travels for free, and is bomb proof.
