I am looking for anyone who has or knows anyone who has a “Surflight” board. i searched the forums and saw some posts from 2003, well its 2005 almost 2006. I would like some feedback on how they perform, durability, etc. i would love to make my own, i’ve seen a lot of amazing boards on here made from the EPS foam. i am looking at possibly purchasing a short board from them. I don’t know anyone who has used one. i like what they present on there website i just want to know if they are worth the 5 or $600. so if anyone out there knows anything about these boards please fill me in. thanks
I got one.
6’9"x19.5"x2.5" minigun. Mine was shaped by one of their brazilian shapers and used to belong to one of their brazilian team riders. They had to re-urethane it… They might still have a couple used ones at the factory you can pickup at a good price the new ones are costly though more than a surftech for sure…
bought mine used from the shop when I went up there to pick some of their molded EPS blanks.
There’s an old guy who rides a longboard version where I surf all the time and catches a ton of waves knee paddling it. He once told me it rides different so you have to get used to it.
Tubedog warned me that he saw a guy trying to ride one either at Ulu’s or Bali somewhere and was having a hard time and eventually gave up. JJ told us seems like guys who buy them just don’t want to get hurt by their boards anymore. Old guys like me I guess… Most of their clients are well to do, overseas, travel alot and are very loyal from what I hear so they have a steady base to work with already (kind of like Bert).
When Jim walked me through the whole process on how they build them (it’s a very time consuming and complicated process) I was so impressed, I thought I had to try it out for myself. If you ever get to meet Jim and talk to him for a bit you’ll know he’s done his homework and is passionate about what he’s trying to do and willing to try things outside of the surfboard industry to create a better product. Hell after he flashed me that cheshire grin talking about everything he’s seen and tried I was sold you could see it in his eyes that he knew he was on to something…
Anyway, the boards are fast once you get them up on a wave which is a challenge. To me it seems the flex is a negative characteristic in paddling for a wave as the board tends to give as the wave energy hits it almost making it not want to move forward as you’re paddling in. If you use the typical shortboard tail jam and popout technique like I learned on my Gemini then you can get in cleaner than pure paddling. By the way they paddle out great too with their XPS core.
You can’t muscle these things meaning you need rhythm. You have to anticipate what you’re going to do a couple of moves ahead so you can link your turns as the board goes in and out of flex. So it takes some adjustment versus riding a poly. Something I would anticipate you’d find on a surfburger but definitely not the doyle softie experience.
My problem is that I’m still a gimp recovering from knee surgery so getting up is still a chore as is bending or lifting my front leg/knee as I ride. It’s hell trying to do anything with a stiff front leg… So I can’t give you a real performance summary yet.
It’s a very comfortable and stable ride you don’t feel all the chatters and I think it’s faster because it’s absorbing all the little surface variations instead of fighting them. Kind of reminds me of what ski manufacturers have been doing for a long time to reduce unneccesary vibration in their GS skis. It also seems like you can really stick it in some curvey places with the flex in the tail. But you just have to apply the right pressure at the right time.
What Jim does is custom tailor the flex where you want it by shaping the bluefoam core thicker or thinner to increase or decrease the flex pattern of the area. In most cases the overall shape is that of a giant leafspring made out of blue foam glassed with some sort of snowboard glass and resin configuration that’s ultra heat cured. The thickest part is where you will be standing while the nose and tail are very thin.
They then fasten ultra flexible but very resilient Polypropelene foam area the core to form a huge block using a rocker table to build in the rocker and then some poor shaper has to form it into a surfboard which isn’t alot of fun according to JJ the primary shaper. Around the final shape is wrapped or sprayed on multiple layers of PVC Urethane skin like that used on boogie boards to protect the polypro foam. The blue foam gives you float while the combo of the bluefoam shape and the polypro foam encapsulating it controls the flex. The exterior urethane is the sealer and protective layer reduces the need for wax too. They use FCS plugs.
Everything is done with vaccum bagging, rocker table, heat cure ovens , epoxies and all kinds of stuff they’ve accumulated from other sports industries and aerospace sourcers… Way different than how you would make a normal board… But then again Airframe’s doing the same with his Kolstoff’s.
It’s a big gamble so think hard…
What I ride, where I ride or how I ride may be very different that you…
So far I’m pleasantly surprised… not what I was expecting.
It’s nice to have all these alternative options available here in Hawaii to try…
Gemini, Surflight, Aviso, Probox, Griffin 5-Fins
…your current comment under your user name says it well…if only more people would do that , in easy to understand english !
thanks bernie !
ben
