If we’ve got two 14 pound HP longboards, one made of pupe and another one a Surftech, which one is more likely to snap in two pieces?
Same shape, same size, same weight (both boards very light, not intrested in traditional boards here).
Just a 14 lbs poly vs. Surftech getting hit by a 5 feet top to bottom closeout…
Experiences, insights?
what is pupe???
Polyurethane/Polyester
ok , then surftech wins
not enough info…
how thick? what glassing sched. on the pupe?
stringer(s)?
Color? Oh yah. Color determines speed. Mike
If the two boards are identical and weigh the same I would first check the surftech for a ding that is sucking water. But we will assume it is a new one that doesn’t suck water.
Place both boards in any device that supports each board one foot from the tail and the nose, either deck or bottom up for each. Start placing weights on the board in identical places until one breaks. My money is on the surftech to win every time. The pupe board can have as many stringers as you want as long as the weight and shape is exacty the same.
$1000 and the cost of the broken pupe for any takers on this bet. It will help pay for a couple of desert island surf techs for me.
I will also have a wager pool on at the weight the pupe will break.
my guess is 285kg
No need to break the surftech, someone might get hurt when 400kg of weights fly all over the place.
If the two boards are identical and weigh the same I would first check the surftech for a ding that is sucking water. But we will assume it is a new one that doesn’t suck water.
What do you mean with “a new one that doesn’t suck water”?
My pupe board (that weighs 14 lbs) is 9 x 21 3/4 x 2 3/4 with very thin tail&nose, domed deck with shortboard rails, deep long concave, one 4 oz bottom, two 4 oz on top.
No 9 foot Stech I’ve compared it to has felt lighter. For example Pointblanks epoxy 9’ HP weighs 15 lbs.
I guess you can’t make a pupe board as light as this, without serious compromises on strenght. It’s not yet snapped completely but it’s got creases across the bottom twice, with cracked rails. I’ve fixed 8 ruts of compressed laminate on the bottom so far. The reefs and travel have really taken their toll, I’ve lost count of the other dings&cracks I’ve glassed.
I love the way a lightweight 9 footer rides, though. I think a board like this would be too extreme for a beginner to shape DYI. Comforting to hear that a Stech could be stronger.
I would have to guess the pupe (is that pronounced poopie?) would break more easily.
However, I have had friends who’ve broken both say that the stiffness of epoxy makes it more likely to snap, while a pupe’s flexibility makes it less likely to snap, but more likely to ding. Are they full of pupe? Maybe the answer is epoxy snaps when pupe buckles?
–Ben
Howzit soulstice, There are so many variables involved in the building of boards that makes this thread non-valid. I have seen surftechs break while paddling out in 3 ft surf and poly boards break pushing through 3 ft surf. A stringer that has a knot will make a board weaker, a cracked rail can cause a board to break. Even in the days of 20 oz glass jobs boards would break. Sometimes it's the rider who just has a tendency to break boards no matter how or what they are made of. It's a crap shoot, what I find funny is that after surfing for over 45 years I have never broken a board and boy there where times when they should have.Aloha,Kokua
id put money on the surftech
however both are lacking imo
a well built perimeter stringers composite shits on them both
and will prolly be a fair wack lighter if required
compsand rules!!
If we’ve got two 14 pound HP longboards, one made of pupe and another one a Surftech, which one is more likely to snap in two pieces?
Same shape, same size, same weight (both boards very light, not intrested in traditional boards here).
Just a 14 lbs poly vs. Surftech getting hit by a 5 feet top to bottom closeout…
Experiences, insights?
ST’s do snap…
http://boardlady.com/images/snap1.jpg
However my guess would be that a light PUPE will be more damage prone than a ST, so 9 out 0f 10 I’m with Otay on this one… although Silly has the logical follow-up…
This being said I have a PUPE egg 7’6" that is over ten years old and I still ride it, dinged to hell, and fixed up a dozen times but no snap…
This being said I have a PUPE egg 7’6" that is over ten years old and I still ride it, dinged to hell, and fixed up a dozen times but no snap…
i hear you mate
i guess its much of a muchness
unless you are surfing in heavy shallow breaks
i’d go with the too many variables.
Howzit soulstice, There are so many variables involved in the building of boards that makes this thread non-valid. I have seen surftechs break while paddling out in 3 ft surf and poly boards break pushing through 3 ft surf. A stringer that has a knot will make a board weaker, a cracked rail can cause a board to break. Even in the days of 20 oz glass jobs boards would break. Sometimes it's the rider who just has a tendency to break boards no matter how or what they are made of. It's a crap shoot, what I find funny is that after surfing for over 45 years I have never broken a board and boy there where times when they should have.Aloha,Kokua</blockquote></div>i agree, kokua…but i interpreted the question to mean a standard off the racks pupe against the same shape off the racks from surftech. sure, structural integrity of either board can be compromised by any number of flaws, but as a strictly theoretical question of how the two methods of construction would hold up against use over time, i think the question is perfectly answerable…with a little more info. this would, of course, get into a big discussion of compression strength vs. tensile strength and the effects of the popout being stringerless…and whole buttloads of other stuff…not something i really wanna get into.
i’ma go make some tea…
I know there are many variables in this. Just wanted to raise the question of the strenght of a really light PUPE vs. a Surftech longboard. Typically everyone speaks about heavier PUPE boards and lighter Surftechs, which is not always the case when we’re talking about modern competition style longboards aka “9ft shortboards”. In my board the stringer seems to have kept the package in one piece and the flex has sometimes creased the bottom laminate. In a Surftech the package should be more solid but without the yelding stringer it could be more like on/off when it gets hit. I’ve got a woody stech too but it’s never been abused like the PUPE so I can’t really compare.
Thanks for your views. I’m off to fixing the ding number 22(?)
a really light PUPE
well THAT is what makes all the difference. everything done to make a PUPE lighter is accompanied by a significant reduction in strength. in a simple “how much pressure until this board breaks” test, i really couldn’t say…but the PUPE board will ding like hell! over time, as those dings add up, it will be MUCH more prone to breakage. when a board breaks, it breaks from the rail. on a lightly glassed PUPE longboard, a simple rail ding could easily spell disaster on the next wave.
Howzit soulstice, You hit the nail on the head. I had a customer ask for his LB to have 1 layer of 4oz on the bottom and the deck. I told him it would only be a matter of time before it would break and he said he didn’t care if it broke. The amazing thing was it was 6 months before it broke and he rode the s#&t out of it in waves up to 8 ft Hanalei, his only negative comment was it was to light to get into waves when the trades were blowing hard. Now we know you can order a poly board with any glassing schedule you want, can’t say that for a Surftech as far as I know. Aloha,Kokua
6 months?!..wow…i’m impressed! i’d surely have drilled through it in a week!!! must’ve been glassed by a real master…oh, wait…it was!
