as a follow up to my project which was describted here
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=147889;search_string=vac%20bag%20project;#147889
it is a bit thicker than the original polyester board, it is a little bit lighter, paddling power has improved about 20% 
duckdiving ability has been severely reduced by about 80% 
this can be quite a problem, i definately went too thick, i suppose the original 2 1/2 thick 6’ 9" had already put me in the marginal duckdiving zone and this one tipped my light weight over the edge
the drop and the speed attained felt the same, board shares same rocker and almost the same outline
drive off the tail also much the same, although this is not my primary way of generating speed
instead i get more from mid wave pumping, for a long drawn out partial explanation of why i surf like this i once posted: http://www.swaylocks.com/cgi-bin/discussion/archive.cgi/read/42502
the forward oriented planshape is needed for how i surf
i think it is the chunkier rails in the tail that mean it doesn’t quite gouge into the wave as much as the original, but it does it to my satisfaction
i think it might be the chunkier rails which allow it to hold its speed better into the bigger arced skating cutbacks. this is John Mellor rail theory, however there are other things going on in the tail which confuse any conclusion, not all is well back there and i’m going to post some questions on another thread - I need some expert help there
this type of cutback including the rebound part has definately improved, maybe the lighter weight helps the rebound, but not sure
i used masking tape to build up phenolic balloon bog on the rails which i sanded into a hard edge that runs the entire lenght of the board. This is Dave Verall rail theory. He posted his description here on swaylocks so i decided to test it
Dave Verall is correct! absolutely this board does not catch, the thicker rails throughout in fact mean it is less likely to sink a rail than my original.
i’m not entirely sure what the hard edge has gained me though, possibly a bit more skate speed, anyway like the original its hybrid rocker allows me to keep going when the wave turns to mush
I think I can tell the difference between the traditional materials in the original hybrid and the new sandwich construction, apart from the weight there is a difference but its hard for me to say anything sensible about that
leaning against the table from left to right is 1/8" corecel, 2" dow xps wallmate and 2" insulfoam #1 density. although there are 2 sheets of insulfoam shown i only needed 1 of them, i placed an extra block of xps on the nose to accomodate the nose scoop, template is deliberately cut longer than needed to allow wire to having a starting pt to rest on
this picture shows the board in the bag and under vacuum, it is stringerless and flexible so it is weighted with some books to maintain its rocker. in the foreground is an ironing board shaping/glassing table with polyethylene foam strapped to it with masking tape. by wedging bits of spare foam underneath the ends or middle depending on whether doing deck or hull it can cradle the flexible blank. traditional shaping stands do not work for this bendy blank
Mr.J,
Not only was your post incredibley informative, but the sequence shots, which included your thoughts on the board’s performance for each part of the wave, was the best thing I’ve seen yet!
Thanks
Damon
so i think i have a superior board in terms of functional construction, its had a fair bit of use since its completion and showing no marks at all. a couple of my surfing comrades have given it the thumb pressure test on the hull and declared it strong, the deck is even stronger with heavier glass ( 4oz + 6oz s-glass sandwiching the corecel) hull has 4oz x 2.
i suppose i should however mention its appearance, for the first few surfs nobody noticed or at least nobody said anything, but then the questions started to arrive - “whats it made of?” is the first thing they ask. bamboo? was one suggestion. One person has said it looks nice (thank you John friend of Ambrose, a poet able to see hidden beauty), but a lot have laughed particularly when they see the drain plug. I’m getting fond of its appearance, maybe one day the raw phenolic bog look will take over the lineup and the crisp colours of the polyurethane boards will be viewed with the same distaste as the fleuro boards and wetsuits of the 80s
it might be considered as an anti board fetish statement, but really i did not create the look as a deliberate insult to the builders of beautiful boards, i just didn’t have the facilities and craftsman ability i had to move to a new place shortly before its completion and cope with a new job so i abandonded attempts to paint it and hastily scrawled on it with a permanent marker - named the project after this forum. i also thought that i might be getting the sanding block out to erase the hard edge, but the edge is going to stay.
I have seen a number of actual boards produced by the members of this forum and admire their blend of aesthetic form and function.
Karl Marx had no problem with the idea of man made beauty either “A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appear to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presneted to them as a social relation, existing no between themselves, but between the products of their labour. this is the reason why the products of labour become commodities, social things whose qualities are at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses…”
this is an attempt of mine to produce aesthetic form, my first dining table project, it convinced me that i could build a board on that same table, i learned some techniques which became useful too - the aeromodellers place sheets of drywall on their tables to protect the table during construction and many other useful things
this aircraft has a Fox 35 engine. A 50th anniversary model engine that is almost unchanged since its original production run. flying models on wires is also an almost forgotten underground hobby - took me a while to find a field where i could legally fly it - all the radio control clubs told me “we don’t do that here”.
so i have nothing against tradional construction when it is the tradition itself that is being enjoyed
it took me half an hour to saw thru the 1/8" piano wire with a hacksaw and gave me a sore shoulder, not a good thing as the reason why i was building aircraft in the first place was due to a shoulder injury and outrageously hard work pressures, had kept me out of the water
the only sensible thing to cut piano wire with is a dremel tool, so after this i bought one
this tool and attachment will easily slice thru the hardened springy wire. there are many many instructions on how to build hot wire cutters on the web - mainly by model aircraft builders - so if searching include the word “wing”. I ended up making my own version anyway - the dremel tool made it easy
