The good, the bad, and the ugly... My recent xps build

Sorry, or not, but not pic heavy…

The good - The next time I make a board, I’ll seal it, and the lam will go much better because…  

The bad - I got too excited by my glue not soaking in for ages, and I thought I could pull a nice tight lam, but since the epoxy was opaque (New to me) I didn’t realize I was pulling the lam too tight…

The ugly - With some patches of dry weave, and all the little pin holes that took me three goes at to get 97% filled…   Hahaha!

The other confession, I’m making in hopes that newbie doesn’t feel bad about how long it takes them to make a board - I’m estimating I spent 100 hours +/- 20 hours to make this thing: 5-7 days a week for @ three weeks, 4 - 8 hours a day - averaging 5 - 6 hours really, and this includes 6 -8 hours customizing those fins…

As for the colors: I didn’t take the time to do experimental color patches, so I got what I got, which is acceptable, as I didn’t want it to be too dark.  But, along the way I had a nice deep, dark, translucent blue, and it’s making me consider going back to eps just to get that color… Ha!

Anyway - Still learning stuff, still loving Sways.



The important part is how it surfs.  As McDing says, “shape comes first”.   After that, the cosmetics are strictly superfluous.   Optional, even.   

Take it out, give it a run to see what it can do and then use that information to contribute to your next build.   Every new-to-you design will teach you something about your surfing.   

Taylor,

Isn’t this is your standard “Sally Series” design.

Preseal and lam first layer with opaque white and you should get the same blue as EPS if you use the blue in your next layers of cloth.

What were the pinholes from?  Dry weave?

With pre-seal, I haven’t had pinhole problems.

Bill

Bill, The power of your long term observation skills are awesome!  “The Sally line…”

This is indeed “The Sally Seven/7” - and I’ll post the relative accompanying art later, once it’s done in the hot tropical sun…  Ha!  But, there are only so many things “standard” about the Sally line… Ha!  Quad set up, for the past six, but the tail has widened, and the tail rocker has increased.  This one is 7’10" x 19 5/8", 10 1/2" nose, 14 5/8" tail.  Max thickness @ 4".

Yeah, the pin holes were from dry weave, as I tried to point out, due to my over zealousness  with pulling a tight lam.

As was mentioned, it’s all about the ride, and I’m quite confident in the shape.  The looks are just for fun.

So you know that I have “poo pooed” this design in the past and my apologies if you took it personal.  I do understand what you are attempting to do with the deck and it has some merit.  My criticism though is based on your rocker/side rail photo.  Criticism that is meant to be constructive, not an insult.  I think the nose rocker will work, but I personally think the tail rocker is way overdone.  Too much flip in the last 18" or 12".  Seeing and understanding your intent with the deck;  I think you could have thickened the deck even farther forward in the nose.  People have heard me say it before; thickness, volume, paddle power etc should usually extend from your thighs forward to your shoulders or neck.  So I think you could have gained something there and your paddling and flotation would benefit.  Might even make it ride better.  I am sensitive to what some call “reverse rocker”, because I have been accused of shaping reverse rocker noseriders myself.   I was once told to be careful about reversing rocker on a 9’2 nose rider.  As if I had screwed up and made a mistake in my shaping.  The comment had been passed on to me by my glasser.  I remember thinking to myself that the shaper who made the comment wasn’t as good shaper as I thought he was.  Where was he when Bing was shaping those Nuiiha(sp) nose Riders.

Hey on a side note;  I noticed that since the owner of Ossies’ got his mug photoed and put on the front page of the local fish wrap that BB has had a surge in crowds.  The description in the paper was like a post in “Wanna Surf”.  Full disclosure.  Nice little tube, but not an epic spot.  Some dip $#!t from PDX will eventually crack his skull on shallow reef and his photog vegan girlfriend will have to load him up in his Sprinter Van for a trip to Samaritan and stitches.

Doubled up.  Just like this spot sometimes is.

 “Some dip $#!t from PDX will eventually crack his skull on shallow reef and his photog vegan girlfriend will have to load him up in his Sprinter Van for a trip to Samaritan and stitches.”

AHAHAHAAAA!

Regarding Taylor’s board design… BUENO!  (= GOOD)

 

“As if I had screwed up and made a mistake in my shaping.  The comment had been passed on to me by my glasser.”

I remember reading somewhere about the glassing guys sticking the fin on the wrong end of some of Velxy’s ‘Malibu Express’ models… 

I know I can be nasty, but sometimes I can be amusing.  Like I told the Pismo Beach Longboarders when I was their President;  “Somebody’s gotta be the asshole”.  Lowel

PBL

After 7 iterations, I’m guessing Taylor has it dialed in the way he likes it.

To each his or her own.  

Ride what you like…

The glass shop I’m in thinks I’m an idiot, I sealer coat EVERY EPS blank, my first blew up while I walked away from it.

When I returned the basket ball sized bubble was far to firm to press back down, he see’s me seal them, get excellent results. So what does he do, glasses one of his customers boards without sealing and went home.

I stopped by the shop on the way home and there is his basket ball bubble lamination, off course the repairs show like a sore thumb.

My favorite is a slurry of baking soda and epoxy resin, doesn’t react with resin, doesn’t get rock hard like cabosil and sands easy, two coats sanded well will take color very well

I do.

Hmm.  Good idea.

I also sealed all. For light weight epoxy sealer I make a past with 1volume epoxy 1volume microballon 1volume cabosil, it give a light easy to spread and scrap past like spackle. Can let it cure, light sand before lam, like with spackle but harder, or can tack fiber on fresh sealer and lam. For some boards that need weight and strength I like to densifiy foam by fill it with low viscosity  long cured time high elasticity resin. It increase drastically compressive and shear strengh of foam.

Here’s the art pics…

Not impressed with the Posca pens… But art is art. Sub-name, “Blue Hawaii,” the various reasons are another story.

It’s riding quite well, thank you!

The Sharpie dimensions wore off already… Ha!

7’ 10 1/2",  19 1/2" wide, nose 10 1/2", tail 14 1/2",  max thickness 4".

Ps - Sways by phone is not user friendly… The discussion tab is not there, so I had to do some searching… Ha! Still loving it though.


I sealed it with a thick epoxy and q-cell/glass bead putty I made. Works good, sands pretty easy.

I think I’ll do that, with white pigment next time, and go back to my beloved pastel art, pre-lam, and lam clear, so I can see what the hell is going on! Ha!

Moved to end.

The advantage of many small holes close together when perforating XPS is that they allow better resin penetration into the “closed-cell” foam.  The slurries are easy to sand but limit resin penetration.  Decreasing resin penetration reduces bonding surface area with XPS – reducing, and potentially eliminating, the benefits of XPS perforation.  (XPS doesn’t soak up water or resin.)

Slurries work well for EPS by keeping the open network of pores/passages from soaking up too much resin.  That open pore network is why epoxy bonds better with EPS than XPS (both are “polystyrene”).  It is also why EPS soaks up water when dinged.

Pre-sealing perforated XPS before laminating FG allows better resin penetration and prevents “tiny” bubbles from forming under the saturated FG. The tiny bubbles are from the “small,” relatively shallow perforations.

Bottom line, I would not use epoxy slurries to pre-seal “XPS” perforated with a Wartenberg Pinwheel roller (or XPS sanded to 40-60 grit).  Just use epoxy or pigmented epoxy.  Then sand before laminating FG.