the quest for flex

this is courtesy of transworld surf

http://www.twsbiz.com/twbiz/features/article/0,21214,1092871,00.html

It’s been a long journey for Todd Proctor. Not in his bold pursuit to develop surfboard technology that rides just like a polyester board but lasts longer. No, that he’s well down the road on. After leaving his home in Ventura at 3:30 this morning, he’s hit a wall of traffic on the 405 south, heading down to San Diego with a truck full of boards for the TransWorld crew to test ride.

By 7:30 though, he’s in the parking lot at D-Street in Encinitas, screwing in fins and looping in leash strings on five brand-new surfboards. The boards are the culmination of five years of R&D, inspired by the dream of developing a surfboard that would replicate the subtle riding characteristics of a polyester board, but would live a longer, happier life–meaning, a board that would flex like a polyester, but that would be more resistant to damage as well the aging process that seems to sap the “spring?Eout of polyester boards.

“I want these boards to do what you’re feeling in an ultra light polyester,?Esays Proctor. “Those boards are flexing torsionally and from nose to tail, but they’re killing themselves while they’re doing it. So I want to harness that flex, but make it so it’s not going to fall apart so fast. That’s where I’d like to see it go.?E

The first step, says Proctor, was to research materials, including ones currently used in the surf industry and beyond. “I started going to plastics, polymers, and composite trade shows, and I’d talk to chemists. I’d bring surfboards, and man, I got some funny looks–like, ‘Eh, a surfer? What are you doing out here in Chicago?’”

After years of research and testing out myriad combinations of foams, resins, and cloths–with both surf and non-surf-industry materials–Proctor has found what he believes is the winning formula. And he’s confident enough of the results that he’s applied for a U.S. patent for the process. While he won’t divulge the entire production technique, he says the construction is comparable to that of the wing of a Stealth fighter, even down to some of the same materials. “Same kind of foam, same kind of sandwich structure, and they use Kevlar, even the same grain and density that I use.?EKevlar in a surfboard? While it sounds ultra high tech, the process is relatively similar to traditional surfboard construction. The foam core is shaped, then laminated with a couple different materials, including fiberglass, using epoxy resin. “I use e-glass, s-glass, and Kevlar in different combinations,?Ehe says. “How you set up those combinations determines the flex.?EIn addition, there are variations on stringers, as well as a flex agent added to the resin that gives the boards a gunmetal gray tint.

Proctor stresses that although the boards are glassed with epoxy resin, they’re custom shaped in the U.S. Some in the industry feel that uneducated consumers equate the word epoxy with a mass-produced product or a foreign-made one. “Epoxy in itself is just a word that defines a family of resins,?Ehe reminds.

So, is Proctor’s epoxy/Kevlar invention another tolling of the death knell of polyester surfboards? Not likely. Instead, Proctor foresees people using polyester boards to refine their boards so that when they do get a “magic board,?Ethey can replicate it with his epoxy technology.

Price-wise, the boards are more expensive than their polyester counterparts, but not prohibitively. They’ll wholesale for 500 dollars and retail for 645 dollars, and will be at retail in mid-May.

The question of flex…isn’t it really just something that exists just in our minds?

Trying to duplicate polyester board flex in an epoxy board, isn’t that just a death grip on the past, on tradition, on what we are comfortable riding. And that it has nothing to do with advancing surfing or what a future rider may be able to do with a wave.

Poeple who have grown up with aerials dont know how amazing they really are. But they would mot have been possible without the changes in design that came a along with them.

So why hold onto the current state of the art design parameters. Are aerials the end?

All that energy that goes into making a board twist and flex is not going into the turns. It’s not lost it’s just under-utilized. Twist or torsional flex is in my mind an enemy on many levels. Perimeter stringer is one way to go but it restricts torsional flex in all areas. Whereas torsional flex can be controlled in one direction and allowed in the other by the use of limiter straps.

It occurs to me that so many of todays “controlled” slides etc are just rider adaptation to bad design making surfing sloppy. What if ice skaters had flexible blades? Look at the airs they get on flat frozen water. And I’m talking about the women. I’d like to see AI or K do a triple camel… But it wont ever happen on todays boards. Never.

I think people ned to get it out of ther minds tht boards need to flex like a weak 4x4 2" poly. I think that is just so much smoke and mirrors.

Time to put down the board builders rule book and start from scratch. Let’s see who wants to do a 540?

If the materials are advancing why not he internal architecture and the state of the art of the performance

Why hanstring the materials to the design when the materials can liberate the spirit on all levels?

It’s just not logical. Who in their right mind would hitch a Ferrarri to a horse?

the classic “Rick Kane” surf story, the old with the new… the story outline combined with the buzz words of the moment (flex, epoxy, stelth fighter) is how surfing has always inched along forward. nothing new here but not the same either.

I finally got the guts and a chance to try my new 6’9" Surflight minigun saturrday in almost head high waves and was pleasantly surprised, actually very surprised.

For those that don’t know these boards are constructed by Jeff Johnson and Jim Richardson using a solidly glassed bluefoam leafspring core that is then covered with polypropelene foam and shaped into a surfboard and finally covered with a coating of boogieboard urethane skin to seal it.

After talking to to Jeff and hearing reports back from my brother and Tubedog I wasn’t really expecting all that much but the board really turned out to be a blast to ride. I must admit I had a hell of a time this week end trying to surf with a very sore and stiff front leg and learned the hard way many times what happens when you can’t bend your front knee when you need to or take weight off your front foot to move it around.

But even with all the nightmares of surfing like a beginner all over again. The ride the board gave me was fantastic, kind of like riding a board with shock absorbers on all four corners everything was smooth smooth smooth. You really didn’t feel like you were fighting the water flow at all the board just melted into its turns instead of slashing big sprays the board just arc’d when asked to do so withoiut losing speed, reminded my of my quads. Now if I could just make some turns without feeling like my front leg was overdosed on viagra or something I would’ve had alot more fun…

The problem seems to be in catching waves as the board paddled very well for it’s size and duck dove like a dream compared to my 7’4"x21.25"x3.23" Terry Chung fat girl gun. But as you are trying to paddle in to the wave it seemed like the board would just flex enough at the wrong time to cause you to lose momentum. Once you got in though it was a whole nother story…

I think Jeff and Jim definitely have something going here with the stiff on the inside and soft on the outside. It definitely felt way more positive that my 1.75" thick concave deck/bottom Burger balsa special I tried earlier. That felt definitely more sketchy and flimsy compared to the solid feel I got from the surflight but then I got a stiff flex version anyway…

A very interesting experience to say the least just wish I was in better shape top and bottom to give her a real go at some high speed turns in the bigger stuff.

So I don’t know if it’s the built in flex or the soft construction but I think this is what I was expecting and never got from the other flexing boards I’ve owned lile my Australian Bamboo(Gary Young ripoff) Mal or my new balsa experiments. This definitely was not the Doyle softie experience I was expecting…

Maybe the difference between this and the AVISO/Surfburgers/Kolstoff designs is like the ride difference of a formula one racer and a cadillac. I don’t know as I haven’t rode those skin-based models yet…

I’d say the difference is not having preimposed the limitation that it must first ride like a Doyle sponge.

Because that is basically what Proctor is proposing.

That e boards must first ride like pe boards.

Can’t see the forest for the trees.

Book called Atlas Shrugged.

Glad to see you are riding again. That is the best news.