do you order thinner. Float a lot better? Do you have to be more careful with it in terms of heat?
JeDi:
XTR= Extruded Polystyrene similar to blue foam Dow. Better flotation, maybe 15%. Outgassing a problem, hence they punch holes in the lamination then hotcoat, supposedly to allow for gassing. Cellular structure of XPS defeats this I believe. Have seen delams in new shipments BEFORE they hit the racks in the shop. Probably OK in cooler water temps and climates, but be careful in tropical areas. Search archives for info on threshold of temps for gassing.
Tom S.
I have one. Jim Phillips made it.
I just said what length & tail shape I wanted & for what kind of waves. Left the rest up to him.
Why guess when someone already knows?
I am 6’ 195 lbs and have been riding a 6’2 x 19 1/4 x 2 3/8 Pulse XTR shaped by Javier (owner of Epoxy Pro / XTR) for a couple months. It paddles well for the size, as my other poly board was quite thick (6’2 x 19.5 x 2.5), and this has much less volume and still paddles as well as I wanted. My first board with Futures fins, and I like them a lot, especially the 3/2 vectors.
It’s nice to have such a light high performance board, as my other board was a heavy glass job as I’m a deck crusher. The XTR works awesome and it is quite fast down the line. At a 3-5’ day at Coo, my friend said I was surfing with the lightness of a smaller surfer and the board was just hauling down the line. I like the lightness and liveliness of the board, the flex feels just right, not stiff and yet definitely enough. The deck is still getting crushed to hell, even with a front foot deck patch - but it seems as though the dents aren’t as deep as they would have been with a poly board. I leave my board in my car trunk w/ back seats folded down, crack the windows, unzip the zipper on the white board bag for better circulation and try to park in the shade. If I can’t find shade, I will put my window shades over my board bag, so that no direct sun hits it and it stays cool enough that the wax doesn’t melt, so I don’t see having any heat related problems as long as you look out for your board.
Javier’s shape was cheaper than getting a “name” brand and the turn-around time was ~6 weeks. Shipping w/in CA was only $27 and was cheaper than me driving down to pick up the board. He returned my calls quickly to talk about the shape, also.
Kinda weird to see all the pinholes along the board (thermovents) the first time, but once you wax your board and ride it, you forget about them and just ride it like any other board.
I have also ridden a Pointblanks epoxy, although the shape wasn’t the best for me, it felt stiffer, for sure. Their boards are more for durability while keeping the same weight, whereas XTR boards are for performance. I am thinking of getting a custom Pointblanks, though, after this board, seeing how I am so hard on my decks.