Call/Text: Travis @ (831) 245-9167
Email: Travis@TravisRossSurfboards.com
EPOXY 101:
In the surfing world epoxy surfboards have gotten a bad wrap for 2 reasons. The biggest Polyurethane foam manufactur had a semi monopoly on the surfboard manufacturing industry. One big reason surfboard builders would not use epoxy, is because if that manufactur found out you were using EPS foam and epoxy resin he would stop selling you foam completely and shut the door of business to you. Lots of surfboard builders would be underground with their epoxy manufacturing process until, In 2005 when that manufactur closed. This opened the door for many foam / resin manufacturers. This was a direct correlation of the progression we have seen with epoxy surfboards in the past 15 years. Allowing surfboard builders to explore the components of EPS foam and epoxy resin's there has been a big boom of surfboard manufactures selling alternative materials (epoxy) in their surfboards.
Reason Two, Mass produced sandwich epoxy construction (i.e. surftech, nsp, global surf industries, firewire) I'm not here bash on there technology because the sandwich epoxy construction is a truly amazing labor intensive manufacturing process. Those companies I listed above literally made bulletproof surfboards. The reason why they made them in Asia it's because of the labor intensive process. If you were to build these boards in the United States the price would double if not triple. People call them pop out boards but they are far from that notion. The boards do come from a mold but the start to finish time on one board is 6 to 8 weeks. The problem with that construction process in a high-performance surfboard is the boards are too stiff and two durable. The sandwich epoxy construction is great for standup paddleboard's, beginer longboards and entry level shortboards or fishes but not for high-performance surfing. Firewire for example, all of their team riders on the WSL are riding epoxy surfboards but they are using boards that are laminated the same as everyone else's polyester surfboard on tour but with epoxy resin. I would not be surprised if you cut their boards in half there would be a wood stringer in there. They paint a black stripe across the length of the board where the stringer would be because they are trying to sell a product.
I've been riding strictly epoxy surfboards for the past 5 years and everytime i jump back on a polyurethane/ polyester surfboard they feel dead.
MY TAKE ON EPOXY SURFBOARDS:
- I will admit riding epoxy surfboards does take some getting used to but once you get the hang of them they are hard to get off of.
- More spring and projection off of your turns.
- Lighter
- Stronger
- More Flexible
- If you SURF in windy conditions just get your board glassed heavier and it will cut through the chop just as good as polyester surfboards.
- Epoxies have much lower emissions than that of conventional vinyl esters and polyesters used in the composites industry. While epoxy doesn’t have one major or easily identifiable volatile component, emissions may include small amounts of benzyl alcohol, low-molecular weight amines or a reactive diluent
- Epoxy is formulated without volatile solvents and does not shrink after curing. It has a relatively high cure point and no strong solvent odor, making it safer to work with than polyester or vinylester resins
- To put it into perspective, making a laminate which requires 10 gallons of conventional vinyl ester resin would put 30 pounds of VOCs into the air. A laminate requiring the same quantity of epoxy would emit only one pound of VOCs.