Sport Today

When I was on Maui a few years ago, I talked with a store employee about getting
a custom board made. He mentioned that a lot of the custom boards - the really
light weight ones - used styrofoam cores in the boards. This allows them to get
the boards weight down, however, he went on to express that while the boards are
still really strong, that if the board does get damaged to the point where the
foam core is exposed that styrofoam sucks up water much more readily than
the traditional foam types, and can be difficult to get that water out of the
board when repairing it.

So, my windsurfing skills are now at the point where I'm contemplating purchasing
a faster lighter board, and I'm wondering if the statements above are true,
and are something to consider when purchasing a board. Do custom board
manufacturers use styrofoam cores still? And, does anyone know what kind of foam
cores are in Mike Lab's boards, as that is what I am thinking about buying
(probably used).

--
Paul Scrutton

My views may not agree with those of employer.
--
Paul Scrutton

My views may not agree with those of employer.

-David

: When I was on Maui a few years ago, I talked with a store employee about getting
: a custom board made. He mentioned that a lot of the custom boards - the really
: light weight ones - used styrofoam cores in the boards. This allows them to get
: the boards weight down, however, he went on to express that while the boards are
: still really strong, that if the board does get damaged to the point where the
: foam core is exposed that styrofoam sucks up water much more readily than
: the traditional foam types, and can be difficult to get that water out of the
: board when repairing it.

: So, my windsurfing skills are now at the point where I'm contemplating purchasing
: a faster lighter board, and I'm wondering if the statements above are true,
: and are something to consider when purchasing a board. Do custom board
: manufacturers use styrofoam cores still? And, does anyone know what kind of foam
: cores are in Mike Lab's boards, as that is what I am thinking about buying
: (probably used).

Yes most manufacturers use the styrofoam that sucks water, some however
offer the option of using only slightly heavier blue foam (custom
builders near rocky wavesailing places), which  doesn't suck. If your
not going to hit any rocks, a modern custom waveboard will not get
holed though, so go for the  white foam i'd say.

big waves to ya, Maarten

If the "Styrofoam" really is that, the brand Styrofoam, an extruded
Polystyrene
Foam, then it does suck water, but not much since the structure is
nearly closed
celled, like Polyurethane foams (Clark et. al). However, most light
customs
(and also ALL production board, except Hiflies and the older Tigas) do
use expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS) as blank material. The most popular
brand name
for that is "Styropor", often shortly called styro. and "por" comes from
Pore
in german, cavity (Styropor is owned by BASF / Gruenzweig & Hartmann),
which means it's an Open celled foam which takes on water (up to 15 %
of the volume, depending on density and quality).
So, in essence: Most customs and all production board do take in water
if they
are dinged to the core. Water intake may be a bit lower at production
boards
with modl-expanded foam cores (goam can be made a bit denser at the
outside)
but with boards lile AHD's or so thi is mood, there the blank is milled
by a roboter arm.
The question now remains how easiily the boards ding and this is, for a
given shape,
mainly related to weight (the lighter the more you ought to take care)
and,
to a lesser degree, the price: Better materials or more thoughtfull,
detailed
manufacturing process CAN give superior ding resistance at no weight
penalty.

Also, there recently are some trends in custom board building to use
foam cores with little or no water intake to produce light (partial)
sandwich
boards, mainly for wave use (a 250 / 70 l board can still be reasonably
light
with a heavy core, a 290 / 140 l hardly).

Wolfgang
--
Wolfgang Soergel                      !!!!! CHANGED PHONE and FAX !!!
Lehrstuhl fuer Nachrichtentechnik I / phone: ++49-9131-85 2 7781
Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg    /  fax:   ++49-9131-85 2 8849
Cauerstrasse 7             /     email:

D-91058 Erlangen, GERMANY /
http://www.nt.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de/~wsoergel