One of the most often asked and one of the most confusing subjects asked at the Shop concerns surfboard construction. Even very experienced Surfers could not explain the differences in Surfboard construction.
Since the 1950's when Grubby Clark and Hobie Alter built the first polyester blown blank, surfboards have been constructed the same way; a hand shaped blank is glassed using several layers of fiberglass cloth. Afterwards another layer of sanding resin is applied. The glassed board is then sanded to reduce the weight and return the shaped to it's original design. The fins are added and then either a final gloss coat of resin is lightly brushed on or the sanded board is sprayed with an acrylic spray to seal all the minute air holes in the blank. Whawla....... a new surfboard is born!
In the 1990's shapers started to experiment with epoxy resins. Epoxy is a much stronger more durable resin system then polyester. The first epoxy boards were riddled with problems. The first blanks were EPS (expanded styrene) which is basically the same material as beer coolers.
If you dinged an EPS board you had to leave the water immediately. It would soak up water like a sponge. The first epoxy boards were also plagued with problems of delaminating when exposed to too much heat.
Believers in epoxy, like Greg Loehr persevered and after much trial and error came up with a more stable system which are using today. Most epoxy boards today are constructed using XPS (extruded polystyrene) blanks which do not absorb water. The resins too have been upgraded so they are much more stable and more heat resistant.
With the aerospace industry many new types of materials which are lighter and stronger are now becoming available, even though they can still be quite pricey. GSI (Global Surf Industries), the largest surfboard manufacturer in the world are currently at the cutting edge of much of these new techniques. If you'd like to learn more about newer constructions, be sure to visit their website, www.surfindustries.com.
