Scotty Mac said...

You had to put a 2kg repair on the tail?

JonathanC said...


Ronnie, the little anomaly with the density and compressive strength is all because the foam guys are very cagey about quoting actual densities. It's obviously something very hard to control when they create the EPS foam, they tend to quote maximum and minimum figures for each grade. I have this funny feeling they make the foam then weigh it and that determines what grade they sell it as.

OG SUP said...

Hey Guys,

I think all this talk about board weight for the average SUPer is just a crock.

...

Gorgo said...
The measure that really matters is whether it feels heavy under your arm for the carry down the beach or lifting on the roof rack. Who wants a board that gives you a hernia or a sore shoulder or needs two people to carry to the beach?

OG SUP said...

Brendon,

The simple point is if you cant surf well a lighter board wont help, I believe it causes more problems! IMO if someone can surf ok (but not well) weight will make a difference. But also length, width, bottom shape etc

In fact IMHO a heavier board is much easier for a beginer to learn on as it is no where near as wind effected, chop effected, balance effected etc. Agree to a point. More so learning on the right sized board would be ideal

In comp conditions or when you really want to blow it up then sure the lighter boards to a point will out perform the heavier boards in smaller conditions. Agree, most SUP comps won't be in much over 4ft unless it's the nationals or similar. Due to liability risks

Your weight significantly effects the way the board performs as well. Many people on the forum make broad sweeping comments that this is a tank etc or this is unstable. Agree

The review only relates to thier weight, experience and current level of skill. The same person with 6 months more experience could find the same board simple to ride. Agree

As to Gorgos comments on the hernia issue completely valid no argument. Agree, but to me (and you I'm guessing) if a 20kg board performed the best I'd find a way to get it from the car to the water.

People do have to realize thought that in most circumstances light does mean you will have a reduction in durability. So where a PSH or a Nash or a Starboard will accept a harsh treatment the lighter boards I have seen need to be treated with far more respect and kid gloves. Agree, as long as production boards are manufactured the way they are at the moment this will be the case. Naish could be an exception, they seamed to have found a middle ground between weight and durability

LSD's boards from what I have seen are the most durable of the lighter constructed boards. Agree, the way Dean has done his development is spot on!

Everything in life is a trade off.

Phill

JonathanC said...

Hey Brendan, not exactly sure what you are asking but the whole board litre thing relates to the volume of water that the board will displace, put a 140 litre board fully under water in a tank and the level will rise as if there is 140 litres more water in the tank.

So if the board weighs 10kg it will sink to a level where 10 litres of water is displaced. When you stand on it it will sink enough to displace the weight of the board plus your weight.

Doesn't matter whether the board is hollow it's just about the volume it displaces .

The whole board weight think seems to be almost irrelevant when you think of your weight on top of it - why risk a fragile board to save weight when I could just eat one less pie!

It's all about manoeuvrability, the less weight the board has the easier it will be to swing around because it has less momentum. Formula for momentum is pretty simple, momentum = mass x velocity. If one board weighs twice as much as another it will be twice as hard to speed up or slow down - but don't forget you are speeding up or slowing down your weight as well, changing direction is pretty complex but it all comes back to swing weight or mass and basically the same rules apply.

The funny thing about the weight issue is when you relate it to push bikes, same basic rules apply about momentum and the fact that the weight of the bike is a relatively small part of the total weight of bike and rider, but anyone knows that it takes heaps less effort to ride a really light bike than it does to ride a heavy bike, maybe in the bike it's more to do with the weight of the wheels and tyres that you have to get from stopped to very high speed, would be interesting to try a heavy bike with really light wheels to see if it makes a difference.

But as Phil pointed out the greater mass is sometimes a help, it will have more momentum and be less likely to be thrown off course by chop or wind.

For years identical windsurfer shapes have been made in different constructions, you pay more to buy lighter and maybe stronger construction. A few years ago Boards UK Magazine did a test to try and quantify the difference and the surprise result was that in terms of getting planing and general use people really couldn't tell the difference. Thing is with windsurfers the difference was usually only a kilo, so you were going from 6.5kg to 7.5 for a waveboard - not 7.5 to 12! Big weight changes you will really feel.

My thinking is that light is good for fast quick changes of direction (waves) and maybe in really big boards like 16' down wind boards it's much easier to accelerate them onto a wave with a stroke or two if they are light and change their direction to take advantage of swells running in different directions - and of course for getting them on and off cars etc.

Heavy is probably good to smooth things out, even though the whole combo of you and the board might weigh 100kg, when you are in small pitchy seas the board is doing a see-saw thing with you in the middle, a lot of what makes it hard to paddle is the pitching over small ripples and maybe a heavier board will be less likely to be picked up as the nose smacks into a ripple and more likely to plough through it so feel much more stable and takes less effort to balance. Bit of a fine line there though, if the ploughing slows you down every time you hit a wave then you are constantly putting in more effort to get the board back up to speed. Guess that is why open water boards and down-wind boards have fine noses, to stop the board slowing down if it ploughs.

No simple solution but I know that if there were two identical boards that had similar durability and price I'd go for the light one any day! Surfing on big big waves on a gun - bit of weight in the board would be good. Beginner / family - probably should be light, cheap and strong, vacuum formed ABS or light weight roto moulded poly or something like that, that is once the shapes settle down and manufacturers can get them stiff enough and have the volume to justify tooling costs. You would have to e pretty brave to invest in a shape and expect it to last for more than a year or two right now.



Johnathan Sumner Miller

Bnaccas said...

Looks really good for Fri & Sat as well then maybe
Invi bar on the low tide Sunday.