What is your thoughts on hollow boards? Makes a difference? Worth it?

I have mixed feelings about hollow boards. For SUP downwind racing, I think hollow boards might be the future, mainly because of their stiffness rather than their lightness. A stiffer board loses less energy with every pump. A lighter board makes takeoff easier, but once you’re flying, a bit more weight can actually help you carry speed downwind, up to a point. What I find particularly interesting is that you can place weight inside the board where you want it. Keeping it close to the center of lift adds weight without increasing the board’s rotational inertia too much. For disciplines where the wind helps you get on foil, though, I think the performance gains are marginal compared with everything else that matters.

Mark _australia said..
but yeah it’s not new and why did windsurfing have a brief phase of hollow boards and it didn’t last…?

Too expensive for the general public. The market for them was too small.

I had a Patrik Diethelm hollow slalomboard, and yes it was earlier to plane (given you're a good pumper), but that was about it compared to the regular version. I expect for hollow wing boards that to be the same. I think in terms of feel / swing weight the difference is marginal, especially once it becomes more windy and you can easily ride a compact board 30L ish under body weight.

I think 99% of riders dont really get the benefit out of the reduced weight anyway, as long as the average foiler with 20kgs less weight needs a 1m2 bigger wing and larger foil than me to get going in the same wind that 1kg difference really isnt going to help them.

If you do get most out of your gear right now then maybe the 1kg will make a difference for you, whether thats worth the premium thats upto the individual rider.

I will try one if F-One brings one out, but I dont think for me it will be worth it, especially since most of the hollow boards arent built to be jumped with.

I tried the Naish and Duotone and was quite impressed by them.
The weight was notticeable when walking to the water, but what makes me really like them was the extra stiffness and sort of bounching of the water when you pump them on foil. For me that was especially with the DW boards a big difference
On a demo day I was able to try the The Naish Chimera 108 hollow and normall one back to back.
The hollow was 100% sure quicker to get on foil and feels lighter/more reactive as the normall one..but they have a steep pricetag and didnt feel that much better as my KT pro carbon (not cheap either).

Would I get one: Very much depending on the shape and pricing. For me it first starts with finding the shape that suits me well and then the construction. I would never get a board for the sake of being hollow.

Jeroensurf said..
I tried the Naish and Duotone and was quite impressed by them.
The weight was notticeable when walking to the water, but what makes me really like them was the extra stiffness and sort of bounching of the water when you pump them on foil. For me that was especially with the DW boards a big difference
On a demo day I was able to try the The Naish Chimera 108 hollow and normall one back to back.
The hollow was 100% sure quicker to get on foil and feels lighter/more reactive as the normall one..but they have a steep pricetag and didnt feel that much better as my KT pro carbon (not cheap either).

Would I get one: Very much depending on the shape and pricing. For me it first starts with finding the shape that suits me well and then the construction. I would never get a board for the sake of being hollow.

Wow...opinions based on actual first hand experience! 😂

I'm with you, and waiting to see how the shapes and actual construction develop...seems pointless without a good shape to start with, as a lot of the shapes of conventional boards out now are really good...still early days

Listened to Jezza’s interview on Generic. He did a trip with some using hollow boards, said most ended up leaking. He’s not a fan at all.
podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-generic-foiling-podcast/id1637901696?i=1000787321508

I’ve now ridden about 3,000 km / 1,860 miles on my Airinside Superfly 72L, 3.8 kg — both wave riding and with a race foil.

I don’t think I’ll be buying foam-core boards anymore. Everything is better with a hollow board — at least with this one.

You can already get hollow boards for around €1,500–1,750 (roughly $1,700–2,000), and I’m sure the prices will keep coming down.

I’ve also crashed and repaired this board, and even that was easier than repairing a foam-core board.

For me, the biggest advantages are the easy takeoff, the responsiveness in the air, which allows you to use a smaller foil and keep the foil flying closer to the surface when riding waves, allowing for more speed, and the repairability, since the board doesn’t absorb water.

Depends if its built properly with a honeycomb sandwich (so the skin contains air cells) or if they have just used a PVC core for the shell

I’ve now ridden about 3,000 km / 1,860 miles on my Airinside Superfly 72L, 3.8 kg — both wave riding and with a race foil.

I don’t think I’ll be buying foam-core boards anymore. Everything is better with a hollow board — at least with this one.

You can already get hollow boards for around €1,500–1,750 (roughly $1,700–2,000), and I’m sure the prices will keep coming down.

I’ve also crashed and repaired this board, and even that was easier than repairing a foam-core board.

For me, the biggest advantages are the easy takeoff, the responsiveness in the air, which allows you to use a smaller foil and keep the foil flying closer to the surface when riding waves, allowing for more speed, and the repairability, since the board doesn’t absorb water.

Faff said..

Kalevi said..
I’ve now ridden about 3,000 km / 1,860 miles on my Airinside Superfly 72L, 3.8 kg — both wave riding and with a race foil.

I don’t think I’ll be buying foam-core boards anymore. Everything is better with a hollow board — at least with this one.

You can already get hollow boards for around €1,500–1,750 (roughly $1,700–2,000), and I’m sure the prices will keep coming down.

I’ve also crashed and repaired this board, and even that was easier than repairing a foam-core board.

For me, the biggest advantages are the easy takeoff, the responsiveness in the air, which allows you to use a smaller foil and keep the foil flying closer to the surface when riding waves, allowing for more speed, and the repairability, since the board doesn’t absorb water.

But if it cracks, won't it just fill up with water immediately?

In a freerace crash, the wing boom hit the nose of the board and caused about a 5-inch crack. However, it didn’t leak because this board has a honeycomb construction.

In another crash, I fell backwards onto the board, and the board-leash hook on my back crushed the footstrap track inward, causing a slow leak. I only noticed it once I got back to shore and could hear water sloshing inside. With an EPS board, I probably wouldn’t have noticed until the EPS foam had absorbed water, the board had gained weight, and/or bubbles or other signs of a leak started appearing.

Very easy as the honeycomb is thick so in most cases you only have to fill the damaged cells and re-lam outer skin.


but if it’s major all the way thru large hole (rare, it’s pretty hard to do that) then you need to make a new section of moulded honeycomb with both skins and that is not easy. Thus why you don’t take them to surf guys who never moved on from polyester lol

Mark
MOzCustoms

I’ve never been a fan of heavy boards or ultra-lite also, for windsurfing, surfing and also winging/parawing. I think boards need to be a certain weight to keep momentum and smooth the ride. Unless you want to do air or I guess in foiling wiping the nose all over the place or pump pump and pump. At my level, and ability, I think I prefer a certain weight. So…if a hollow board is just liter, it will be sad…hope they are stronger, more solide foil board connection…repaie easily and you can ding it and continue to ride and repaie later.

Jve said..

Kalevi said..
Gong released 11 different models of lightweight hollow foil boards today, ranging from downwind boards to freestyle boards. They’re also designed for jumping. Prices are around €1,700.

www.gong-galaxy.com/en/collections/wing-foil-boards-hollow-carbon

By next summer, we’ll definitely have a lot of real-world experience from Europe with these boards being used for all kinds of purposes. Now four direct-sales companies sell hollow boards for around €1,500–1,700 in EU.

Am I the only one thinking those shapes look like total rubbish? Of 11 models, I can't find one I'd even consider.

Totally agree. None of the mid length variants has advanced shape like the KT SK2 (which I own and love), Armstrong ML MK2 or Omen. The thickness is also off the charts - ~6" for a 90L board?
Have to say I'm not that impressed by the weight either. I recall seeing something like 4 kg for that 90L board. Gong reports board weights without the deck pad, so I assume the weight is 4.3-4.4 kg. A KT SK2 pro in 90L is 4.7 kg...

I have not seen a hollow board surviving more than a couple months over here, in my case not even one month.
I have seen people opening valves and release like half a litre of water in a new board. I heard about issues with the gore tech, the changes in temperate, lack of impact resistance, etc.
Do they work better? Yes, but I would ask for the warranty conditions.
Mine was replaced under warranty.

If that’s the case, they are not built right. If water is getting in, it is constructed like a normal sandwich board but with no EPS. A hollow board should be fibre each side of a nomex honeycomb.


as I said before we’ve seen all this with every new sport trying to just bust out something different just to get market share. It’s not always good if not done right. BTDT

then said it many times, goretex isn’t great. Been doing this for decades and I can tell u there’s so much crap and marketing spin



Mark
MOzCustoms

As I understand it, there are currently three different types of construction used in hollow boards.

SCC construction (i.e. not Honeycomb) is, as far as I know, a trademark of Sonic Composite Technology in China. SCC basically means a shell with some internal supporting structures. I believe the newer boards have a Gore vent that stays in place, plus a separate plug that is opened when the board is not on the water.

Sonic made SCC: Naish, Duotone, BRM, Kauper, Levitaz, Gong, possibly Takoon

The Virus has its own factory in Poland and uses its own Honeycomb construction, maybe with some additional internal supporting structures. These boards have a Gore vent.

Airinside boards are made at the Flikka factory in Slovenia and use their own Honeycomb construction introduced. These also have a Gore vent.

And Appletree is developing its own construction I presume.

Pacoo said..


Starboard, KT, Duotone and Naish are done in Cobra

Naish and Duotone are SCC construction, which is Sonic composites factory trademark. They even have Duotone hollowboard on their front page...