Snapped Board

[booter]

My girls little brother snapped his board (4 months old) clean in half yesterday. Poor little bugger. Feels like heaps of dudes down our way (sth coast) are snapping them of late - probably 8 boards in the last month. Whats the deal? Shitty batch of blanks or the trend towards fuck all glass?

[pig champion]

My girls little brother snapped his board (4 months old) clean in half yesterday. Poor little bugger. Feels like heaps of dudes down our way (sth coast) are snapping them of late - probably 8 boards in the last month. Whats the deal? Shitty batch of blanks or the trend towards **** all glass?

this topic always pisses me off ... especially when people start to blame bad blanks or glass jobs ... BOARDS SNAP & CREASE all the time ... powerful (and sometimes not so powerful) swell will snap your board regardless of teh glass or blank like a toothpick.

just get over it & accept that it is a part of surfing.

[booter]

Settle dude, I am aware of the fact that boards break, I just made a comment that there seems to be a larger than normal number of boards breaking around my local thats all.

[marty]

wasn't at woonoona was it? saw a guy on the beach with his board in two halves.. can't be happy with it.

[booter]

Nah a little further South. Yeah, its gotta be about the shittiest feeling in surfing. Oh well, shit happens I guess.

[macca202]

maybe its just something to do with the good swells wev'e had the last month or two.

Im getting my own board in a few weeks, and id just hate to snap it, so im thinking im better off getting a second hand board...

[ric_vidal]

Oooh, got to feel for the kid!

Know how they feel. I shaped, sprayed, glassed, sanded and totally put my heart & soul into a board for a friend recently and he broke it the forth time he took it out in some innane situation eskying at Manly! The good news is it went quite well 2' shorter.

3/8" solid cedar stringer snapped like a toothpick to quote one of our comrades, but it wasn't your average garden variety board. Nevertheless, I didn't expect it to break

Back together now as light as I could do it and should be as good as gold, well it won't break there again!

[Hunter]

i snapped the nose of my board in one foot crap the other day, pissed me right off, i don't care what people say about not blaming blanks, glass, one foot surf and a broken board, thats no good

[Gasherbrum4]

this topic always pisses me off ... especially when people start to blame bad blanks or glass jobs ... BOARDS SNAP & CREASE all the time ... powerful (and sometimes not so powerful) swell will snap your board regardless of teh glass or blank like a toothpick.

just get over it & accept that it is a part of surfing.

Have to disagree with you on that pig champ.

Boards snap & crease all the time now because they are built so light. Everybody wants a board with the ultra light blank & minimal glass in the quest for 'lightness', whilst this is great for performance the strength factor is often found wanting. Doing 'floaters' into no water doesn't help either

No board is unbreakable but to break a board in the 70's when I started surfing was almost unheard of. Denser blanks & heavier glass jobs back then definitely increased the strength but also the weight of these boards.

Maybe the answer lies somewhere in between these two extremes. For my short board I usually go for the heaviest blank & heavier than normal glass job with a double stringer. Yeah the young guys think it's heavy but I'm an old fart & unlikely to benefit from any of those feather weight boards going around. At around $600 a pop you don't want to be snapping or creasing your board on any sort of regular basis ....ok if you are sponsored or a pro.

I think surfers need to take some of the responsibility for the path the surfboard industry has taken in this regard. Whilst most other sports have gone hi tech for stronger & lighter with new materials we have stayed put with 50 year old technology & gone lighter & weaker..... is it because we are all tightarses $$ wise & won't pay??

[Hunter]

gasher spot on mate,
but surfing is progressing - look at the tuflite, and the s-core boards. I think people have to realise if they want a fibreglass board that won't snap they need to accept more weight for strength. Alternatives that are light and strong are available, but of course at a price.

[cha_cha_]

but you buy a board knowing full well that it's disposable and that you'll buy another one next year. there's not point making them indestructable if they aren't going to be used forever - it's making a product to perform a task and for most serious surfers a board is supposed to be with them for a few months to a few years. after a while a surfer will want something different to suit their changing style, or to suit the current trends, or whatever so the old one goes out to the shed and a new one is ordered.

it's about trading off usability/performance (ie lightness) VS longjevity (ie strength) and each surfer will have their own criteria, most leaning towards the former. This is also influenced by the mainstream competitive surfers who get a new board every week and don't expect them to last much longer than that, run ridiculously thin blanks, light as a feather glass jobs and dont care because they didn't pay for it. just as long as it can make 6 turns in to the beach and get them through to the next round, hey?

[booter]

For my most recent board i asked my shaper to make it stronger at the expensive of weight. I dont care if my board is a little heavier if its going to last longer

[Hunter]

thats true on the heaviness, try paddling into a big wave on a light board with the offshore spitting water into your face, a slightly heavier board will make the drop faster and easier without the wind interfering.

[agc]

I reckon everyone should get triple stringer monster long boards built as thick as a boat!

WORD

[thermalben]

look at the tuflite, and the s-core boards

I saw a snapped tuflite out at Burleigh on Monday, and have seen a few others in two pieces over the last couple of months. I don't think that they're quite as indestructible as they're made out to be!

[nthnbeachesguy]

Well my thoughts on the matter, i got before i went to indo last year my shaper to make the boards a little stronger, 6 on top 4 on bottom and a 3/4 deck patch of 4. It did make the boards a little heavier and that was ok in indo surfing punchy hollow waves but here it kinda made them a lot less reponsive. I just picked up 2 newies 2 weeks ago and took em up the coast along with 2 of my older boards. The new ones were stock standard glass jobs and they went absolutely sick, i cant be happier with em and i didnt ride the older ones at all. The new ones are a lot more responsive and faster, yeah they will ding and snap easier but i did leave em for 3 weeks before riding so they should be fully cured and so far have stood up well to A Bay, South Straddie, Snapper, Boulders, Southy, Salty and my local in the recent swell anywhere from 2-6ft.

[Troy_Cisco_Kid]

Who made your boards ?

Still have to get one made for my trip to the islands in October

Cheers
troy

Well my thoughts on the matter, i got before i went to indo last year my shaper to make the boards a little stronger, 6 on top 4 on bottom and a 3/4 deck patch of 4. It did make the boards a little heavier and that was ok in indo surfing punchy hollow waves but here it kinda made them a lot less reponsive. I just picked up 2 newies 2 weeks ago and took em up the coast along with 2 of my older boards. The new ones were stock standard glass jobs and they went absolutely sick, i cant be happier with em and i didnt ride the older ones at all. The new ones are a lot more responsive and faster, yeah they will ding and snap easier but i did leave em for 3 weeks before riding so they should be fully cured and so far have stood up well to A Bay, South Straddie, Snapper, Boulders, Southy, Salty and my local in the recent swell anywhere from 2-6ft.