SUNOVA EXPERIENCE

[ric_vidal]

What happens if I stick my big toe on the button

you’ll get sucked into the vortex.

Top looking finish on the board razzledazzle. Think you’re right about the blocks - teak. Light and strong enough and looks noice.

[daryl]

Felt like I'd bought some good furniture v noice

[mad]

Daz, I gotta ask and I don't know if you can answer, but won't a ply layer across the bottom plan from rail to rail adversely afffect the boards flex characteristics?

My understanding is that the rails load up and release flex through the board, and the closed/eps foam structure allows for the transfer of energy/flex etc through it. So if you connect the rails via a sheet of ply, will this act as a sort of bracing (like a sheet of ply does in construction) and hinder the flex through the board?

I may be way off in making the comparisons so if anyone can elaborate, give us the drum.

Sweet looking stick by the way

[ric_vidal]

Daz, I gotta ask and I don't know if you can answer, but won't a ply layer across the bottom plan from rail to rail adversely afffect the boards flex characteristics?

Mad, what are you talking about? Have I missed something somewhere?

[PeepeelaPew]

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[ric_vidal]

"as far as foam v balsa rails for stiffness ,,,,.

Think the next generation Unwireds with the carbon rods/nodes have foam rails, be a bitch doing the laminations of balsa that Bert is doing.

Can’t imagine the inconsistencies of balsa, grain, different weights and densities and trying to shape the stuff.

Give me something predictable.

FYI Toby, even a stringer-less PU blank is a bit of a noodle, can imagine EPS would be like playing with a sand castle.

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[ric_vidal]

I should clarify the "foam" in the quote about foam rails isn't EPS, it's high density divinycell (sp?). In fact the board Bert's talking about in that thread doesn't use _any_ balsa, the divinycell is in place of the balsa. Sorta like the corecell that he uses now, e.g. on the deck of daryl's board.

I guess these high density foams are much easier to work with, but they don't necessarily have the same magic properties that wood can have.

Yep Toby read most of Bert’s Sway threads and yes it is divinycell and it too is relatively expensive but it has good memory.

Magic of wood? I don’t know, it’s so ‘yesterday’ the future will be in something more consistent, controlled and predictable.

Thing is with the Sunova’s etc is they are not full length strips of timber, it is layed up like say a deck, does this feel right or is it the limitations of the product? Joins = what? Weakness in my book. Yes, all marginal I know but aren’t we shooting for some nirvana in construction. They certainly look shmicko and sure perform to boot!

The future of boards will not be in what they are made of, although it is having a bit of a moment, it will be in design. Think you can attribute that sentiment to Mr Webber.

[mad]

RV wrote

mad wrote:
Daz, I gotta ask and I don't know if you can answer, but won't a ply layer across the bottom plan from rail to rail adversely afffect the boards flex characteristics?

Mad, what are you talking about? Have I missed something somewhere?

Welcome to my muddled mind ric.

What I'm thinking is that the boards flex characteristics are about the rails being able to move around/flex etc. So by putting a peice of ply as an infill between the rails, is that compromising their ability to flex.

The analogy is that a plyboard is nailed onto a houseframe to brace it, i.e stop it from moving around

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[wanto]

If only Bert hadn't retired from the internet (and answering emails )

you'd never get your board then

[ric_vidal]

The rails are about an order of magnitude thicker than the skin, so I doubt the skin affects the rail flex characteristics significantly.

Think the skin is about 3mm Toby, rails are about 4x that (you can see the layers in Daryl’s pics). Remember they have to be bent to rocker AND outline. (where’s Munch he’s done this?)

Re wood = timber equals timbre for musical instruments and it looks perdy. It is also time honoured crafting if you will and perhaps more suitable than other media. Not really a comparison. It is otherwise not a function of performance.

Think you’ll find skis and snow boards have gone a whole lot more exotic than wood. Skateboards, yeah it’s cheaper to lay up press timber veneers, like some of the cheap wakeboard type things and see how quickly they delaminate.

[PeepeelaPew]

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[munch]

Using my name in vain again

the skin does make a diff, think the I-beam analogy and as bert is mixing it up with skins [core-cell top, balsa bottom] and making a diff see some of pinhead's comments on here, not sway's.

rails are ~4x5mm and I've done up to an inch.

And a balsa skin is hard, like, hurt your ankles hard ...

[daryl]

Not even anything in Thai?

Paddling out the back it paddles like a traditional board (not much planing or gliding). However, a couple of strokes into paddling for a wave and it just seems to up and go, building momentum and planing very easily. Riding along feels like you're planing on top of everything rather than cutting through as much. Mine's 21 7/8" wide but it's not noticeably slower rail to rail. In fact, it feels like because it planes so well it is easy to throw around when you have to (also the light weight and sharp rails would help this). It's easy to bounce off sections, again gliding over rather than bogging down.

Cons? the larger-than-normal surface and light weight make it get tossed around when duckdiving anything sizey. The larger-than-normal tail and light weight make it get tossed around when caught behind a section or on manoeuvers coming out of the foam. I can live with both of those.

Nah,nothing in Thai, woulda looked okay but wot'd it say, more bahts bert . Feels a tad skatey like my fishy, and going by tobes, that'll still be okay when it's bigger .

Daz, I gotta ask and I don't know if you can answer, but won't a ply layer across the bottom plan from rail to rail adversely afffect the boards flex characteristics?

My understanding is that the rails load up and release flex through the board, and the closed/eps foam structure allows for the transfer of energy/flex etc through it. So if you connect the rails via a sheet of ply, will this act as a sort of bracing (like a sheet of ply does in construction) and hinder the flex through the board?

I may be way off in making the comparisons so if anyone can elaborate, give us the drum.

Sweet looking stick by the way

Yeah, thanks . No, I can't answer , and didn't option balsa bottom, came that way lucky me . Being longitudinal to the rocker plan ( is that right ) maybe the balsa ties in with the flex, from rail-to-rail, like a twisting tree trunk??? scuse ignorance. It was a surprise to get wood .

Three plies, are you sure ric? at least it isn't like a vert stringer, altho there's reinforcing as you mention, mad.

Just looked on the sunova website, its interesting to see they have a bolsa bottom as well, wonder how that alters the performance of the board?

I've got a couple of boards with similar construction. All High Density (HD) foam ie core-cell top and bottom like Firewire is ok, all basla I found a bit stiff except for longer boards, but the balsa bottom with the HD foam deck is sweet. Flexy but with more pop and faster return than all core-cell. If you don't mind the woodgrain look I think it's the best option for shortboards.

Foot kept going too far up, so gonna let it .

No goodies on this combo, original plan, two g3s and an M5 looked like a match

[ric_vidal]

Snow skis are definitely still wood.

Toby, I’ve got skis from 30 years ago that had no wood in them - aluminium honeycomb (Hexcel)

Ex Wki re ski construction:

Skis were originally wooden planks made from a single piece of wood. They are now usually made from a complex assembly of components including glass fiber, Kevlar, titanium, other polymers, Hardened plastic or composite materials, though many may still contain wood cores.

Wood is good for crafting stuff, 3D objects and if necessary bending into shapes, and looks that speak to most people, but there is a general resistance to ‘change’. People just don’t like it.

I know guys that had balsa skin/rail EPS core boards probably 10 years ago, probably Bert’s in fact, are they riding them now are they still on the same type of constructed boards? No.

Technology/construction is just one part of the equation.

[ric_vidal]

Using my name in vain again

Of course.

the skin does make a diff, think the I-beam analogy...

Only one problem Munchies - soft centre, so not an I-beam. S-Cores used 3 carbon I-beams to what result?