Hot Buttered Soul?

[Beanpole]

While I was up at the Central Coast last week I walked into a surfshop full of Hot Buttered Boards. Most of them were epoxy. Kind of fitted the bill for what I had been thinking about buying size and dimension wise. Kind of looked a bit too plastic though which was reinforced by seeing a second hand Brett Munroe mini mal there which was just beautiful with a great shape and fantastic glass job. I wasn't looking for a mini mal but I kept thinking about buying it because it looked so good.

Back home I checked the Hot Buttered site and no mention of these boards or even a fibreglass version of them :? :?
So what gives?

[Karlos]

And here was I thinking someone had started a Stax thread.

[pridmore]

what shapes and stuff Beanpole ? where they old school TF designs ??? what you thinking bout buying ???

[Beerfan]

A while ago i saw some HB boards in a local shop. Made OS. Looked nice but the "thumb on the rail test" felt a little soft. Nice shapes though. And no the ones i saw were not the ones on the site, they were old school minimal shapes, not the "drifta" style shapes.

[Beanpole]

Mostly oversized fish type things with a lot of width but there was a stinger type number that looked kind of interesting. What got me was they were all like $550 which is pretty far removed from the price of a custom TF number.

[Longygrom]

Hi Beanpole

The O/S range is suited to East Coast waves. Made by Brandon Mcdonald but produced overseas.

www.raisedbywolves.com.au

These guys have a complete range in store at MOna Vale and Avalon, and other shops up the coast have them too as you saw.

[sean--]

Not made in China I hope Why not save a bit extra and get the real thing?

[Beanpole]

Who knows?
I was mainly wondering about their pedigree.
If I sell my last custom board to someone who is interested which I probably will then my options are open. I basically have too many old boards around plus two that I use all the time. One tuflite and one 6 oz glass mal. Ideally I would duplicate the mal in tuflite and score a new glass board somewhere in the 7'6" vicinity. This is my longtime plan but the funds have been taking a hiding lately. Ah dental work what a great way to spend money plus you can talk to your dentist about their last trip to the Maldives,etc paid for by your teeth :? :? :?

Anyway I'm far from desperate but you know another board could just have that missing ingredient youve been looking for

On the old fibreglass vs epoxy debate I'm just coming to really know my current tuflites capabilities and if I look at the vicious blows its endured in its life with me I can safely say it would have split in two at least twice and be sitting in landfill by now.

[ric_vidal]

Made by Brandon Mcdonald but produced overseas.

You may want to rephrase that Longy.

[ric_vidal]

Ideally I would duplicate the mal in tuflite ...

Why BP? They still snap and ding but are harder to fix and look fairly ordinary when the paint starts chipping off all over the place, some would argue they look pretty lame before they leave a shop.

Should I send you a photo of the one I am repairing at the moment where you can see the seams in the Klegecell?

[Beanpole]

No Ric I am very aware of their limitations. I've snapped one in half myself. I agree they don't have the aesthetics of a fine glass job but they are light and don't show the normal wear and tear associated with some places I surf regularly

This is purely for practical lugging it around, chucking it down reasons. I'm not getting rid of my old mal. Its great. I just don't always feel like carefully negotiating a somewhat fragile, heavy object thats 9' long long distances on foot including through my house and out into dangerously crowded surf. I'd rather leave it for the days that it will really excell in.All its dings wouldn't exist on a tuflite.
My other tuflite is still sporting a small crease where a guy on a fish did a full roundhouse cutback into me :? There is no question that board would be in two pieces now if it was fibreglass.

As I said ideally I would have duplicates but thats just something that may or may not happen as I replace each board eventually.
Yes, theyre corky, yes theyre mass produced but super light ding resistant boards have their moments. One thing I love about epoxy mals is when you can literally float down cresting peaks on larger days. I love the momentum of a heavy mal too. This is definitely not an either/or proposition.
Think I'll take the mal for a spin now. Should suit it just fine

[Davros]

Chatting to a guy at maly surf HQ about these boards and yep made in China. I was out at last friday with a guy who had a 1980's HB Rainbow series recreation, I cannot remeber the name but it had a 2+1 set up with a rounded nose, apparently Fitzgeralds answer to the the Tri fin, in any event it was a great looking board and the guy riding it was cutting solid waves to pieces...moral is go the real thing.

[ric_vidal]

One thing I love about epoxy mals is when you can literally float down cresting peaks on larger days. I love the momentum of a heavy mal too. This is definitely not an either/or proposition.
Think I'll take the mal for a spin now. Should suit it just fine

OK BP my head is spinning more than usual I’m wondering if there is some middle ground... the mals I have done for Wanderer were epoxy laminates and poly fillers, one snapped and so would have anything else according to him, the MKII creased but has been fixed and reportedly better with the extra weight (it was already 666 ). No doubt in my mind epoxy has distinct advantages in certain areas.

No one wants to use it because it is slow, tedious and expensive.

Couple of guys in the mal club now have epoxy/EPS jobs, rode one and it is very light and feels fragile as it flexs under foot, I wonder if more glass would be a solution and that is the point with EPS, it’s so light from the outset that they can be glassed strongly yet usually they aren’t. All different to Tuflites I know but they just bother me for so many different reasons.

May just have to stick my neck out again.

[Beanpole]

I try to stay open minded about new technologies Ric but I fully understand the attitude of board makers to this move from hand building with well understood materials to wherever we are at now with board manufacture/repairs/etc.

One thing I've only relatively recently noticed on my tuflite board which is 7'11" is that it seems to flatten out if I put my foot down near the nose when I'm trimming into a long section. This then makes the board take off and go like the clappers making sections from well forward of half way with great ease. I don't know if this is a result of the crease in the bottom making it flex in a particular spot or just me not getting into that situation before. Basically I would expect it to slow down. You really feel it change contours to fit the wave.

Reminds me of a Bear Mal I had. The nose collapsed a bit from being shoved under the metal sun visor on the roof of the car. So it had like a double concave on either side of the stringer. This seemed to make it nose ride heaps better than before.

Funny things surfboards. You often only find out what there capable when something unusual happens.