RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Hi all, does anyone own or have ridden a surftech (epoxy) longboard? what is your opinion on them compared to a glass board? cheers

I own a 9' Randy French HP Surftech. Compared to my handcrafted polyester/polyurethane boards, the Surftech is more bouyant for it's size, much lighter, stiffer, and responsive. It took me a few surfs to get used to the bouyancy when sinking a rail in a turn. But I've adjusted now. The whole feel of the board is really responsive- it feels like it's an 8 footer.

It's durability advantage is questionable. I've had mine for 3 months, and put a small dent in the deck behind the leash hole- probably from a wipeout. Its taken a moderate thrashing in dredging 6 foot DY and Kurrawa without snapping. However, I do know of the same model Surftech being axed by the same-sized waves and snapping. But then, a polyester board wouldn't have survived either. Push your thumbs into a Surtech and it definitely feels harder than a traditional glass job.

The shape, dimensions, and rail profiles are great for me. The quality is good- but not better than a handcrafted board. The pricing was pretty close to what I would've paid for a big-name polyester-glassed board.

The bottom line is- performance-wise, this is one of the best longboards I've had.

thanks Soulman! I'll have to give one a test ride

I also have a surftech that I bought in the US - yes its lighter and more bouyant, turns better than most Ive ridden BUT I would agree some observations that the boards are not as tough as the makers say
Mine split open at the front after hitting sand in a wipeout breaking both layers of glass, the PVC foam between and exposing the core
Cost a hellava lot to get the thing fixed - remember that epoxy has to be used to repair epoxy and yu cant take polyester anywhere near the styrene core.....
still if it was a polyester board the damage would have been much greater ... but easier to repair

dicco

They'll never catch on

gone are the halcyon days of RealSurf when users named 'soulman' claimed a surftech 9 foot longboard is the best longboard they've owned.

shaunmorrison wrote:They'll never catch on

Yes, that's right, they are really for the more discerning surfer

All the bull crap about them being hard to repair is just that.

shaun was right

Possibly the biggest manufacturer of surf boards in the world:

https://surftech-global.eu/

why did Surftech die?

Steve looking for an argument.

It's a genuine question, I'm researching the rise of "tech" boards and Surftech was huge in the Market from, say, 2004-2010?

Then they just disappeared.

It's kind of amazing how the traditional PU/PE board has been able to maintain such a dominant market share.

I just said they may well be the biggest manufacturer of surfboards in the world and you ignore it. There's so many companies involved and I've got no idea who owns who.

I've got two NSPs (part of the Surftech empire I think) boards that are like the Surftech ones but I'm not going to cut them up to see how they are built (bomb proof I think). NSP sell a lot of boards.

Then there was another high performance tech I had last year, also under their label. You need to do a some research to find out what's happening with Surftech and where it fits into the amalgam of companies and labels.

Current technology:

https://surftech-global.eu/technology/

Number 9 seems to indicate the old Tufflite technology is still in use; and items 1 to 8 are a new technology?

Are my two NSP mals made using the old Tuflite technology? They have that feel and weight to them and they are bomb proof.

The NSP brand has only a small number of designs available, otherwise I'd buy more of them.

There's also the epoxy boards coming into Oz via the Element brand in Byron Bay and sourced from China.

I have two of them and possibly a third as the board I picked up in Bali is remarkably similar in design and finish, including a quarter inch stringer.

By the way the epoxy board that just broke in Bali had no stringer.

And best of all is the epoxy and wood veneer boards coming out of Aloha. These are the most bomb proof boards I've ever owned by a long shot. And they are significantly cheaper than their glass boards.

Interesting. I was reading about the death of Salomon S Core. Lots of theories with one being shortage of materials, the other being trying to alter the core of a surfboard being kind of stupid but, ultimately it looks like that just couldn’t sell the things.