Thats easy, dont buy imported boards.

Don't think imported boards have any monopoly on snapping. A 4oz top and bottom made by anyone in the world will always be a weak board but it is what some people want to get the weight and feel they are after.
From my experience most of the larger players and good retailers will do what they can to make the situation right. At the end of the day though a board can snap the first surf or the hundredth if it ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

pooman said...

P co said...

Don't think imported boards have any monopoly on snapping. A 4oz top and bottom made by anyone in the world will always be a weak board but it is what some people want to get the weight and feel they are after.
From my experience most of the larger players and good retailers will do what they can to make the situation right. At the end of the day though a board can snap the first surf or the hundredth if it ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What he said

What they both said 4oz is weak light weight

just curious, how much strength do u guys reckon comes from the fibreglass in comparison to the blank and the stringer?

stringer`s a big help as well......like major

It might sound a weak answer but I think it is a combination of the three. You could make a board with (almost) either one missing and compensate with the other two.
Certainly made a few stringerless boards which whilst bendy as buggery when shaping, hold up well when glassed strongly.
The epoxy boards with light eps blanks which have very little intrinsic strength indicate that if the glassing is tough enough they can hold up well. The non-sandwich ones of these tend to have stringers.
And finally I reckon if you had a superhard polyurethane blank ( I don't think they exist yet but I did have an interesting meeting with some SE asian foam makers a few years back who made a material that could possibly do it) chuck a stringer in it to stiffen and you would be able to surf it unglassed.
The trick is to balance them all out for the look, durability, feel and riding characteristics you are chasing. ie performance shortboard, classic noserider, all-rounder etc, etc

robin said...
everybody disagree?

Yes, I disagree.

I have been experimenting with stringerless designs for over 20 years now, and my personal quiver consists of 95% stringerless boards...I love the way they feel...and the answer to your question Robin( IMO) is it's way more than 10%...I was sick of the rubish they pass off as stringers nowdays and found that the weight I saved by not using them enabled me to use heavier cloth...I am talking about chunkier boards than your average here though...like anything over 2.5" thick...for boards made for more extreme conditions I've used roving stringers and the whole board flexes like a fishing rod...used this method on a few sailboards with no breakages... given the right conditions you can break anything I think...but the heavy cloth has a lot more longitudinal strenth than you may think...provided the sander does his job correctly

Legion said...

robin said...
everybody disagree?

Yes, I disagree.

I agree to disagree as well, I think that the glass shell is so much stronger if 4x4x4 and would be stronger that the blank and stringer put together IMO.

au_rick said...

robin said...

Interesting viewpoints.

While we're on the topic, I've had boards repaired in Bali - and sometimes (twice) the job done (e.g. rail ding) looks fantastic with a spray job but then cracks 4 surfs later. To be fair I had the nose repaired on a board and they did a great solid job. When you look at the fibreglass they used on the rails, it looks very thin and not strong at all. What are they using? Some composite??? Bamboo? I've never heard of 1 or 2'oz but that's what it looks like. I doubt they are using the same materials as here in Australia.

Anybody know?

being Bali, maybe the ambient heat and humidity affect the fibreglass as it "goes off", ie. it hardens faster and with more trapped moisture, ultimately resulting in a weaker fix ?

Its just the cheap resin that they use, I did my own in Bali and it did the same thing. I think its more brittle when hard.