SUP Surfboard Construction: Carbon vs pvc vs...

[PonoBill]

It's harder to work with, hard to cut, doesn't lay flat, and water wicks along its length in a composite matrix. It also has similar tensile strength but stretches more than carbon, so it doesn't provide the same rigidity. Despite all that it's used quite a bit. I had SIC make me a carbon/Kevlar Bullet 17. Great looking board--Bare Kevlar on top, bare carbon on the bottom, and it was strong and light. But it overheated if placed bottom up, and the Kevlar degraded rapidly placed top up. If you're gonna do Kevlar you need to paint over it to preserve it. The deck became fragile.

I also had Nelson Boardworks do the blank Dave Kalama shaped for me with Kevlar, but on their strong recommendation, it was fully painted. Unfortunately, I told them I wanted the board to take a lot of use and abuse, and it wound up being heavy. Nice board, and it will probably still be here when cockroaches rule the planet, but it's not my favorite.

Innegra is polyolefin fiber, resin sticks to it better, but it's stretchy and it wicks even though it won't adsorb water. I don't know how that works, but it's what most folks who use it say. And I've seen what looks like water following the lines in the diamond mesh stuff. I'm interested in trying quad weave cloth, which alternates carbon and Innegra threads in both warp and woof (WOOF! -- sorry, had to do that). Unfortunately, it's hard to find in wide sizes. I think it will be good stuff, we'll see. The high end canoe/kayak guys are using it. I hear it makes cutting kevlar look easy though. Special scissors required.

[Tom]

Creek is absolutely right about the balsa flex on the Sunovas. It's hard to describe, but they are just more lively than any board I've ridden. After riding Sanovas exclusively for a couple of years, I traveled to Costa Rica without my boards and spent a week on a very popular production board that was similar size, weight, and volume. They just felt like they were filled with mash potatoes.

[JEG]

I like carbon material and we need to do more R & D in SUP world with carbon though saying that I like to see other material that's environmentally friendly.

[TallDude]

Carbon is great, but I've been trying to reduce my carbon footprint. I've recently switched from 6oz to 4oz.

[PonoBill]

Channeling PDX?

Carbon is actually pretty environmentally friendly, so is fiberglass. It's the resin that's a little disaster.

[TallDude]

Channeling PDX?

All admiration. His neurotransmitters take us down a puzzling path which ultimately leads to humor. We all need that.

I think someone should compile 'The Best of PDX' in a little book. I'd buy one.

[coldsup]

My next SUP is a wood sandwich with reinforced Kevlar rails, nose and tail....painted over.

Will see in time how it lasts.

[Bean]

Just To go full circle on Kevlar, there is the ballistic kind, Kevlar 29 used in armor, and there is the composite kind, Kevlar 49.  DW is right, why use Kevlar when you can get Innegra?  Especially now that you know that the composite (Kevlar 49) isn't even bulletproof... (although, it is tough, as proven over the years on canoes and kayaks everywhere.)

[LaPerouseBay]

Epic kayaks "ultra" layup is a kevlar sandwich and it's extremely popular. 

They have been using a kevlar sandwich construction forever.  Epic does prepreg carbon now too.  It's super light and even more rigid (very good in skis) but the extra cost isn't worth it for most people.

http://news.sky.com/story/lucky-escape-as-shark-bites-huge-hole-in-kayak-off-australian-coast-10823265

The animal that bit the end of this ski off must have been extremely pissed off.  I tore a broken kevlar ski in half to fit it into a truck bed once and it was not easy.  Kevlar sandwich is super rugged.  You can see the layers in the photo.  Gelcoat, kevlar, nomex honeycomb, kevlar.  Kevlar is tough to saturate 100% with epoxy and it can wick water.  Once that water starts moving, it can weaken the gelcoat bond.

I'd leave the fancy kevlars and anything else that's tough to saturate to the factory guys.  Or plan on keeping a very close eye on any crack in the finish.  Gelcoat is tougher than paint and it fails too.