Messages

1

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board Designs

« on: January 30, 2023, 10:31:40 AM »

Use 2mm Eva foam for the deck pad. 1/2 the weight of any “traction pad” material available anywhere. You will have to scuff the surface or put holes in it somewhere to get 100% traction. I ride mine untouched though because I’m lazy/haven’t figure out a slick way to add texture.

2

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Getting Off the Back Foot

« on: January 27, 2023, 11:49:48 PM »

You should ride with your weight balanced, especially when switching feet. Start there. Then figure out what your problem is. Sounds like you know the problem, so... what's the problem? Move back.

Typically, your feet don't end up in the right place and you breach because you end up too far back or forward and you're not sure what's going on for a second and you lose your balance on the foil. A front footstrap helps a LOT with this since you will never have any doubt about your front (most important) foot. It will be in the strap, or you will have kicked the strap and know how far off you are.

Absent a footstrap, you should have some sort of marking or indentation on your deckpad where your front foot goes (i.e. "a couple inches from the end," or "right over the last holes" or something like that). Personally I had to actually look down exactly when my new foot was about to land to make sure it was going far enough forward. Like .2s looking down. Once your foot is down and in the right spot, have CONFIDENCE that you are in control of the board. Thinking you aren't in control is the same thing as not being in control in my experience on the foil.

Work on the little pop as well, ride low, pop up, switch and come down all set on the other side. You can work on that without switching your feet.

Land practice is great, just do it in your living room. If you can nail the swap on land there is nothing at all stopping you on the water, just the good ol' brain overthinking.

3

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board Designs

« on: January 27, 2023, 08:45:24 PM »

Here is my setup. It’s very important to throw away the headset it comes with. You need reliable clear sound. I’m using this cheap $30 Sony headset. It works ten times better than the junk $2 headset it ships with.

I drilled a hole through the goretex plug and fit a plastic tube. It fits tight. No sealant required.

One single invisible leak anywhere on the board will make the detector scream loud and possibly confuse you. When you find the leak, cover with masking tape and continue the search.

Now THIS is the sort of tips I need! Unfortunately these things are expensive .

I've resorted to doing the microballoon finish, sanding perfectly smooth with some pinholes no doubt. Seems like mixing microballoons gets air in the mix. Then just do a resin only hotcoat (pigmented like the one below it and sand that flat and polish if you like. Should seal up very well for minimal weight gain. 

The only other thing is that if you have multiple layers of carbon/glass and you did a sealing microballoon coat of your board, you shouldn't have to worry. I'm neurotic now after my first board was laid up too dry and resulted in a major weight gain.

I have seen the aussie windsurf build video say he rubs on "porefill" that fills any pinholes, then it gets absorbed by the epoxy layer later. But I can't find any info on that stuff anywhere.

4

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board Designs

« on: January 11, 2023, 10:58:37 PM »

A brand name for spread tow carbon. The same weight and strength fabric will be ~20% lighter or so using that instead of other weaves because the epoxy doesn’t have to fill as many kinks in the carbon weave.

5

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board Designs

« on: January 10, 2023, 10:16:05 PM »

When I made my last board (4’1” prone) I was thinking of ways to do closed cell foam skins. I’ve done Dcell on 1lb eps but the trouble is how much epoxy it needs to stick, even as a thickened mix. I was thinking gorilla glue would be good except that I can’t really spread it thin evenly on the board quickly, it’s pretty viscous especially for 1lb eps. Pour foam or pour epoxy was my answer and I started a thread on it.

Well after talking to a few crissy guys they just go 1lb eps and do 4 layers of carbon on the deck and one on the nose and wrap rails. Seems like it’s less durable but you will have no problems with dings or delams or boxes coming out of you do it well and avoid hard objects. If anyone can show me how to make it lighter I’m all ears but they are putting out sub 8lb 75L boards including the pads. I think even a 100l 7’3” DW sup under 10 lbs. I’ve done deck sandwiches, standing area sandwich and full board sandwich. Next is just carbon on eps and a patchy white finish job using textreme.

6

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Blue Planet Show- Wing Foil interviews

« on: December 07, 2022, 06:12:06 PM »

I cut some .01" polyester shim stock to a shape. I settled on 3 shims for this foil. You can see how the fuse is bent in the rear with the shims installed. I'm sure others just use round shapes/washers. This foil is a funky old proptype so it needs shims to work. I haven't shimmed any new ML stuff made for winging yet. I know some extremely fast wingers who never shim ML stuff, others shim and find less lift at high speeds is better with certain front/rear wing combinations. Anyway it's a whole topic of discussion...

I found for this old B3 fuse that with .03" / 1mm of shims the angle relative to the front wing went from 2.5 to 2.0 degrees. Over shimming is bad for the mast. It looks like the whole thing is tilted but it isn't. 

I measure the angle using the delta method, but this isn't necessary for anyone to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTCyag5N_vE

Anyway, sorry to get this thread off track.

7

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Blue Planet Show- Wing Foil interviews

« on: December 07, 2022, 12:51:37 PM »

Guys you are straight up wrong about ML shimming.

You can change the angle of the tail and not change the front angle. I have done so and measured it and tuned it. Like I said this is the design. Racers use this all the time. I even linked to it. I know it’s hard to comprehend, I was shocked too when other people who raced them told me about it.

The fuse has three 1/4”x20 bolts connecting it to the mast. Behind that is a smaller bolt. You shim under that bolt and torque it all up. This FLEXES the fuse between the rearmost large bolt and the small bolt you have placed a shim under. This changes the angle of the tail wing relative to the front wing (front wing and front 4/5ths of the fuse do not move).

I have changed the relative angle of the front wing/ tail wing on one mast from 2.5 degrees to 1.7, for example (which is a ton). This did not change the angle of the front wing.

If you want more info PM me or email mike or stephano.

8

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Blue Planet Show- Wing Foil interviews

« on: December 06, 2022, 01:55:27 AM »

…People doing 40+ knots and (kite)racing for their livelihood. You don’t have to.

9

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Blue Planet Show- Wing Foil interviews

« on: December 05, 2022, 09:21:00 PM »

"His thoughts in fixed stabs. No shimming allowed."

NO!

You can shim mike's lab fuses. In fact, they are designed to be shimmed. I keep running into people who don't know this, some of whom own his gear lamenting how they can't shim it, lol.

http://www.mikeslab.com/instructions/

Look forward to the interview.

10

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Heading to Maui next week…….

« on: December 03, 2022, 05:03:20 PM »

I’ve heard there is “no wind” for the rest of the winter. Is this true or does it mean 15 knots every day instead of 30? Trying to decide between maui and Baja for a little December trip.

11

The Shape Shack / Re: Dave Daum Build Series - Foilboard Construction A to Z - Q & A

« on: December 03, 2022, 12:42:36 PM »

What density eps are these boards?

I’m in the middle of a prone board and have carbon on one side and some ripples from my peelply on the rails. I’m wondering how to deal with these (sand away the carbon or fill around with microballoons?) so if he could go over finishing and cleaning up between overlapping sections I’d appreciate it!

12

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Plastic Buckles

« on: December 02, 2022, 04:13:45 PM »

It's an "older" one. Things age fast in this sport! It's an actual buckle that clips together, not just the place for the webbing to turn like they have now. One of the two tongs on the clip broke.

13

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Plastic Buckles

« on: November 30, 2022, 09:54:54 PM »

I have the NSI harness with the plastic buckle. They have caved in and don’t have the plastic buckle anymore.

I find it’s great aside from a few quibbles. I’ve snapped board leashes while flying away in the air and the board nosediving which left a welt on my back whipping to me. Harness held just fine.

Paddling through surf on the coast I had to eject from my board and wing when a huge set bore down on me. Just squeezed the buckle and I swam free. Board and wing were attached to each other at the harness but were safely 20ft apart with both leashes maxed out. Swam in and grabbed them before they got the beach. No gear issues.

Eating my words. A plastic tong on the buckle of the NSI harness snapped on me after a nasty crash. Wing and board attached to the harness. Fortunately the harness acted like a sea anchor and I could catch the board before I got swept to no-man's land with miles of cliffs.

I was able to use the climbing carabiner (non-locking, super light) that I use for my wing to connect the harness back together and ended my session using the harness. I've used it again a bunch of times like this. I don't want to buy a new harness now when I know a few good ones are coming out in the spring. Vinaka pro? Will pick up a new buckle somewhere.

I saw a windsurfer with a dyneema hand-sewn harness with a metal spreader bar and absolutely zero padding. It had to be lighter than mine. Some interesting options. 

14

The Shape Shack / Re: Foil Madness

« on: November 21, 2022, 12:01:01 AM »

The master…

Pono, get one of these systems.


https://youtu.be/nyYcomX7Lus

15

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: best packing system?

« on: November 14, 2022, 07:50:19 PM »

Ford transit connect. Never disassemble your gear. Hang the wings up on the side. Get a pelican case (harbor freight cheapo) for the tools you use regularly, and a cargo net for the other misc. stuff. Plenty of room to camp and have a cooler still if you put your board in lengthwise against a side and tail of your foil against the driver's left armrest.

If I took my stuff out every time I would attach the pump to a wing bag and leave my tools in the car and hook my harness, helmet, vest, etc. to each other so you can't forget any of them.