Hello everyone,
I want to start a discussion regarding the characteristics of different materials used to create surfboards; here is a bit of background information as to why I have come to this forum.
I am a novice shaper, having only shaped and glassed 35 boards in the past two years. My day job is at Rainbow Distributing (An East Coast distributor of surf supplies, including Rainbow Fins) in Indian Harbour Beach, FL, which puts me in direct contact with the best shapers and surfers in our area on a day to day basis. In our area, there has been a resurgence of traditional longboard enthusiasts seemingly hell bent on riding heavy logs shaped ONLY from polurethane foam and glassed ONLY with polyester resin. A traditional log absolutely cannot be shaped from EPS foam, so I am told.
In my experience, two boards shaped and glassed exactly the same, one with a polurethane core (Medium to Heavy Density) and the other with a 2lb density EPS core will show a noticeable difference while paddling and surfing. EPS foam has better memory, rigidity, and float quality than Polyurethane, which results in a stiffer board that tends to sit more on top of the water than within the wave.
After this long preface, my simple question is:
Is it possible to build an EPS board that can essentially pass as a poly/poly board and fool a hardcore poly/poly traditionalist?
Let me know your thoughts, and please, correct me if anything I have stated is incorrect.