Hey Rich my old fav 6'2" Pat Rawson tufflite is yours if you want it, yep it is snapped.

No worries i'm out of town for another week anyway.
P.S. no heel dents on it.

My Al Merrick Black flag has heel dents and its only 4 months old.... and never used with my kite..... the bigger the dips get the closer my foot is to the water
its all to do with how much glassing is on the deck and how often weight is applied

Polynglass boards will always dent under the heals if you use them to kite ( unless they have massive amounts of glass )

Then again with the amount of wax brucex ( original poster ) has on his deck im suprised there are any dents on his at all.....

The only difference dent wise that i can think of between Strapped and strapless is that an unstrapped rider will probably have a shallower dent but wider ( across more area ) but the strapped rider will have a deeper dent but in only one spot.

I know a guy who has been experimenting with putting wood inserts under the glass where your feet go. He was impressed with the results, no heel dents but the same surfboard feel he likes. I'm not sure whether this would result in compressing the foam core eventually, but It seems like a good Idea. BTW this guy tends to ride strapped, and does some pretty big boosting on it.

wdric said...

The foam is crap they use on surfboards compared to other foam cores used in the fibreglass industry.
Has anyone tried putting a couple of bits of thin H80 under the foot areas before glassing a regular surfboard?

Or has anyone had a piece of divinycell shaped and glassed over that?

Im not so sure about that ..... there are thousands of shapers all over the world that have been shaping boards for over 40 years all are looking for that extra edge and innovation..there are massive amounts of money in the surf industry dedicated to developmement.... and they keep on coming up with the same materials to use ( ok granted some now use carbon fibre reinforcement and stringers ) the epoxy boards looked to have some future particularly for kiting but they lack flex and feeling....

Using surfboards for kiting brings about a whole new set of parameters, as was pointed out earlier when kiting you are standing on the board all the time you are also using the board to get over the whitewater etc...... creating consistent impacts under the board and under your heels or whole foot...... causing glass fatigue and foam dents ( surfboards were never designed to hit whitewater lumps head on over and over again which is what happens everytime you head out under kite power.....) the only way to over come this is by using different materials which results ( generally ) in more weight in the boards or better location of density not a big deal when under kite power but it does change the feel of the board.
As with most things its a trade off between light weight performance and longevity.
For kiting .....If you want light weight, great feel and feedback you have to put up with broken boards or heel dents if you want longevity and strength you have to forgo some performance and feel.

Bamboo- flexy and strong