sideskirt said...
Hey there,
I have a desire to make my own freestyle board as well...
As it would be my first board I got some questions regarding shaping and laminating...
regarding shape of the blank: - thinking of tail rocker about 2-3mm
- nose rocker is a question for me... would arround
15cm be to high?
- viewing full length rocker line... would it mean
earlier planing whether I move lowest point of the
curve more forward?
- thinking of making elypse shape when viewing from
top (opinions?)
Laminating: my Idea was --> blank, 1 layer of 110g/m^2 fiberglass, Airex foam-
3mm thick, 1 layer of 110g fiberglass, 1 layer of 160g
carbon fiber, strengthening nose, rails with kevlar
fiber (of course also reinforcing the mast and
footpad area with kevlar directly on the blank
Now... I am not sure whether the fiberglass under the Airex foam is necessary or not...
Regarding inserts, I can get them all for about 50€ (70$)...just for information, I would like to have carbon fiber on top, and just put transparent protection, so the fabric would be seen through...
I seek your opinions and advice, thank you in advance guys.
BTW... good job barn...
hi sideskirt,
below are just some opinions.
you could try carbon kevlar cloth. yes kevlar is good for impact and yes carbon is good for tensile strength. carbon kevlar cloth gives you a bit of both.
for layup i agree with barn, you need a few layers of each to get the strength so glass, pvc,glass, carbon kevlar, glass etc type of layups are needed and combinations. carbon kevlar around the feet area/rails and track. the glass layers provide layup strength/waterproofing/sandability depending on where and how they are used.
rocker i more complex. there are 2 things to look at. the overall rocker from the balance point to the end and the amount of kick at the tail or the nose. typically rockers are continuous curves with a flat area shaped into the area around the straps. the longer the flat the earlier planing and more directional the board.
150-160mm rocker at the nose is fine but you need to look at how much rocker there is at the flat. for eg. 5mm rocker at the flat plus 150mm rocker from the balance point to the nose = 155mm rocker when planing. i hope that makes sense.
moving the wide point forward increases early planing and on a low rocker board also reduces turnability as the outline losses some of it's hips. you can add the hips back in by using different curves etc. i find elipses work very well. at the end of the day the outline is a function or curve/wide point/ofo dim.
i don't beleive slalom rockers get planing slower than freestyle rockers. typically they are almost the same. the real dif between slalom and freestyle is the rail shape.
as far as rocker apex goes. i always try and keep the rocker apex at the balance point which is the widest point of the board. not sure if other do this?