i spotted this in the photo section, and was wondering what kind of sail this was, and why they would call it nerd?

is it a speed sail?

MacGyver. You know it.

I had a black and grey board years ago shaped by bob margets (surfboard) yep got hot, then cooled then heated, over and over. Was so hard after a season of curing you could have hit it with a hammer and not inflict a dent. Was looking at the new quad today, I reckon it looks unreal, nice shape, fine rails. The big thing is that finally someone is building boards that are colorful and fun. Two thumbs up for fanatic.

Mark _australia said...

All good greg, except for the fact that expansion and contraction can cause delam. Anytime a few layers of different things are stuck together they will want to come unstuck, and expansion-contraction cycles speed it up.
Might be a few years with white, and considerably shortened with black.

Black might be great in euro land but in Oz I'd stay well away from it.

Why make a board black unless it is absolutely necessary?

I have a board with sections of black on it and yes it doees get noticbly hotter on the black bits. I make a point to try and keep it out of the sun but thats a bit difficukt given the nature of the sport.

I'm glad to see the trend of black luff sleeves on sails is gone away. Sometimes i wonder what some of these designers were thinking...maybe they spent a bit too much time in the sun!

Yea Barney cause you so fly lol imagine someone designing something without checking with you first? Wow the cheek of them hey.

So Barn you sticking solid only sailing those brands that are, you know, for the people. Brands that struggle to make ends meet, like JP or Pryde?

Barn you crack me up. So if fanatic/north and JP/Pryde are evil I can only imagine what you think about starboard/severne lol. So tell me are your boards carved from virgin forest and are your sails stitched by hand? Mate the whole industry is set up for profit, no profit no sport. Pure fact of life. I reckon fanatic are smart, diversifying into other sports, bringing colour back making it all a bit of fun and maybe surviving and flourishing. So Barn are you saying fanatic/north shouldn't be running a successful business, allowing us to have access to good kit that keeps being developed and improved? Maybe it's just a holden/ford mindset you have where regardless of how good something is unless it has the right badge you just blow it off? Either way, it's a bit sad really isn't it?

grec, The point is that heat cycling speeds up delam and all boards delam eventually. Warranty claim analysis will not help as we are talking the difference between a 5yr or 10yrs lifespan (for example).

You said only the bottom is black but that is the bit exposed to the sun the most! yes you can try and keep the board deck side up on the beach but I find the tendon stiffness and a puff of wind always flips mine over

Carbon booms are a different kettle of fish as it is laminated carbon and resin, nothing else, and is not a complex sandwich with 5+ layers like a board has. Those layers in a board want to spring apart (thats why the vac bag is needed to suck down the divinycell) whereas the layers of carbon in a boom do not want to separate. Thus, heat cycling of clack carbon pipe is waaay less of a problem than in a board.
Of course there can be UV damage to the resin in a boom but I imagine they are smart enough to use a UV tolerant resin - actually maybe not as UV can only damage the first layer anyway as it can't penetrate thru the carbon

Yea barn underground lol. Wow it must be good to be you hey? So these underground manufacturers are giving back to the sport how? We went through this with the whole back yard surfboard builder thing, that eventually gave way to real companies that were devoted to building the sport, that lead to more money and more people in the sport. On the other point absolutely we should be giving thumbs up to any company that brings some colour back to the sport, kinda needs it really, all a bit drab. Up till this season it's been boring boards with boring sails leading to smaller markets with less money to go around. I for one want a vibrant sustainable sport that continues to develop new stuff.

Okay my input is not about the sail design colour etc, but the board bottom colour. For my own good reasons I have nearly always not used board bags but do put the boards on van and car roofs with “dog bones” and of course they site bum up on the beach. All boards should be white or a very sun reflective colour on the base, almost all except white heat the board radically to varying degrees and cannot be good. The paint should be high quality because they turn powdery in time how do I know because of experience and having boards for up to 10 years at a time, I cannot buy a new one every fashion change! However, I have not so far suffered a delamination problem except from long term use in the foot strap area (with white or yellow bottomed boards used from Turkey to Oz). The idea of some manufacturers to save weight by not painting the base is too far-fetched for the average user. As far as I am concerned manufacturers please leave the board bases white and use graphics on the top side, its also easier to finish off a repair!

Pommy, no board bag? Really

gregc said...

Yea barn underground lol. Wow it must be good to be you hey? So these underground manufacturers are giving back to the sport how? We went through this with the whole back yard surfboard builder thing, that eventually gave way to real companies that were devoted to building the sport, that lead to more money and more people in the sport. On the other point absolutely we should be giving thumbs up to any company that brings some colour back to the sport, kinda needs it really, all a bit drab. Up till this season it's been boring boards with boring sails leading to smaller markets with less money to go around. I for one want a vibrant sustainable sport that continues to develop new stuff.

hahahaaa, bagging underground and so called backyard shapers. Those shapers that don't need to conform to any idea and are free to totally push the boundaries and innovate. Wonder the amazing things that wouldn't have happened without such guys.

There are still guys building out of backyards and small operations in surfing and there always will be, and guess what, they are innovating instead of pushing thousands of mass produced dated ideas out to the masses. The innovation coming from these guys will be what the big companies are making money on in years to come.

I too want a vibrant sport that continues to develop new stuff, and without the "backyard" boys pushing that development will slow to make way for larger profit.

Aus innovation is one thing, paying your way I another. I'm not bagging out back yard operations and have known a few that have gone from garage to real business over time. Yep innovation will come out of the back yards occasionally, but exactly when was the last time major change took place in surfing, or windsurfing? Pretty sure it was simon Anderson and the thruster! That was a while ago though. Other than that we have seen rocker lines fiddled with, widths changed etc etc. Not really innovative though.

The 'masses' won't really be able to tell if a board has had 1/8 th of an inch added to it or that the wide point has been moved back 1/4 of an inch. Same as most normal sailors won't be able to tell if they tweak a rail design minutely.

Innovation in material, construction technique etc making things last longer etc, that is another story and none of it has come out of a backyard.

If I'm wrong then by all means give me some direction so that I can be educated

gregc said...

Aus innovation is one thing, paying your way I another. I'm not bagging out back yard operations and have known a few that have gone from garage to real business over time. Yep innovation will come out of the back yards occasionally, but exactly when was the last time major change took place in surfing, or windsurfing? Pretty sure it was simon Anderson and the thruster! That was a while ago though. Other than that we have seen rocker lines fiddled with, widths changed etc etc. Not really innovative though.


Innovation in material, construction technique etc making things last longer etc, that is another story and none of it has come out of a backyard.

I've spent plenty of time building windsurf gear in backyards, and I'd like to see more of it.
As for innovative materials, I've developed sailcloth that is half the weight of monofilm, colourful, and strong enough to deal with the conditions in OUR backyard. (OK, I'd progressed a bit beyond the backyard when I developed e5 sailcloth - I'll give you that. But without the backyard days there wouldn't be any 3kg wavesails... we'd all be on 5kg Nerds and Euros)

Anyway, I think we all missed the point. Tongue in cheek humour. Enjoy it.

Ben true enough and I will stand corrected on sails but boardwise really the last back yard innovation was..........?
Btw I'm not critising at all, but to build a business is a significantly different thing to building a board in your backyard isn't it? I just think this whole lone wolf pure surfer thing is a thing of the past. The whole soul surfer thing has been a carefully crafted marketing tool used to great effect. Once again I don't have a problem with that but let's at least be honest about it.

I just have a problem when any company does something that brings some colour back, which has been sadly lacking since many years ago and it cops a pasting. My point of view I guess.