EPS/Epoxy Yellowing Question

[silentbutdeadly]

A buddy of mine has a relatively new (3 months) lightspeed board that is starting to get some blotchy yellowing in certain spots near the nose. Any idea of what this could be caused from? I seem to recall it could be due to temp or how the resin is catalyzed or something like that?

 

[oeste858]

Yea, it's the resin. I would never get another epoxy boar without color. Hi XTR!

 

[trifish]

Maybe no uv stabilizer (unlikely) or just more uv exposure on the nose than the rest of the board since its sitting out the water and unwaxed. 3 months is fast, unless he is just leaving it in the sun often. I've had boards last years up in the bay area and not look yellow. Around SD it seems to happen much quicker.

 

[sdsrfr]

I always figured it is contaminants in the resin, bad mix, bad handling or some combo of the 3.

any of my small batch resin use - I have the worst luck at the end of the container. I always figure it has to do with how I store the stuff - leaving the cap off too long, etc.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

he dawn patrols and keeps it in a bag so maybe it was during the build.

My stumps has no yellowing and it's over a year old

 

[sdsrfr]

Part of me feels bad for folks who buy the epoxy pop outs. There is no way joe surfrr knows any better.

and then I remember all the hazing we do in the lineup and don’t feel as bad.

id be livid if it happened to me. blotchy looks way worse than uniform sun yellow.

 

[waxurDyl]

Is your buddy’s board from Vietnam? If yes, then that wouldn’t surprise me. If it was laminated domestically at Pure Glass or Shred MFG, then I’d be surprised. I’m just assuming the resin used on the Vietnam Mayhem
pop-outs are not the same quality as the resin used here or the attention to detail isn’t as great

 

[silentbutdeadly]

Is your buddy’s board from Vietnam? If yes, then that wouldn’t surprise me. If it was laminated domestically at Pure Glass or Shred MFG, then I’d be surprised. I’m just assuming the resin used on the Vietnam Mayhem
pop-outs are not the same quality as the resin used here or the attention to detail isn’t as great

I'm not sure but it was custom so I am assuming it was done at pure glass?

 

[waxurDyl]

I'm not sure but it was custom so I am assuming it was done at pure glass?

Ahh, yeah…a custom would’ve been done here

 

[92122]

Have a R* EPS / Epoxy that is pretty yellow after 5-6 years and it was only lightly used and mostly kept out of the sun / heat, although the yellowing started after one hot afternoon in a car and progressed from there.

I saw some more of the same board around the same time in the local shop that were already noticeably yellowing on the racks. They claim to have way better Epoxy now that doesn't yellow, but..??..

 

[HSY]

Yea, it's the resin. I would never get another epoxy boar without color. Hi XTR!

My XTR that I got this past fall is the yellowest board I've ever owned. I only surf dawn patrol and keep the board in a bag but it's waaaaay more yellow than my poly boards (which are many years older) and significantly more yellow than even my Thai made JS hyfy which is probably 5 years old. The deck is definitely more yellow than the bottom, but the bottom is yellow also.

 

[One-Off]

I don't know what resin most manufacturers are using, but if I were buying a board I would ask. If custom ordering I would specify Resin Research. Greg Leohr's been doing epoxy for longer than anybody in the surf business. I know when Clark closed and I started looking for alternatives he was already way ahead of the game. This board is over ten years old and was my daily driver for at least 5 or 6. This was before Resin Research started putting the "optical brighteners" into the mix, so I imagine that now they're even more UV resistant.

rails look yellow because they are polyurethane foam. The center is EPS.

 

[jkb]

My 6 year old XTR with color still looks great!

 

[thekadvang]

FWIW I have a litespeed rocket redux that is 2 years old and it is YELLOW it looks bad -- i can't find the pic but even after ~6 months it had the wax pattern cooked into it

I live kauai but I also baby my boards -- never left it sitting in the sun, in the truck, etc. that's literally just from surfing it

100% color only for my next one

 

[trifish]

I used to use Resin Research like One-Off is mentioning and it worked well. I didn't hold onto any of those boards past a few years though to see any long term effects, but they still looked good at the time.

I got a white board from xtr about 4-5 months back that still looks new at the moment so will see if anything has changed recently with his resin choice after his testing. Would of been nice to know which ones he tested. I've been going with color like others from him for a long time specifically because of the issue.

 

[emmohl80]

My Lightspeed had a patch on the rail. Only one spot.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

My Lightspeed had a patch on the rail. Only one spot.
View attachment 158198

that's a little worse but pretty much what's going on with his

 

[sdsrfr]

i can’t imagine what benefit eps/epoxy offers that makes paying $800 for these blotchy things to make sense.

 

[emmohl80]

that's a little worse but pretty much what's going on with his

It didn't spread or pop up anywhere else but I offloaded it pretty quick.
Wasn't a fan of the LS build. My old Carbon Wrap was still bright white after 3 years of heavy use.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

hmm. other that the yellow, he loves it. but he's not overly picky