Help me pick a new boar(s)

Sauce

OTF status
Oct 6, 2021
283
423
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CFT medium buzzsaw that I had felt damp and had no issues with chop or being too buoyant. I had an oversized no friends... and that had all the issues people complain about with eps, but I also think it was more to do with sooo much foam in such a short board. Would love another no friends 4-5 liters less or slimmed/stretched
 

emmohl80

Nep status
Oct 17, 2010
677
495
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Yeah... spot on about the wind. That gremlin (XTR PC 8.C) is so light I've had the wind pick it up off the water lol. I ordered the shadow glassed heavier (8.O) and that seemed to solve the issue. I figured if I did go Varial for board 2 I'd get it glassed heavier, but would be an expensive mistake if it couldn't handle some challenging conditions.

How does CFT feel compared to other EPS/epoxy layups? I've never been a huge EPS fan
You keep your dims about the same in XTR? WIll likely order another P2 from XTR just not sure which build yet.
 

ehiunno

OTF status
Dec 27, 2019
325
635
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You keep your dims about the same in XTR? WIll likely order another P2 from XTR just not sure which build yet.
Yeah I agree with MathD. If you ask Javier from XTR he'll tell you to go 0.5L lower but I've just ordered whatever dims I would have gotten in PU. Half a liter is like 1/32" of thickness on a normal board lol. XTR feels and floats much more like PU than EPS does to me.
 

rowjimmytour

Tom Curren status
Feb 7, 2009
11,534
5,832
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Yeah I agree with MathD. If you ask Javier from XTR he'll tell you to go 0.5L lower but I've just ordered whatever dims I would have gotten in PU. Half a liter is like 1/32" of thickness on a normal board lol. XTR feels and floats much more like PU than EPS does to me.
I go shorter with CFT and now DFT but keep width and thickness same as pu :shaka:
 

ehiunno

OTF status
Dec 27, 2019
325
635
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Meant to update this thread a while back, I did eventually put a two board order in with...

Arakawa surfboards!!

Kind of a long story. After a lot of thinking I ultimately decided it would be cool to chat with a shaper but construction was too big of a factor to ignore, so I called Arakawa to ask about XTR. Turns out their machine that can cut XTR blanks is down so that isn't an option... I almost just said thanks and hung up before Eric asked "why XTR?" and proceeded to spend 20 minutes chatting with me about board construction. He confirmed XTR would definitely be strongest, but suggested there were other things they could do to make a strong board starting with a PU blank - going E-poly, using a denser (blue) blank and/or using direct-sized glass. The latter option I wasn't familiar with but apparently it's much stronger and Eric noted they had been getting great results with it. Turns out this is actually the same glass Stretch uses. I came out of the conversation convinced I could get a long-lasting board from them and decided to go ahead with the order even without XTR.

I had a zoom call with Eric to dial in the order. He pulled up the files for a couple of models and went over them with me as we discussed my waves, surfing and dimensions. He made a few modifications to the file as we chatted and explained his reasoning. He listened closely to my inane rambling and was patient with all of my (many) questions. He encouraged me to go a bit thicker and slightly more volume than I originally had in mind and explained he didn't think it would feel too on top of the water with these designs.

I ended up ordering:
#1: Scream - 5' 9.5 x 18.9 x 2.38 ~27.5L. E-poly D-sized with light gray spray
#2: Amplifier RT - 5' 11 x 18.75" x 2.38 ~27.9L. E-poly D-sized with light gray spray

Between the zoom and a handful of phone calls Eric spent more than an hour personally dialing in this order with me. I think Casa said this when he ordered but the fact that this is an option for just anyone is absolutely insane. You can tell that EA and his team really take pride in building custom boards for everyone, from novices to pros and everyone in between.

Maybe a bit silly to have boards made and shipped from HI to NY but it was getting shipped either way and his shipping prices are reasonable (avoiding NY tax makes it a wash tbh). I was quoted up to 8wk build time and compared with some of the quotes I'm seeing from SoCal shapers that's nothing. YOLO? or something

STOCKED :jamon:
 

ehiunno

OTF status
Dec 27, 2019
325
635
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What is direct-sized glass?
Apparently it is glass that hasn't been baked in an oven for cleaning. Supposed to be quite a bit stronger but more annoying to work with. It doesn't seem to be super commonly used but it has been around for quite a while. Eric said they had only recently started making this option available for orders but they had been using it on pro boards, even going down to 3oz to shave weight off.

If you read the stretch constructions page you'll notice for CFT it says "6oz. direct sized RWG", I guess RWG stands for "really white glass", supposedly direct-sized glass is also a brighter/whiter. I had always wondered what that was.

I don't know too much though! Maybe some board builders on here will have run into it and have some opinions. I went with "trust your shaper" on this one so we'll see how it goes!

Fwiw, I ended up opting against the blue blank idea. I figured epoxy+d-sized would be plenty strong and I don't want something heavier than "normal". I've definitely had boards too heavy in the past so I didn't want to risk it.