Carbon Fiber Wakeboard
 

I know and have heard that some of the companies are starting to introduce carbon fiber in pieces to the board designs and cores etc to make them stronger, but is there truly a board on the market today that is made of carbon fiber that one could say is the most durable board and as close to indestructible as one can make it without it weighing a ton?

Just curious. Thanks to all that reply.

In the late-mid nineties, there were a variety of boards that were full- wrap carbon fiber. Goode made a board that was the stiffest board I have ever seen and it was 3.8 lbs (half the weight of today's boards). It was $899 then.

Carbon is expensive and tough to work with. Board companies lost their butts.

Sine makes an impressively light board. Definitely a few pounds lighter than my LF boards and you can really tell how light it is when you ride it. They claim it is nearly indestructible.

Slingshot has the carbon wrapped edges on the ballistic series of boards

and.. though it is not carbon fibers, Kevlar and extra fiberglass are used in the new Byerly Blunt which are supposed to make it pretty darn indestructible.
Sine was mentioned already. i think they sometimes use Kevlar too. Sine is definitely unique that they make boards to order. surely if you ordered it and the money was right they could make a crazy board.

urethane sidewalls or whatever it is material seems to be being used more and more too and takes a good beating.

When Goode made that board, I am guessing that because it was so much they stopped it. I have heard that Hyperlite has some kind of carbon fiber in rusty's board, but I am guessing those are just sticks of carbon fiber that they line in the middle of the board to kind of make it better.

Just curious as I know that carbon fiber is nearly indestructible, but I also know that it doesn't really have any give to it.

Would carbon fibre be a good component for a cable board because it is so stiff or due to the inability to make it bend at all it would not be that great for the rails etc. Thoughts?

^ Its more a personal preference thing I guess... but I'd be miserable not being able to flex on rails. Doubt a cabon fiber board will do this:

I rode that Goodie board back in the day, that thing was a knee buster it was so stiff.

Hyperlite had the sub vi that was a carbon fiber layup right? And i think rustys board just had it in the graphic when it was pressed. Kinda like jd had the wood inlays in his.....same but different materials

So what you I am hearing is that a board needs to have some flex and not be just indestructible. So theoretically, and I know nothing about building a board, if you could combine some of the carbon fibre and then some of the other materials of say a flex board you would theoretically have the best made board? What does Sine make their boards out of? I have just been wondering why companies can't make a more durable board with all of the different kind of materials out there. I mean with all that there is out there we have only 2 possible reasons: 1)board companies know that changes like this cost them money so they are content to keep margins high and us paying for boards that aren't as durable as possible 2) no one has found a better composite to make a board.

Thoughts?

Slingshot ballistic series has wood core with carbon sidewalls to stiffen them up but still allowing flex. Check'em out:

http://www.slingshotsports.com/wake_videos

Board companies are in the business of selling product. If you were to make an indestructible board and have it weigh 4 pounds, you would likely have it costing over $1,000 per deck. The simple fact is that few people buy the super expensive boards and thus cost the companies to manufacture them. Why do you think the beginner/package board selection is so huge? They sell a ton of em! Simply put, the users of Wakeworld are a special breed, the average wakeboarder (read consumer) is not as into the sport as we are.

Over the years board companies have used various "exotic" cores for boards. From the Exocet full carbon deck, many companies aluminum honeycomb, balsa wood laminates, many different types of foam cores, foam cores combined with carbon beams, wood stringers etc etc. So its not fair to say that the board companies are just trying to keep profits high with crap technology. The truth is all these cores are as advertised, lighter. The flip side is that many of them are also more fragile. No matter what material you use, boards are subjected to a crazy amount of force and will break or lose their liveliness.

I had a CWB Absolute Platinum 141.

That board was light and stiff! Here are the construction details according to CWB:

For those who want nothing but the best, the Transcend, Marius, and Absolute decks are available in Platinum construction with the PT78 core. The core trims more than a pound out of the deck by using a far lighter foam, two full sheets of carbon graphite, and hollow fiberglass rods throughout. All of these things add up to give you an ultra stiff and ultra light deck that will react faster, pop harder, and accelerate like a rocket.

The board seemed to have a sheet of carbon fiber across the top of the board. It was one of the lightest boards I have had. I had 6 of them in all, I kept breaking them on backrolls gone bad. CWB warrantied it 5 times, although on the last time they built a "special" board with several extra sheets of carbon graphite making the board extra think and heavier. I could not break that board and ended up selling it on ebay when I switched to O'Brien.

Think a if you're getting into carbon fiber, you're looking at some serious moneys. My dad was looking at a carbon layered ski and it was 1300!
That being said i think the LF hybrids use some carbon and the watson hybrid is meant to be one of the strongest.

the company vandall and nicola butler boards are probably the most indestructable out there. they are made like the Integrity wakeskates.

I am one of those guys that have broke hundreds of boards. In the last 15 years I have worked with almost every manufacture who have promised me I could not break their boards (which has never come true). I rode tons of the old Connely T2 and other carbon boards. The problem with carbon is that it is strong and light, but brittle in that constant flex will break it down. So the first few rides were awesome, than it would break down in a hurry. I know that they are now using it different combination to reduce weight and add strength, but it has taken years for them to figure it out. I would love to see more use of it.

Try mine Ronix/PBV2/ONE bindings (PB=Parks edition) EXTREMEMLY light, texered surface..not all carbon but black ops or stealthy looking. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jet


http://www.gotriver.com/ronix_wakeboard_ibexpbv2.htm

Carbon Fibre Wakeboard
 

Hi to all

I own a Company called 'The Carbon King' and I am in the process of making a 100% Carbon Fibre wakeboard. A friend of mine is a partner in the Cotswold Water park (which is a wire tow wakeboarding park in the Cotswolds, UK) and he is helping me develop the board. A sample is currently on its way to my factory in China, which will be 3d scanned to make a mould and a board will be produced, which I will post the results over the coming months. Just to be clear this board will be 100% Carbon, with no graphics on it aside from my brand name (T.C.K Boarding).

My company 'The Carbon King' currently makes Carbon Fibre motorcycle parts for Ducati, Aprilia etc and due to a suggestion from my friend, I am trying out this new idea. If it is successful a range of the most popular sizes and shapes will be produced.

If you would like to register your interest in this board, and want to get updates on it then please email me at wakeboard@thecarbonking.com

Best wishes
Paul Train.

Nice try OP

I rode a Shannon Best back in the day and it was soooo light, but sooo brittle as well. Carbon is light but very breakable. I truly doubt that companies will go back to a carbon board just due to warranty issues.

Must have been a bad layup process or design. Yes CF is breakable, but its more brittle than anything. It has a very high strength, but unlike metal if you push it to and past its yield point in snaps rather than bending. CF is used in areas that see much more force than wakeboarding, hence why I'm guessing it was a design or manufacturing issue.

I think the lack of flex and its material properties when flexing would be the negative with 100% CF boards...

Da moose
 

DA MOOSE makes carbon fiber boards.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=791804

Matt I would agree with you on the layup or materials design issues.

Hockey sticks are a good example of a durable product made mostly of carbon fiber. Hockey sticks also comes in all sorts of different stiffness or flex. I think the limitation on a carbon fiber wake board would be the RD and price of final product. One piece hockey stick is some where in 200 dollar range. I could easily see a wake board being something like 1,000 with the lower volume and more complex shapes.
Not real sure I know how current boards are put together but carbon fiber when used correctly has to be laid up and vacuum bagged to fully saturate the carbon fiber and remove the excess resin. This is what makes carbon fiber so much lighter than alternatives. Less resin make a cheaper stronger product in the end but the process is a lot different than what I think the current boards processes are.