Skim style build.

I am working on a board for the First Annual Charity Backyard Buildoff and I'm in between until tomorrow. Using the time wisely I pulled out a piece of Divinycell H80 that I was saving for a skimboard build. Many of the newer skim style boards seem to have changed the core foam away from d-cell, but this was a popular core material.

I wanted to get more pictures, but it went so quick there really isn'tmuch to it. It took me about 1/2 hour to shape this.

1) I cut the outline with a jigsaw
2) Used a sanding block to square the rails
3) 1/2 roundover bit in a router all around the top.

That's it.

I'll bag a couple of layers of 6 oz on it and it'll be done. That was easy!

no planeing? not even a little?

IMO it's needs a little more shaping to fit James's style of riding

(Message edited by caskimmer on April 25, 2008)

No caskimmer, I just ran the roundover along the edges. I don't know enough about proper skim design to even have a clue what "more shaping" would entail! I'd guess I'll learn by failure, as usual!

It will still ride fine just might not accelerate as fast coming off a turn

ah...thin the tail for some projection? When are you going to open up shop caskimmer? Too much knowledge not to offer it for sale to folks.

yeah something like that.

I was thinking about that for a while. For now I'd rather just have a few skimboards customized to my specs and do the fin mods myself. I'm looking forward to wakesurfing again just for the joy of it and no other reason.

(Message edited by caskimmer on April 25, 2008)

^didn't mean that as a rub against anyone. It's just when I go to the beach it's almost always work related now and want my time on the lake to be mine.

Jeff, if you haven't layed that up yet try to skin it equally on both sides. I'm sure you already know this but I see a lot of people putting an extra layer on top which goes against everything I've ever read about composite theory. From what I understand that if you don't give an equal treatment to the top and bottom it actually makes the board weaker by artificially creating a pivot point.

i.e. boards that have an extra layer on top tend to snap when to much pressure is applied from above (not a good thing for 3 ft airs) and a board with an extra layer on the bottom is more prone to snap under the opposite conditions. So ideally you want a "balanced" board but if you need to throw it off for the sake of stiffness then put the extra layer on the bottom.

Thanks for the insight caskimmer. I've had different experience between theory and practice, as you point out. The traditional "theory" is that 'glass is about twice as strong in tension as compression and so the top layer(s) require twice as many as the bottom.

However, it seems to discount the resin, stringer layout and core material and it's thickness.

When we have broken boards, it invariably starts at the rail and that would typically have 3 layers of glass, due to the laps. So the "practice" / actual experience, I think supports exactly what you are saying.

Double 6 top and bottom, and call it done?

You're familiar with Rosch, I'm sure. I was reading about his "living tendons" which seem to be perimeter strings and he's doing concaves in the bottom. Whenever I have shaped concaves into boards with minimal rocker, like this, and they stick to the water like it was glued. I like the idea of the stringers, though. Have you seen any useage of concaves in this type of board that are useful?