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Obviously foam has very good qualities for surfboard construction. Closed cell foam keeps water from filling voids. Spheres are inherently strong structures. Space capsules and under water capsules are often spheres because of high compressive strength to weight ratio. Spheres give foam that kind of strength. However, foam doesn’t have good shear strength, that’s why stringers are frequently included in designs.
Fiber glass and carbon fiber both have excellent tensile strength. A glass covered board has this property too. Fibers distribute stress placed on one side of the board evenly.
A board that includes a stringer, closed cell foam, and a fiber skin is a composite structure. That’s probably an ideal selection of materials and properties. If those materials haven’t been completely optimized or if new materials become available then there’s room for improvement. If those materials have been over applied then there may also be room for improvement. In another thread Jeff suggested that board manufactures are perhaps over building boards.
I think that the balsa surfer was interesting. There’s at least 16 ounces of glue in the board, there’s room for improvement there. Laser cutting would help also. I think I can replace the balsa skin with glass. Whatever new approach might be taken the skin must be water tight since there’s no foam. I think I can skinny down the stringers.
I was planning on building a card board surf board with a similar approach, much like the card board long board link. I might still make one.
I don’t think that the balsa approach isn’t too different form the Cyber shapes boards. I think Cyber Shapes boards are roto-formed. I suspect that have an internal structure that includes plastic stringers and large open cells.
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