East vs West Challenge for '07

We left the nose floating as we destroyed....err, I mean continued on with the time trial on the remaining...four pieces

How many pieces are we up to now?

I do believe that is 5

So...to be honest...we would have been hard pressed to get the total riding time at 5 minutes...we pushed it, but I do believe we ran out of ridable pieces, around 3-3.5 minutes.

James was in the water for close to 10 minutes. I have clips - sheesh like 12 of them, but the actual riding time doesn't make the minimum time.

Jeff, that reminds me of my hull extension and spray pocket experiments last year. As we surfed down the river bits and pieces of the Styrofoam and duct tape peeled off. We had to go back up stream to pick up after our selves. I think a single center stringer would have been worth considering.

Was that ride time with or without rope? I can't imagine that you can surf the small pieces. The five minutes has to be free ride time, right?

I just came up from the shop. I’ve cut and drilled the remaining stringers but I need to do a little cleanup. I have tinny 1/8 by 1/16 longitudinal stringers. Not every mini stringer channels is deep enough. I think these stringers are a good idea but I think I should have gone with 1/8 by 1/8 or 1/8 by ¼. I’ll need to fit check the new pieces as well. Then I’ll pin and glue the stringers.

I found that even with the Fortner bits I was still tearing with the drill press. I ended up drilling 1/8 pilot holes then drilled half way through with the Fortner bits. Then I flipped the board over and drilled the rest of the way through.

The stringers feel very flimsy. Assembled in the frame they feel somewhat stronger. Hopefully tinny stringers, the balsa skin, and polymer skin will firm the board up. Our rider is about 170 pounds. We’ll have to get him on a training diet at Chipotle’s.

The center aspen stringer weighs 2.3 ounces. The other four aspen stringers are also on the order of two ounces. So that’s about 10 ounces in lateral stringers alone. I may make at least two aspen longitudinal stringers as well. I’ll see if I can weigh the frame some time tomorrow.

Tonight is going to be the coldest night of the season, we have a frost advisory. I’m planning on surfing tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see if I still have a crew in the morning.

Yeah, I think that if I had gone with my original plan using a Carbon skin, or like you suggest Ed, a single stringer down the middle and we'd have a winner. Dennis noticed it first, a small board in the area of about 2 feet in length with a central strringer would have been fine. I may try that, at some point, once I get the Vacuum Bagging equipment set up, just to see.

James was able to free surf the "chunks" for short periods of time. THAT wasn't the hardest part...just think of trying to get up without it breaking That part was hilarious. Reminded us of tubing - kids at the end of the rope behind the boat, terrified, adults inside laughing like crazy. It was great fun. If James ever comes out of his room again, I'll get his input too.

Jeff, really really really sorry to see the results of your run. A little duct tape on the board might have helped. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE, WHILE THE RABBITS CRASH AND BURN. The Pink Mohawk (aka, Home Depot Special) is being put together today. If the Pink Mohawk doesn't last the five minutes, maybe Ed should just enter Recycle This so that the midwest is guaranteed a victory. BTW, if you would have fed James about 20 birthday cakes he might have weighed 180 lbs.

Roy,

I'm touched by your heart-felt sentiments. The empathetic nature of your "SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE, WHILE THE RABBITS CRASH AND BURN" truly moved me. I'll refrain from mentioning WHAT it moved me to, however.

That would be funny wouldn't it? If Ed won with Recycle This! As the only successful entry

We did think about the cake idea:

jeff did you just cry when it broke

next time you wanna throw away $100 you could send it to me

You are looking at it all wrong Sean...nothing wasted, it was just a large test panel. I learned how to work with EPS, shaping, cutting, etc...finalized my resin usage requirements and got a good handle on cabosil and microballoons. AND I got to compete, too

I would have had to do all the above before building a board, much more fun this way.

Built two protypes today. Materials were $25 and spent around 2 hours on each board. The Pink Mohawk weighs 3lbs 6oz and the Pink Mohawk Pro weighs around 28 ounces. Kayley will probably be the only one that can ride the pro model. The regular Pink Mohawk will definitely not break. The question is can we ride it for 5 minutes. Will post build details at a later time

I have a new entry!!!!!!! It's not 10/5 yet!!! I have literally no build time though.

I found an old project board that I messed the rails up on. It's from a Clark superlight polyu blank with, I think, a 1/16 inch basswood stringer. It's 4'4" and isn't laminated. It weighs 30.1 oz. In watching James on the scraps I believe that I can comfortable cut it down to 3'0" and it will be ridable for the 5 minutes, without being laminated. I do believe that I can get the weight below 24 oz AND a 180 pound rider can rider it for a continuous 5 minutes.

WEST RULES!!!!!!!!!

I'll finish the "shaping" and weight it tomorrow.

go jeff!!! westside represent!! dont let me down!

Well, I’ve got a problem. I finally got through to the "Balsa Depot". They have not returned email nor phone calls to date. Finally, after 19 days, they have the order ready to ship but aren't prepared to take credit card orders so they want me to send a check first. By the time the mail gets everything from point A to B and back to A I'll have eaten up all of my schedule. I canceled the order and will look for other materials or sources.

Has James grown 6 inches or put on a lot of weight since we saw him in August?

Dry, James weighs 160. Muscular kid. With 3 wet PFD's and his hair wet, he's at 180. Check this picture out carefully at the shoulders - three layers of PFD. When they are all wet they weigh a ton!

He didn't grow though - have to work on that



I can ride this new entry and NO ONE would suspicion I was less than 180

23.7 oz! And such an elegant shape.

Everyone rode it. Even Dennis, it didn't "decompose" like the last one. I do believe we have footage over 5 min.

We finally tested the Home Depot (aka., Pink Mohawk) prototypes today. The good news was the prototype boards did surf but not for the five minutes. Although the boards did crash and burn, we learned how to improve the design. I do believe we can get the Pink Mohawk Pro model (29 ounces) below the 23.7 weight. BTW, was the 23.7 with or without fins?

Pink Mohawk Pro (29 ounces)





Full quiver of boards



The Pro model survived Kayley's run but not Rob's


(Message edited by norris_laker on September 23, 2007)

(Message edited by norris_laker on September 23, 2007)

Few more pictures.
The run lasted a little over 1 minute. Rob could do a little carving.

The board snapped in a nose dive


(Message edited by norris_laker on September 23, 2007)

You have to get a 180 pound person on it We had a 250+ person on the West Coast Slab o' Foam No fin, just a hunk a hunk a burnin' foam.

Kayley's pink mohawk is SICK!

The Elvis Presley special was impressive. Will have an 180 lbs rider for the final version at the Norris Lake season extender.

My entry will be close to 3 pounds. Looks like the west coast wins this one. Did Dennis free ride?

Kayley, love the new hair

No, Dennis couldn't free ride it...I don't think he even got slack in the line. BUT, it didn't break! That was my goal for this entry.

So I can make an entry that no one can free ride and that could win?

I'll get my buddy with the hydro planes to do a bare foot run at 40 mph no board Midwest wins!

James (with 20 pounds of PFD), Judy and I (well over the 180 minimum) all free rode, just not Dennis. I swear I have to watch you two like a HAWK!

If he can free ride at 40 for 5 minutes, you win...send video

Excuse me! The final Pink Mohawk Pro will be under 23.7 and we know how to make it stronger. We are not throwing in the towel.

Watch us, what about you. Looked like you claimed that Dennis free rode the board.

If some how two boards came in at the same weight then the tie breaker could be the most weight that the board cold be free ridden.

Based on what you've done I think I made my board too large.

Roy, looks like you made a wood center stringer. I don't think the strength of the wood is in the direction that you used the wood.

Did we say accumulated 5 minutes?

We didn't really have a stringer. The final version will be at least a foot shorter and it will have a stringer. Would like to use a balsa wood stringer but I don't think I can find any balsa wood in a 100 mile radius.

On the 5 minute criteria, my ORIGINAL thoughts were that the boards would be like what Roy and I first made...they simply wouldn't last 5 minutes. So...I didn't specify a continuous 5 minute ride.

I made NO such statement about Dennis - but based upon the accumulated 5 minutes, Dennis could free ride the "slab o' matic". It would take...(60 times 5, carry the 3) 300 deep water starts, but he could do it!

Roy, I found some very light paneling at our local Lowe's. A 1" tall section, 3 feet long probably only weighs about 5 oz.

I attempted to glue up my own stringer and glued the mess to the cement floor on accident!

Roy - love the pink mohawk home depot board! did you put any resin on it?

Matt- no resin on the board. Used clear contact paper on the bottom of the board. The final version will be shortened to 3 feet and it will include a wood stringer. I believe the boards snapped because they were too long and there wasn't a stringer. The board Kayley rode was 6 ounces more than the "slab-o-matic". Making the board short will get it under the 23.7 ounces for the "slab-o-matic" but I'm hoping the stringer will not put the board over the weight.