Hyperlite soft bottoms

I have two Hyperlite board that have a really soft bottoms. "2004 Byerly and 2003 Premier DNA" The bottoms seems more like plastic than fiberglass. The 2004 Byerly with the soft bottom was a warrenty board that I got from Hyperlite. I broke my 2003 Byerly and they sent me a 2004 with the soft bottom. The 2003 Premier was a board that I bought off of Ebay. To cut the case what is with the plastic like bottom on some of Hyperlites boards. Almost every board I see has the typical fiberglass bottom. Are these boards that hyperlite screwed up on or maybe some kind of test boards. I have no idea, so if anyone has any input I would like to hear it. The boards ride fine I just want to know why there is two different types of moldings.
Later, Tallman

It is actually a kind of p-tex (same stuff on snowboards) they call it the jib base. It is supposed to slow the board down on sliders. It is not something they do anymore, due to the fact that it would bleed ink so dont leave them base up in the sun and then let them get near your seats.

hey, i would love to see a pic of that byerly. I had a 2004 byerly and it did not have that...it was a really hard bottom...if i recall the jib base in 2004 was hard and the earlier years it was soft.

Nathan, some of the early '04 Byerly's had that base too. It actually made the boards ride a bit slower to. Some noticed, some didn't. I really liked the way they felt on PVC sliders, but didn't dig them on decking material. Just too sticky.

They stopped making them after too many complaints. Some people prefered them, I personally dont like it, too sticky.

Mine started to peel off of my 04 premier

actually part of the reason they stopped makin it was they were havin a hard time gettin the material to stick to the board. the other reason was that sliders were being with trex, or a similar decking material, which is better on a hard base than the soft base and lasts longer. after a while that soft base wears off, or gets pushed into clumps.

I've got it, and its too sticky! it does make the board last longer on sliders, but when i'm sliding on pvc pipes it can sometimes trip me up cause its so sticky

Hey Nathan, I finally got around to taking a picture of my boards. Sorry it took so long. I hope I can get then to load on to this site. Harry, I'm curious why you think it makes the board last longer on sliders? I rode my Premier over a PVC slider a half dozen times and every time I go over it I could see a new dent in the bottom of my board. It seems like the edges like to crush real easily to. I have a Liquid Force board that I nomally ride over rails that has the typical fiberglass bottom and it seem to wear much better than the trex on the bottom of my Premier. My Premier is a DNA so that might be part of the problem the cores are so soft the don't seem to weather abuse very well. I don't ride a lot of rail so I'm no expert, but in my experice it seems weaker than fiberglass. This is just my experience. Maybe you just had better luck with your board. Thanks for the responce

Later, Mark

One problem with the ptex base is that is tends to peel off, starting around the edges of the board, especially on the Byerly where the water runs through the cut outs. Overall good boards, though.

i've been nailing my 03 premier over pvc sliders and kicker almost everytime i ride (resorted to cable riding here in the uk), it seems to have weathered much better than any of my mates boards with the standard fibreglass base. i can see the problem with pealing but i've not yet experienced this and i've had the board 3 years.