XPS IS HATED BY MANY HOWEVER AFTER 6 YEARS ITS STILL ALIVE!

My friend Stafford still takes this board on surf trips.

He claims it is his favorite board.

The problem is people don’t know how to make them and surfers generally have not money.

Anyway I thought it was cool to see this pic on FACEBOOK when I noticed the monkey was on the nose of his XPS I made 6 years ago!

Nice time of year to be in BALI!

Sorry it is 7 years old not 6.

Time is flying by!

Hi Surfding... I don't like the way he's looking at that monkey.

Hi john:

Your right he is looking at that mokey a little weird?

Hey S'Ding, Howzit? What is your opinion of XPS? Not just as a ride but workability in shaping and glassing? I have no experience with this beast.

 

ps. NEVER turn your back on a monkey!

Hey Mr Surfding

Maybe this is a good time, to remind you of your promise on the XPS build thread?

Thanks Ding

Wouter

tblank:

I promised Wouter to make a XPS Build Tread a while back.

Its been some time since I was building XPS on a regular basics.

When CLARK FOAM shut their doors we were all scrambling for blank material and looking for alternate builds.

EPS/EPOXY was displayed at CERRITOS COLLEGE by Greg Lohr. 

In the SURF GHETTOS of HB there were blanks popping up in XPS.

Since everyone in the board building business was used to a certain way of building a board there was a learning curve of adjustments to make.

XPS was so difficult (GASSING, DELAM - actually is was SHEARING, MELTING) for CNC they would melt and clog the cutter-head.

So with all the production difficulty XPS production died a quick death.

I gambled in the beginning and bought several truck loads of billets to make blanks.

We built hundreds of them and they were selling at first to various board builders on a regular basis in the begining.

However most shops could not manage XPS. (Slowed down production)

JAVIER (XTR) does a fantastic job of laminating XPS. (He knows how to deal with it)

He may be the last shop still making them (OCEANSIDE)?

 

I have a few of the original SURF CORE XPS Billets in my storage unit and a few construction grade XPS in my CNC room.

As promised I will document a XPS build with photographs of the progression.

The following 9 STEPS are what I’m thinking?

  1. Design

  2. Blank Build

  3. Stringer and Rocker

  4. Shaping

  5. Glassing

  6. Fin Box Installation

  7. Hot Coat

  8. Sanding

  9. CARE

If I missed something just let me know?

I will start putting something together today for the next two weeks.

It’s been a while since I use to build them however it’s worth the re-visit.

If you respect a few of the nuances you can make a nice board.

Kind regards,

surfding

I love XPS. Oldest board is 1,5 years old, heavily dinged from river surfing but no delamination at all and I never had to do a ding repair :slight_smile: I would never ever work with anything else as long as I’m just building for myself.

 

Looking forward to your build thread, hopefully I can learn a few new things about this stuff.

I shaped about a dozen boards in Javier’s XPS about 10 years ago.  His shop glassed most of them except for 2.  The two I glassed - using West Systems resin - both got fisheyes 'cause I didn’t know any better.  Easy fix but I was annoyed.  I was working with the foam both before and after he started his thermovents.   As far as I could tell those vents didn’t make a difference.  With his foam the boards would hold up well indefinitely so long as we didn’t allow them to overheat.  General rule of tumb at the time was to not let the board get hotter than what would melt the wax on the deck.  In SoCal that means keeping the board in a light colored boardbag and don’t leave it out in the sun - not that difficult.  

I don’t remember that any of those boards actually failed, except that most of them did eventually get left out in the sun by careless kids.   My kids outgrew a couple of them, I sold one used, handing one off to a nephew who still swears by it despite a delam on the rails, and my friend still has the 6-10 I did for him 9 years ago - very surfable, albeit with a couple ding repairs.  

 

I wouldn’t mind shaping in XPS again if I could get foam (Javier stopped selling to backyarders years ago) and I could learn how to laminate it better.  

gdaddy nice story!

I really don’t understand why everyone try’s to be so secretive about surfboards?

Puzzling!

I can see a high tech gadget however a surfboard?

Is is some kind of EGO disorder?

Enough Ranting:

I always glassed them without the thermovents that Javier would do. (His deal)

I would just leave them finished with 60 grit KILNSPORE and not screen them.

Glass the bottom first and wait twenty four hours before laming the deck.

It was when shops would rush they struggled with them knocking down bubbles.

Also the only ones that failed were left in a truck with a shell that would get like an oven in mid summer.

Keep them cool and out of the sun.

However temperamental they may be they ride unreal.

(Still need the correct shape and the matching talent)

It will be a fun project to fill in the time .

In another month it gets busy so need to get on it.

 

Kind regards,

surfding

I just checked the XTR surfoard site. Sounds like they have some interesting stuff going on?

hey ding

Howsit goin?

hope you are well and buisness good.

I did one board out of xps (the blue spongy foam) the blank was cnc'd with some burn/melt area's and no stringer

Brendon from HDX gave it to me to salvage, of which I was able to do.

Glassed it up with rr epoxy and 4oz glass, probox'd thrusters

I think it came out as a 5.6

left it sand finish and it weighed about nothing.

sold it for 200 bucks.

at first the guy said it sucked, he rode it once in mush said the rails would sink,,, Duh!

I told him to try it in some juice,,,

next ride report was that it ripped and was the best 200 bucks he ever spent

 

making a few boards and some templates ,,, just having fun

 

Peace

K

I had no problems glassing it

Thanks for the info S'Ding, How does the ride compare to poly or eps? Is it considered "floatier" Also, how about graphics or colors?

Thanks Heaps.

Hi Ken:

It was Brendan and his group of friends that first mastered xps down in the HB Surf Ghetto.

I have a few tricks I do to prevent melting.

You have to speed up the feed rates and slow down the RPMS on the spindle speed.

Been doing well this winter.

Much better than the last few years.

Hope all is well with you!

Raise your prices on the XPS builds $500 is standard $200?

I don't know how you do it?

Come by some time and teach me how you do it?

Kind regards,

surfding

tblank  just make them the same.

They do ride different.

More lively and just they glide bit better.

My son say's that when you do floaters you land harder and your ankles hurt where PU seems to have  better dampening.

You do gain a few more feet of slide on a floater.

It could be because of the weight?

4.65 pounds was the finish weight on a 6'0" x 18.25" x 2.25"

5.15 pounds was the finish weight the same shape in PU

Both boards wrote well just the XPS was a bit more lively.

This was 6 years ago.

Need to revisit this test.

Hope this helps?

Kind regards,

surfding

Hi dean:

XTR has a very sucessful business for sure!

Kind regards,

surfding

Thanks S'Ding.

I don’t think XTR sells blanks to hobbyist do they?  I’d like to try and make one some time.  The XTR boards from Marty Allen I see around here are nice.  I did a fin repair for a big heavy footed guy on one of the Allen boards.  His board held up really well.  Surfed hard for several years.

Surfding,  Is there a bigger picture I can see of the Dorado on your avatar?  Mike

hey ya Ding

If I ever do another one I wouldnt sell it so cheap. that guy that I sold it to had me make several other boards for him and the xps board was very inexpensive for me to make. as the blank was free and the shape was basicly done, just had to clean it up, all I payed for was fins and boxs. the epoxy was leftovers from another build so I didnt realy loose on the deal.

 

glad things are good on your end ,,, Ya, I need to come by and introduce myself someday.

peace

Ken

Surfding I made the same experience your son made. After a long and aggressive surf sessions doing airs and having lots of impacts my ankles hurt a bit more than with a regular board.

And the weight is also crazy. I even think of a heavier lamination to get more weight! Doing airs my board easily flys away too far from my feet. That didn’t happen on other boards. But just the feeling of this lightweight board under the arm and surfing it is amazing.