some of my mates have been buy new boards from the bigger name brands
and they seem very heavy,is ths just to keep them strong or just to make them plane better.
The extra momentum helps to plane over all the speedbumps trying to get out the back at snapper on a 6ft sunday
I make my own boards and had to add extra layers of glass to handle the impacts you don't get so often when surfing. Evenso have snapped my board three times. It's now getting fair heavy but the kite's power handles it no drama
so when you're flying out to sea and punch straight into that almost broken wave at mach 10 you don't fold the nose off to board up into your face.
Hey Spot1,
It's purely a durability thing. If it was as light as a surfboard, it would break within a week.
Or if you ride like me, on your first massive smack! 
I still managed to fold the nose of some of the boards I have had over the years from smacking pitching lips.
A poly board will do the job, but not for as long as a dedicated Kite surfy.
Cheers,
KH
I got sick of snapping surftechs , but I am 90kgs.
I think the extra weight is worth it.
Think about it......when you kite you actually spend more time standing on the board in one session than you would in a year of surfing
Bought a naish Global 6'0 quad last year.
Heavy, but a wicked board. Still had heel cracks in the deck after 3m of almost daily wave riding in WA conditions. This Despite a really heavy glass and divinylcell sandwich.
This year got the new model on warranty [Thanks Naish australia] its a bit lighter and the first thing I did was put double heavy duty carbon patches under the heel stress points fore and aft. Carbon is good because it stiff enough to spread the load of the heel......and hopefully by using oval patches it wont cause point loading stress when the board flexes which could cause breakage.
Despite the extra build-weight i still managed to put my knee through the nose in a wipeout on Tuesday night.
Taking this a bit off topic, but a related question.
How does the sidecut of the a surfboarf affect your ability to plane/go upwind?
The reason is, I have a 6'3 board which is very wide (21") and also quite thick. I'm a tall guy and 85kg so this made sense for me, as the extra volume would be able to handle my extra weight. Issue is, that I seem to struggle staying upwind when compared to the crappy old surfboards I used to use kiting that were not nearly as wide (therfore without such a big side cut) and also a lot thinner.
My current thoughts are that the thickness of the board would help with boyancy, but restricts by ability to hold an edge. I thought these would cancel each other out.
Regarding the sidecut, I'm wondering if having a more drastic sidecut reduces the amount of effective edge in the water substantially, and therefore restricts upwind ability? i.e. because for every cm of effective edge, there is more surface area of the board in the water due to the longer distance between the stringer line and the edge (when compared with a narrower board). Due to the extra boyancy from this extra volume, you therefore can't engage as much effective edge as you would with a narrower board.
Thoughts?
if you are a big rider in the 90kg to 120kg range and land flat the boards may be able to handle it ???
i know my thin popstick board could not handle it
The new ones are nowhere near as bad as the first ones... Back in like 06-07 the yellow Slingshot SRT's and Liquid Force surfboards were ridiculously heavy...
Now for 2010 it's hard to tell the difference between the premium brand kite surfboards (Like the new Slingshot's) and some of the mediocre or cheap surfboards out there...
Yeah it was at night all right but I was still on the water,=.
Thanks to all the farmers who killed daylight saving over here, dusk at scarbs is still full of bobbing kites of the after-work crew getting every last wave by the fading glimmer of light from the Western Horizon
Warren Cornish the guy who has always made my surfboards and now my kiteboards and pretty much eveybody elses in this area makes them strong and light and they all get worked real hard,he uses either polystyrene blank /epoxy resin or polyurethane/epoxy or polyurethane/polyester resin combo's, 6ounce glass lapping the rails both ways is the key, most boards break from the rail in not from the stringer out, polyurethane blank/epoxy resin is prob the strongest combo,my boards are a polyurethane super super light blank/epoxy, have only one layer 4ounce bottom and 1x4 1x6 on deck and full lap on rails both ways,and they hold up very well,even tho im not that heavy i still punish my boards, but Mick one of the guys here who def isnt light,about 85kg (and a few others that are around 90-95kg) absolutely punishes his boards at lennox,and they hold up.
mmm epoxy boards ? just had a good weekend down augusta and have taken too the surfboard like a duck to water,but after learning how hard i can now hit the pitching lip, i kept doing it all day only to find at the end of the day when i wiped my board clean to find both rails cracked open and the nose of the board crushed and busted open,the said board is 1 week old and been in the water twice..........not happy....... anyone suggest a strong board for an 87kg duck
I used to snap a board every month or more often - Obvioulsy i was searching hard for a stronger board. That was in 2007. Im still riding what i found. It suits me for all conditions, - light wind unstrapped, strapped medium or full speed mega waves. Its outline is loose and it goes upwind really well. Yes its heavy. But I'm happy with my purchase in 2007. I ride it 3 or 4 times a week on average. It must have done 500 hours of wave slicing for me. Its tried and tested and i dont need to research or wonder if the hype from the big brands is true. ive seen so many SRTs broken. Theyre a waste of money.
Everyone else who I know who rides my board is also stoked on its performance and durablity. for there is no question of which board?
Litewave Surf Quad.
Here's a pic of my board a couple of days after i got it in 2007 - its still going STRONG. Sorry about the pimpy logos, its my Enews banner and the original is on my work computer - not here now.
Try the new Airush converse boards , surfboard weight -kiteboard strength . They are epoxy and have an aluminium T stringer in the front half of the board . Good strength whilst still giving the normal flex of a surfboard.
Generally epoxy surfboards are not designed to withstand impacts of any kind , the Airush boards have been laid up very differently and are definetly stronger .
That is also the only reason why they are more expensive .
I started on tufflites and these boards are so much more durable.
I am 85 kg and have got the new 6'4" and am super impressed with it .
Pretty sure Airborne have some demos , they range from 5'10" - 6'4"
