Driving over my wakesurf

[Surfdad]

There is a new fabric being touted as incredibly stiff and strong for making wakesurfs. To demonstrate it's durability the folks drive over a board laminated with the stuff in a Nissan Pathfinder.

http://www.innegrity.com/surfboard/index.htm

ANYTHING that potentially involves destruction of a board piques my curisoity, so I had to try it for myself.

[da.bell]

Wow, wonder how much that board weighs. They probably should be using that product on other stuff like boats in stead of gelcoat

[KonaKing]

Ok SD to be really fair we need to test with one of these.

[Surfdad]

LOL! I wish I HAD one of those Kona!

[Fast1911]

that's pretty strong stuff sir

[yearroundboarder]

I'm sure this is good cloth, but most of the stiffness probably comes from the Epoxy Resin. There is a HUGE difference betweeen Epoxy and Polyester Resins both in cost and performance.

[Surfdad]

No argument that epoxy is a more robust resin than polyester, but that doesn't define break strength. I did some additional tests with my boat and trailer, but the biggest thing here is load dispersion.

This is a 4/4 x 4 Polyurethane core with polyester resin and in the test with the car - there is no damage. The video taped "test" of proof of the strength of the fabric is really misleading.

The PuPe under the car.

[Surfdad]

Epoxy is still a medium soft plastic and doesn't impart all that much additional stiffness or strength in the very thin layers we are using on a board over and above polyester, but it does last ,uch longer in terms of "flex cycyles". In the tests here though, break strength really comes from the ability of the board to flex under the load of the car and then return to it's normal shape, so stiffness didn't equal strength here.

The folks in that video did a few things that I felt were hugely misleading. The first is the orientation of the board. Running length wise and upside down allowed the weight to be distributed the full length of the board and the flex of the rocker allowed that load to be distributed slowly and pretty evenly. That orientation allowed the PuPe board to fair just as well.

[Surfdad]

To really test the comparison between PuPe and in this case it's a composite sandwich not that Innegra S fabric (sorry for confusiong anyone), I laid the board right side up and perpendicular to the tires and then I ran both boards over with my tige I estimated that my boat and trailer weighs 5,300 bounds, about double the car.

The PuPe is destroyed, while the sandwich surfvived, but the rocks in my driveway punctured two holes in the board.

[KonaKing]

Maybe its time to try explosive.

[Surfdad]

The biggest contributor to the "strength" video is the orientation of the board in relation to the car rolling over it rather than the "claimed" strength of the fabric or the matrix of the fabric and epoxy, IMO.

[Surfdad]

LOL Kona, I still want that Monster Truck!

[da.bell]

Your Tige weighs more than that monster truck.

So, how many more sticks are you planning to "test"?

[Surfdad]

LOL! I'm done running boards over, but it was great fun!