Mook...
Coil's really are the way to go. Once I got my first board from them that had the volume on it, every board I ordered from them was based around that volume, and playing with it on subsequent boards. I have a starting length/ width/ thickness in mind, and then tweak it around the volume. Firewire has caught on and puts the volumes of their boards on their website.
Volume is tricky. Boards with identical volume can paddle and perform completely differently if the foil is changed... if template is changed... if bottom contours are changed... etc. Volume is displacement and displacement is buoyancy. Buoyancy is important, but only gets you so far. It matters most when your just sitting on your board... less when you're paddling... and even less when you're up and planing. A thicker board that has it's volume along the stringer, with thin rails, will perform completely differently than a thinner board with a flat deck and full rails. A lower volume board with flat entry can paddle better than a higher volume board with a lot of entry rocker and a wide nose. Add some vee in that same entry and you have another variable. Take it out in choppy conditions and glassy conditions and you change it up again.
It's all relative, Mook... Buoyancy matters, but don't take it out of the context of all the other elements of design. Volume numbers are not a gimmick... they can help yo dial in a board that will be good for you, and gives you something to compare. But a keen eye for curves and foil, and good groping, will tell you a lot more... IMO.
i've been wondering about volume lately as well, & following this thread w/ great interest. i went through my quiver last night & plugged the dims into this calculation & whether it's a reasonable approximation of volume or not, it at least showed me that my boards are proportional to each other, & i even used it on the dims of a board i've been looking at, & it gave me an idea of how it would possibly float me (well, apparently...which sucks, b/c i was kind of looking for an excuse NOT to buy another board). all my boards came out around 1.1+/- 0.02. i didn't bother w/ my log...it's prob. up around 2.0 or something.Originally Posted by JTS
i'm definitely going to remember this little formula...very useful guide.
wheeew!!! Thats what im talkin' 'bout right der!
yup that's basically my point. I just want to know (judging on what boards I already own) what the smallest board can float me. It takes a lot of guesswork out of a 700$ investment with an added piece of calculation.
So, according to JTS's post, if i'm 190 and interested in a shortboard, then I could go as low as a roughly 1.0 cu. ft. . All I need to do is backward calculate and get an initial number in liters and compare that to whats out there. Very cool!!!
so for example, a CI MBM+ S2 is 6'2x18.5/8x2.3/8 = .97 cu ft. If I am 190lbs and .5 cu ft = 100lbs, then this board is roughly the lowest volume shortboard i can go. I'm a fat bastiod!!!
Last edited by DaMook; Apr 7, 2011 at 04:21 PM.
what do Coil's cost off the rack?
Mike Daniels at Coil can give you the exact #.
Ballpark is about $ 700 which includes delivery.
They stay pretty busy so 8-12 weeks lead time is pretty standard.
JN
Standard shortboard is gonna run you $700 shipped to your door. They are not really available off the rack up here other than No Flat Earth in Brick. Coil is located in Florida. The head shaper is Mike Daniel who learned to shape as a student of Jim "The Genius" Phillips. Mike used to shape for WRV and is probably in the top 5 on the East Coast. The other shaper is Kirk Brasington, who along with his brother Eric developed the Coil glassing technology, which is a combination of proprietary fibers and vacuum bagging to obtain a board that weighs no more than a standard high performance poly, but provides significant strength and flex benefits over poly. They are more durable, never yellow, and last longer than poly. 100% hand made in the US. Custom built to order. There is a 256 page thread over at Swaylocks with tons of stoked riders.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/coil-ride-reports
Most guys who buy one, end up selling their whole quiver to build a full Coil quiver. You pay around what you would pay for a new Merrick, but you get a board that will easily last twice as long. They use a stringerless blank that allows the board to flex and respond more lively than a standard stringered board. The high fiber glass job is strong enough to allow for the flex, but flexible enough to snap back quicker than a poly. In my opinion they have solved the corky issues associated with Firewires and Surftechs.
Da Mook should consider Coil. But I better not turn this into a Coil thread, so PM me if you have any questions.
in regards to Coils, are they EPS? is it epoxy laminate? Vacuum lamination sounds like expensive ding repairs. This true?
Coil are EPS core epoxy vacuum laminate, but NOT AT ALL like a Surftech. No more expensive to fix than a standard poly or epoxy hand laminate. If someone is charging you more, it's because they are lying to you or don't know what they are doing. I had a small rail shatter once through the finish layer. Laminate was still water tight. Easy fix with a little epoxy and some cloth to seal up the cracks.
Quite honestly I have seen VERY few Coils in need of serious repair. Most I see spider cracks on a hit that usually would be a major ding in traditional construction or I've seen a couple snapped boards that were well used and put into heavy conditions. Coils seem to be very immune to the standard dings.
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