External lamination of the LSS Wakesurf board

You’ll remember that we wakesurfed the LSS Wakesurf board without any external lamination, in an effort to demonstrate the rigidity and ruggedness of the new LSS wakesurf board construction technique. One of the features of the LSS wakesurf board construction is that it’s closed cell and so doesn’t “take on water”. A very common problem with old school EPS construction. EPS is open cell foam and will take on water, if dinged and not properly cared for. We wanted to show: Who Cares?! Right? Ding, shming, we’ll ride the LSS wakesurf board without anything on the outside. Also, this construction is so stiff, it can be ridden without any external lamination. Virtually all other wakesurf boards are 100% dependent on the external lamination to do two things: prevent water from getting into the foam and provide adequate rigidity to actually be able to ride the core.

Kiss those reasons goodbye! Plus, the LSS wakesurf board construction, since it is so stiff and strong without external lamination and is waterproof so doesn’t actually require external lamination, it will allow us to design and build boards that progress towards LIGHTER, STIFFER and SHORTER. The benefit to you, is you’ll ride better!

Ok, got that out…it’s not advertising! It’s transfer of information! We rode the LSS wakesurf board and laminated the bottom on Thursday night. That stupid work thing gets in the way, so we couldn’t laminate it Wednesday night, but we are reasonably certain that no other core, currently available could be wakesurfed on one day and laminated the next. AND when we say wakesurfed, we mean actually ridden. Divinycell is closed cell, but is floppy as all get out by itself. You couldn’t effectively do an ollie 3 on a 5/8″ thick piece of H80 Divinycell. So we want to show the external lamination and also talk about a shift in the engineering of this LSS wakesurf board core.

Because we had already installed the fin boxes, so that we could wakesurf the unlaminated core, we have to tape off all of the holes and slots, so that the resin doesn’t interfer. Now we should also mention that the LSS is impervious to styrene, so isn’t limited to ONLY epoxy resin for the external lamination. Polyester and Vinylester, as well as, epoxy can readily be used. Polyester is a significantly stiffer resin that Epoxy, especially when used with fiberglass in a matrix. It opens up considerably more options and lends more paths on our road to LSS!

We have cut and tacked down the edges using 4 oz S glass, but we want to bring this point out. That’s WAY overkill. We’ve put the strength and stiffness inside away from harms way. So the external lamination becomes a place to hold graphics! We could have very easily used 1 oz fiberglass, or quite frankly no fiberglass at all and just a shrinkwraped polyethelene. But also, maybe you want a ridiculously strong and rugged wakesurf board, wrap it in 6 oz, it will be only slightly heavier and crazy stiff. The possibilities here are ENDLESS. You see, old school construction techniques rely on the external lamination and what do we say about that? Who Cares! There just isn’t any need to follow that old and tired formula for construction.

On to the lamination! The core doesn’t absorb water, so we can wakesurf it and then laminate it. Need any more proof that it doesn’t take on water? We’re doing a resin swirl, so we’ll pull the lamination down dry and tight and as you can see, we’re doing it by hand, no need to specialized vacuum bagging techniques, although that can be done too!

…and the secondary color application. The correct response frm our loyal readership is WOW!

Two more shots, just to show that there is a weave in the fiberglass, some resin and amazing artwork! Ok, we’ll at least the first two items are present.

Nice right? Plus, you can clearly see we’ve added the external fiberglass, it wasn’t there before.

Now not only does this construction offer up a ton of resin alternatives, but it also allows for resin infusion of the external lamination. Lower density EPS foams are too soft and pliable for resin infusion. With those higher pressures, the underlying foam would crush, ruining the wakesurf board. This LSS construction doesn’t have that issue. You saw how strong and stiff it was, so a super tight, thin and strong exernal lamination using resin infusion is easily possible, without a MOLD!!! We’ll talk more about the possibilites that are available with resin infusion and why it’s tough with existing wakesurf board construction.

Thanks so much for folllwoing along, we really appreciate it. As you can see, we are pioneering some radical changes in wakesurf board construction and opening lots of new doors for wakesurf board construction. We have a full schedule of test builds slated for this winter and we hope you’ll visit often as we start exploiting the various configurations using this new technology! While others are still using old school tired techniques, we are bringing you new techniques, materials and options. We are the leaders in wakesurf board Research and Development! and that, we believe, brings you exciting new technologies (yes it is! work with us here! ) like this LSS wakesurf board construction.

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