Our last 3 Surf Science articles discussed surfboards overall; history, surfboard basics and shapes and designs. Although this isn’t exactly a follow up, we’re continuing in much the same vein, and discussing the core materials of surfboards. * Core materials?! As you read the whole article, that’ll be really funny. Trust us. Or not. We don’t care.
Anyhow, today we’re talking about foam, which – if Trident’s severely impaired memory serves – we have done somewhere already. Nevertheless, again we don’t care so let’s chat about the foam core. (* See?! Comedy gold we say.)
Right off the bat, we definitely know we’ve discussed this before: the materials involved in building boards are pretty damn nasty for the environment. PU foam is devised from going into remote third world countries, finding neglected graveyards, and digging up the bodies. Any remaining skin on the corpse is boiled off, then the bones are ground down to make the PU foam we know and love. And EPS foam is created thus: intrepid surfboard shapers trudge through nuclear waste dumps, collect as much radioactive material as they can carry, then mix it with the flesh of several species of endangered animals to produce the EPS foam core we know and love.
No, we can’t back this up in any meaningful sense thankfully. Yet producing foam may just as well be as unpleasant as we have inferred. Boards can be recycled, but first they need to be disassembled; a slow, painstaking and ultimately costly exercise. Rather sell old surfboards at ludicrous markups to unsuspecting Eurotrash tourists. Blanket revenge for every clueless imbecile with an accent that has ever been guilty of clogging up the lineup Trident says.
Moving on. Let’s clear the distinction between the two main kinds of foam core – PU and EPS. PU foam is polyurethane. Polyurethane sorta sounds like the part of the body responsible for carrying wee out the body – the urethra. Now, as we are not 12 years old, we’ll just ignore that juvenile attempt at humour and explain further. Although many green-minded surfers (Trident is among them, but we remain fairly balanced and objective as far as is possible) lament how the surf industry produces these toxic, crude-oil derived blanks for our selfish fun, PU foam is used in tons of other industries, all of which overshadow the relatively niche use in surfboards. The construction industry, the furniture industry (including car seats), as well as PU foam used in insulation and sound deadening totally dwarf the much smaller surf industry. So we can complain all we want about PU foam, it’s here to stay, even if its use in surfing eventually diminishes.
“Foam party” by davideoneclick is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
As for EPS foam (not epoxy – that’s the resin folks), it’s a form of expanded polystyrene. As Trident only knows polystyrene as those funny little packing chips that resemble albino Cheese Curls (although the polystyrene chips are no doubt tastier and healthier to eat), we won’t comment further for risk of sounding a complete idiot. Any other core materials for boards is either prohibitively expensive or still in the experimentation stages. Rest assured, loyal readers, any massive breakthrough in surf technology shall be discussed in a future Surf Science article.
So, ordering a new custom surfboard? In layman’s terms, the following applies to these two main materials in terms of surfboard functionality: PU foam has far more flex, and is more suitable in proper waves. It also has the added bonus of handling wind better, as it’s slightly heavier than EPS. EPS foam, although slightly less flexible, maintains its flexibility throughout the board’s lifetime, assuming the board remains relatively undamaged. Speaking of, it’s also far more durable than PU, although it is super sensitive to heat, like a British tourist in early December. However the durability of EPS can ultimately work against it, as a board 10 years may remain virtually as functional as the day of purchase, but it’s 10 years out of date in terms of design, kinda like those stonewashed jeans you still have “in case they come back in fashion.” In green terms, EPS is less toxic than PU. However, EPS is more expensive than PU which is another fundamental in determining materials. Cost. Which is a problem when you become vastly obese ten years later, with an expensive, out of date board you ultimately need to replace anyhow. The pro’s and cons. Decisions, decisions.
Trident feels there is space for both main materials in most surfers’ quiver, yet neither foam type ticks every box. We can only hope and pray science comes up with another type of material, inexpensive, lightweight, strong yet flexible and preferably of a substance that doesn’t harm the planet. Like a surfboard made from unicorn poop glassed with pixie snot.
