Surfing Waves

Has anyone tried to make their board into a soft top, or seen any thread or site where they do it?

I have a board that I kind off just use at the shorebreak and would like it to be soft so its less likely to hurt myself or anyone else. Also I just got it to challenge myself for fun to paddle and surf it. It is tiny volume and I wouldn't mind the extra centeliters a layer of foam would give.

Might post a pic of it later but here are the dimensions:
5'5" x 18" x 2 1/6 " -- 21.5 liter

Maybe I could just get a roll of eva foam, cut it, glue it on and cut neatly by the rails? Problem here seems to be get it neat enough? I have seen on other soft tops that they have the foam to create a sharp edge towards the bottom, but since the rails are round it's har to visualize how it would be on my board if I put foam all the way around the rails. Maybe try to put a layer of glass on the bottom afterwards to make it transition from the bottom to the foamy rail nicely? I have no experience with glassing though so probably wont happen.

Also note that this board has already seen its best days, so I don't really care about it, just want to experiment with it.

What to look for when buying the EVA foam? Are they all waterproof? Thickness? Thinking 2-5 mm something. What is a strong glue (and cheap, would use a lot to cover the whole top).

DrDangerous wrote:Maybe try to put a layer of glass on the bottom afterwards to make it transition from the bottom to the foamy rail nicely? I have no experience with glassing though so probably wont happen.

So the purpose of putting on the EVA foam layer is to make surfing beach break, for you and others, safer. But consider, that safety-ness comes from the foam being soft and flexible. If you laminate a final layer of fiberglass capping over the top, is that layer hard and rigid ?

Sorry if that wasn't clear. I understand you want to wrap the foam from the top deck around the rail and end it below, then cap that edge with a fiberglass layer.

waikikikichan wrote:Sorry if that wasn't clear. I understand you want to wrap the foam from the top deck around the rail and end it below, then cap that edge with a fiberglass layer.

Thanks for clarifying, I was just going to say that I won't glass over the foam.
Just to clarify from my part too - I want to make it safer, not necesarily perfectly safe.

You did write that you wanted to have a foam wrap around to the bottom and then have fiberglass to make a transition for an nicer edge.
For most Soft tops, the foam rail caps over the hard bottom.
I’m thinking if you squeeze the rail hard enough on a grab rail ( or just from use / flex ) that the fiberglass will lift of the foam creating a thin sharp sheet that will slice your hand.

But hey he is DrDangerous!

The dude in this video reshapes his classic Wavestowm into shortboard and it might have some ideas about converting yours into a soft top. He re-used the same deck skin etc, for the modified board. Might not be a bad idea if you can find a broken Wavestorm to harvest the skins. Sounds like a lot of work though