Surfing Waves

Hey fellas - bit of a horror scenario. Took my still fairly new EPS board to the beach in the back of the car, in a board bag (with reflective side up)), no waves so didn't surf. Came home and somehow forgot about my board in the back (had a lot on my mind).

Next day the car sits in the sun all day - in Mexico. Windows up. Not insanely hot this time of year, but still hot. Windows are tinted (its a Prius - yes...yes I'm a dick).

I farted round home all day, and headed out at 4.30pm - get in the car and see my board there, unmoved. fleshin' xxxxx. Car is hot as hell. I hurry the board inside, take it out of the board bag and its cooking. Wax melting and that (but the underside was face up).

I inspect it and it definitely feels softer. I think its fleshin' toast. But can't see any major bubbles. After it cooled down it seems back to normal. I de-waxed it to check more closely. Still no obvious delams, just the same pressure dents from before.

I was sure I was in for a total delam nightmare due to all the factors mentioned above: heat + time + lack of air moving around + an EPS board. Can anyone tell me - how is it that this didn't happen. Would a delam always be immediately apparent or do they sometimes take a while to come up? (Its been a few hours now and still nothing coming unstuck). I was 100% sure this thing was toast.

Cheers

Good to know, always worried about this.

I think the risk of delaminating from heat goes up if there has been some water soaked into the blank. Not sure if there will be lasting effects from that. But please tell us as I have never done that. I know some shapers used to put in a pressure relief valve on EPS foam boards. Have not seen that recently but really I don't see many boards

Yeah - I had a board with a valve once. This one definitely doesn't have one. I'm still struggling to believe this hasn't totally delam'd.

There are also certain closed cell epoxy like XTR that have tiny thermovents to help release heat/gases when the board starts to heat up. I have a second hand board that I thought was regular EPS until i noticed the XTR logo on the rail. But it sounds like yours is EPS open cell instead. Hopefully you dodged it

Naeco78 wrote:There are also certain closed cell epoxy like XTR that have tiny thermovents to help release heat/gases when the board starts to heat up. I have a second hand board that I thought was regular EPS until i noticed the XTR logo on the rail. But it sounds like yours is EPS open cell instead. Hopefully you dodged it

I certainly hope so. Mine seems to be regular closed cell EPS. I'm still struggling to fathom the fact it seems to have survived.

Boards are like babies. A lot tougher than we sometimes believe.

Geezer wrote:Boards are like babies. A lot tougher than we sometimes believe.

LOL okay but a baby would not have survived that experience

A friend (who owns and operates a surfboard company) said:

"New boards can tolerate higher temps. Not all EPS is the same. Not all EPS boards are constructed the same. It sounds like a super fused high density EPS. I’ve been seeing it at trade shows last few years - seen the first stuff 15 years ago, just takes time to filter through the industry.. Foam is amazing quality."

I guess the lesson here (might be) - get this kind of EPS. I actually had no idea it was a super-high-density EPS, but I guess it must be! I remember the shaper saying something about the foam, but I had no clue what he meant - I only specified an EPS board.

I left my epoxy torq and nsp surfboards on multiple occasions. The wax melts but no damage to the surfboards.