Splitboard.com Forums

Guys
I have seen these bad boys in person and they look awesome!

There's one or two in the pipeline for me!
Carbon it think will be first off the rank!

Stay tuned for BobGnarlys Swallowtail Show

Wow those are gorgeous sticks, and a proper swallowtail design no less!

looks GR8 BOB!!
Where you going to ride it ??

Shiribetsu Dake. These are pics I took last year.

Hoping for some opinions on an idea i have,

I have an old Voile ST that is a little soft in the flex, has anyone put a layer on fiberglass over the existing topsheet to stiffen the flex profile? Not familiar with fiberglass, would the resin even stick to a scuffed/preped topsheet? Would I have to put another layer ontop of the fiberglass to get the protective quality of a polyethelene/plastic topsheet?

Any thoughts?

Its a ghetto idea but it may work. I would use timber veneer instead of fibreglass, scuff the crap out of the top sheet, wet it up and then lay a relatively thick veneer on top and try to press it down with a 3mm sheet of plastic or something with weights on the back of it.
The extra laminate layer will add stiffness for sure. Getting the thing pressed evenly will be your biggest issue.

I saw that somebody over on skibuilders.com did this to a ski. Cept they ripped the top sheet completely off and resanded the top of the core and pressed a new top sheet and fiber glass. Isn't there only one side of a top sheet that is treated for bonding? You may have to flame the top sheet first to get proper bonding. But I'm not totally sure.

I assumed he does not have a press and molds to suit the board.

Here's an even weirder idea to stiffen up a noodle board: sand the topsheet through to the glass and resin, then add an upside down u shaped piece of hickory or maple or poplar. Poplar should be easy to find at the depot and lighter, the other hardwoods are just burly wood that will stiffen a lot by themselves. I would secure the board to a flat table or even shape it into a bit of rocker before laminating the deck to not lock the board into camber so its playful in dry snow at moderate speeds. I'm thinking like a shallow, curved hump in profile maybe an inch and a half wide and a half inch thick, faired out on the sides so fiberglass will wrap down onto the deck of the board. attach with epoxy to the deck up to the front foot and behind the back, then add a 3 inch or so wide strip of glass over that. From there give it a cool new custom paint job!

The profile of the strip on the deck will add a lot more stiffness than just another layer of glass compressing on the top side of the board. Use heat cured resin at room temp, then when it sets a little give it some attention with a hairdryer for an hour which should get the resin to link up stronger.

Don't bother with carbon or kevlar, in compression on the deck of the board glass is arguably stronger or the same as these fibers, its more about the bond strength to the deck preventing buckling.

look at the curved topsides of Black diamond skis or volkls for inspiration. or the arched topsides of superlight XC skis. flat paper flexes real easy, a sheet of paper with ridges folded into it is much stiffer with the same fibers. this is very true with laminated composites as well, changing the angle of the fibers against the flex, even a little adds a lot of stiffness

gradually diminish the wood ridge towards the bindings and add a couple of flat layers of glass under your bindings where the spine isn't to try to keep a round flex and not create a breaking point, although that's unlikely if you are not a flying squirrel cliff jumper.

On this note, I happened to be skiing at Brighton on Saturday and Ramp Sports was doing free demos. I didn't have my snowboard boots with me so I tested out some of their skis. I noticed a difference immediately. Very solid, damp feel. It felt like it could charge through any type of chop snow. Granted it was a hardpacked groomer day but I could tell it would do well in the deeper stuff. Chatter was almost non existent.

I chatted with the guys after testing out a few skis. For the construction they focus on bamboo cores and sidewalls only. For the damp feel and to reduce chatter they put kevlar underneath the core. This is because when the ski or snowboard is flexed, the kevlar is in tension. I know carbon fiber doesn't really help the chatter much. I'm taking a composites class right now at the U of U and it was mentioned the other day that kevlar is really bad in compression and has bad moisture absorption which can weaken it. I don't think that matters much for dry climates and may not matter if none of the fibers are exposed to the air after the lay-up.

Anyway, just something I heard so I thought I'd pass it along.

Here is my split in action. Shiribetsu dake Hokkaido