As I think about whether or not I should salvage my homemade wood pumpboard I figured why not look into other options. I’ve heard that a homemade wood board just can’t match the stiffness of a production carbon board. That makes sense but since I have only ever used my homemade board I don’t know how big the difference is. Would anyone be able to give me an idea of what I’m getting if I decide to upgrade? Is making a homemade board with a wood core and carbon laminate a good compromise?
For reference, I’m not very good. If I get to a minute of pumping I’m super excited. It’s happened a couple times but usually I mess up and hit the water and can’t recover. Perhaps that’s because my homemade board is 5.2 kg.
I doubt it is because of the wood. The weight wouldn’t make you mess up and fall, just require a little more energy to pump (not a “game changer”, but noticeable). It is slightly possible that board stiffness can make it harder to control a big foil. But the biggest issue is probably stiffness to transfer pumping energy from your front foot to the foil mast.
You should think about using carbon and lightweight core material (foam or honeycomb) as a way to make a lightweight stiff board. But wood and fiberglass could make a perfectly suitable stiffness board - you’ll just need more of it and maybe a thicker core to get the stiffness you want. And therefore, it’ll be heavier.
Here’s my wood plus carbon compromise. I like having the plywood deck and stringer as my glassing skills suck and it means I can bolt through the deck (and not mess about with foil boxes).
Some added foam for buoyancy and a carbon strip top and bottom for stiffness. Total weight 3kgs (versus 4.5 for my previous full plywood board).
I like that design. This is what I have been messing with lately. I’m just trying to decide how much more excess wood I want to get rid of before I glue the deck on. It’s all plywood. I was seeing what I could do with what I had in the garage. The solid part in the front is because my son really wants a handlebar on it
I don’t think I would have ever learned to Dockstart without using a handlebar. Especially post hip surgery. And it gave my son the courage to try last weekend. Which is even more awesome.
Others may know better, but I just looked at the average length of the scootfoils online and then chopped off the nose of my board accordingly and added two tracks to screw the bars onto.
The height of the bars in relation to user height may affect that as well.
I’ll try to remember to get pics when I get home from work, but in case I forget I’ll try to describe it. I got lucky and was able to order a prototype bar from Roam Foils. Their bar is made to attach to foil tracks just like a mast does. So, I took a fin box, cut it in half, and then routed out some space for them in my board.
I am pretty sure it’s the same concept as the Foilscoot and Takoon’s Scoot pump. So any pics on those websites should help.
