Heavy Glass, Man

From what I understand, multiple layers of glass make a stronger lamination than a single layer of thicker fiber glass.  So you might want to do 2 layers of 6 oz glass over 1 layer 12oz...

When you say 12 on the bottom and 18 top, do you really mean double 6 and triple 6?

I've never heard of E glass in 12 and 18 oz weights.

Good for you. Especially on a longboard. Once opon a time, I had a whole fleet of rental boards, glassed top and bottom with double 10 oz. And you know, a lot of 'em are still around today, well nigh 40 years later.

 Or when you drop it taking it out of the car, or in the doorframe coming out of the house, etc. Again, too few people think about that. My own boards are glassed lighter...and they're kneeboards.... but I'm near-religious about keeping them in padded board bags when they are not actually in the water. And even then, I go with the heaviest glass the maker offers.

Again, good for you. Thinking ahead isn't something a lot of people do. I was a ding repair guy for a long time, and most of the dings I saw were what I called 'garage dings', what happened when somebody was a little careless. Or the consequences of having a few of those and neglecting them.

 Haaaaa - well, like I said, I'm a board bag fanatic. But I suspect I am the exception rather than the rule. The people who think they are good at babying their stuff ...usually ain't.

 Yeah, well..... he's going with what are 'industry standards' these days. Which means boards that get stomped to death in short order, delammed before their time and busted often if it gets any size to it.

 Okay, I'm the antichrist here, maybe, but I would go with hotcoat/sanding coat and gloss. How come? Well, you might have less chance of getting a pinhole in the one coat, which in turn leads to a wee bit of water leakage, brown foam freckles and what have you. A few ounces, but it adds a little peace of mind at the very least.

 Like you say, anything beyond 4 oz bottom, 6+4 deck seems to be called heavy. And...that's dumb. Or it's diabolically smart.

 Heh- carve it out of a solid wood beam?

Seriously, though, 'durable' is something the mainstream biz has abandoned. Light foam, light glassed boards are what they push, on account of how if a board lasts a long time it's going to be a long time before they sell another one. Dunno if that's an oversight or the 'diabolically smart' thing I mentioned above.

This is why the various molded boards from Asia are selling well, they hold up compared to what else is on the market.

The industry, again, is pushing 'lightweight boards, just like the pros use'...and while a pro can happily use up a board a week, you and I can't. We don't get our boards free. What little performance advantage there may be- and I'd question that, especially in a longboard , well, maybe a few pros can use it, but 99% of us will never notice it except when carrying it or replacing it. And...you gotta stomp a longboard to turn it, light or heavy. It's a freakin' longboard, after all. If you have light glass, you will stomp it to death in short order. heavy glass, well, you'll have it a while.

Are there ways to make a board stronger that don't only use heavier glass? Sure there are, including layers of heavier foam over top of your basic blank, which are sandwiched between a couple layers of glass, vaccum bagged and what have you. There are some weight advantages, yes. Not major weight advantages unless you have the underlying foam extra-extra light, though. Which in turn has it's own set of tradeoffs.

But, hey, you're using a simple shaped foam blank with plain old glass over it. Nothing wrong with that at all. You can do things like certain rail contours that you can't do easily otherwise. You don't need to vaccum bag it, a whole list of other things you don't have to do and a whole list of things that can go wrong that you don't have to worry about. Stick with what you're doing. 

And, we are talking about a longboard here. What's the extra weight, 5-10 lbs? If you had a large lunch before you went surfing, that'd be nearly the same. How about wetsuit weight. Or, in my case, that spare tire I seem to have these days. Getting rid of that would make far more difference than a lousy few pounds of board.

Keep up the good work, man.

I, for one, would far rather see something like this question than the ones I see of 'I made my ultralight longboard, now why is it delaminating?' or 'Why do I have these stress cracks?' or 'why did my board break?'. Those are questions with a simple answer.....

...and you've found it.

doc...

hey i just got done with a retro fish on 1.7 EPS blank i glassed it real heavy ( think to much ) 3x 6 on deck and 1x 4 + 1x6 on bottom and heavy hot coats. board feels soild as but has got a bit heavy than would like, but i surf on a rocky point break and had the same thoughs as you, slippery rocks make good battle scares!!

cheers antony

Exactly, and it's not all that surprising how many are still around, even with a lot of neglect over the years.

The first real light-glassed board I ever saw was a Weber Ski with single 10 oz top and bottom, The deck wasn't hotcoated, though it may have had a deck patch. It was Nat Young's factory special, which wound up here after a factory team tour of the East Coast.

And it broke, not all that long after, which surprised nobody.

I find myself asking, why is it that a surfboard costs pretty much the same two weeks pay for a kid pumping gas as it did back then...if not more...., how come it doesn't last nearly as long?  I'm not a big fan of retro-everything, but maybe this is a step back that's worthwhile.

doc...