Surfing
My Homemade Aviso Surfboard - A Carbon Fiber Surfboard Story
When I first saw an advertisement for an Aviso carbon fiber surfboard I was immediately attracted to it. It supposedly offered all kinds of new technical performance characteristics that you don’t get with other boards. To be honest as a non-pro, everyday, run-of-the-mill surfer…all I cared about was that it was stronger and lighter than regular boards, and most of all stealthy looking; I mean really, how cool does an all black board look??!!!
My excitement was quickly extinguished when I saw the price tag associated with the Avisos. Now don’t get me wrong, if I could afford to spend a $1,000 (+) dollars for a surfboard I would buy one of theirs in a heartbeat…they put out a great product; but, unless I find an oil well or money tree in my backyard, I don’t see myself riding one anytime soon.
Knowing that an Aviso was out of my rate range, I started to do my homework to see if I could replicate one, or at least come close. Aviso produces a hollow board by making a top and bottom shell from a master mold and then they run carbon fiber tape down the seam to marry the two pieces together. They have a removable plug in the leash cup to drain the board in case it takes on water. Since I don’t have the molding capability I had to think about another way.
I finally came to the conclusion that I did not have the manufacturing capabilities to make a hollow carbon board and I would need to use a foam core. Still rather inexperienced in shaping at the time, I worked with another shaper to make sure the board was perfect and that would work great in small to medium surf. We shaped 6′4″ out of a standard poly blank and incorporated a more radical design than I was used to; it had more volume upfront and a winger type transition into a little swallow tail; great for knee to shoulder high waves. The blank came out great. But now I had to get it covered in carbon…
I was able to find some 4oz. carbon fiber cloth (a 0/90 weave) through a custom boat building company. The process I used was a wet layup as you would do with regular fiberglass. I was planning on vacuum bagging it but that process sucks the rocker out of the board so a wet layup was the way to go. The process is tricky because the carbon fiber cloth is nothing like fiberglass. It is delicate and can fray very easy. To counterbalance the fraying we put the fabric on top of some plastic sheeting. Then we saturated the fabric with a mix of slow cure epoxy and laid another piece of plastic sheeting on top, essentially making a sandwich. The next step was to trace the blank onto the top piece of plastic and cut out the shape with some sharp scissors.
Now that the rough shape was cut out, it was simply a matter of wetting the deck with epoxy and taking the top layer of plastic off and flipping the fabric onto the blank. Then the remaining plastic peels off like a sticker. The key is to use a roller to get out any air bubbles and get the fabric as smooth as possible. This process is continued for the hull, just make sure to have an overlap over the excess deck fabric. Make sure to roll this side out as well.
Once dry, I need to install the FCS plugs and then it needed to be sanded. Carbon is tough stuff so plan on using a lot of sandpaper. Getting the lap mark sanded flat was tricky but if you use a long block it works out all right.
(Side Bar Tip: Once the tolerance starts to get thin, be careful as you can sand through carbon pretty easy; so go slow and use your finger to feel.)
Once sanded and all faired out, I painted on a thin layer of epoxy and let it dry. Once that dried I put on some fins (carbon of course), a traction pad, and some wax.
It is by far the best board I own.
My biggest accolade is how consistent it is. I have taken it out in knee high slop to overhead barrels and it rides like a dream To this day, I still can’t believe how strong and light the board is; and at this point she’s a few years old. People ask me about it every time I walk down to the water…the best part is…most of them ask if it’s an Aviso. Mission complete!
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Awesome! I want to do the same thing…want to help me out for $50? =)
Looks like that’s better than an Aviso, because Aviso surfboards are junk! Aviso’s will break, trust me, pure junk.
You should make a Firewire next! Rad project Shaper, keep em’ coming!
so instead of glassing a blank… you covered it in carbon fiber?
looks wicked.. but worth it? hmmm
you dont need to get a blank when you use carbon… it is so strong that a double overlap on the rails works as good as double stringers. you could just carve out styro foam and put it in a rocker jig
I was thinking of a way that you could possibly create a board with a hollow core that would be stronger than the Aviso method of joining two separate shells. If you were to create a core out of jewelers wax or even everyday off the shelf candle wax, that can be purchased at hobby stores, and then cover the wax the way you did the foam core, making sure to get good overlaps. After you have all of your layers applied and cured you would then only have to drill a small hole and then use steam or very hot water to melt and flush out the wax from the interior and patch the hole. You might also want to add a couple of extra layers of the same weight or heavier carbon fiber fabric around the edges for added strength. All of this can be accomplished in your garage or shop.
I hope this helps.
I bought an Adviso Carbon Fiber Surfboard and after a three month run in Baja California; It rides like a dream and has excellent bouancy. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and snap, the board broke into two pieces! These new boards are hollow on the inside and once broken they loose their bouyancy. They are also prone to small leaks and there is a small plug on the board to remove water if you happen to sping a leak; so good luck trying to swim back to shore.
Adviso replaced it with no problem; it’s nice to see that they stand behind their product.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I would never buy another carbon fiber surfboard and Thank God I have three other,(traditional,) surfboards!
So Mark, u bought a board, and it worked great. Then you kooked it and it broke. They replaced it for you (which no other surf co would do) and your final thought are thank god you have your other three yellow, dinged up p/u boards? Gosh your smart….