Watercooled Surfboards

Construction of Watercooled Surfboards

• A. Kym Thompson "The Shaper" creates a “master” by the conventional means of hand shaping a polyurethane blank and glassing it with polyester resin.
• B. A comprehensive dossier is created of the master, a small booklet comprising photographs, diagrams and over 200 measurements.
• C. A precision mold of the master is created, from which Expanded Poly-Styrene (EPS) foam blanks are injection-molded, with a tolerance of plus or minus 0.2 mm. Styrene blanks are up to three times lighter than conventional urethane blanks.
• D. A poly vinyl chloride (PVC) sheet foam sandwich is created, heated and curved to wrap around the rails without seams.
• E. The sheet foam sandwich is laminated to the EPS blank with fiberglass soaked in epoxy resin.
• F. Fin systems and leash plugs are installed into blocks of high-density urethane foam and capped with fiberglass/epoxy.
• G. The board is laminated top and bottom with epoxy and fiberglass in two stages, and vacuum sealed for curing.
• H. A thin sand coat is applied.
• I. The board is hand and power sanded and inspected for continuity to the master.
• J. The board is painted with a base primer and catalyzed finish, and oven cured.
• K. Decals and graphics, then a clear coat, are applied and the board is hand polished.

General Use and care for Watercooled Surflite (Tuflite) Surfboards
A board with structural durability does not mean it's undingable or unbreakable. It is a board engineered not to fall apart under your feet while surfing. The deck is designed not to crush in and delaminate from general surfing. The body of the board is tough enough to take those little thumps here and there without opening up holes.

Like any laminated product, you do not want to leave it in the sun for extended periods of time or in your car all day on a hot sunny days. Just use a little common sense and care so your Tuflite board could potentially last for years.

Basic Repair Procedure
TUFLITES are easy to repair using epoxy resin and fiberglass. All aspects of doing the repair are exactly the same as with polyester resin and glass. So don't let anything scare you. It is actually easier because the resin takes longer to cure, therefore giving you more time to work with it. These instructions assume that you are repairing dings that penetrate the fiberglass and sandwich layers completely. Chipping and more minor dings can be simply repaired with bondo-type filler, sanding, then re-painting.

Procedure
1. Sand damaged area.
2. If there is a hole, epoxy can be mixed with Q cell to fill. (This should be only for small holes). Larger holes should be filled with foam first.
3. Cut 4oz or 6oz cloth adequate to cover damaged area.
4. Apply epoxy resin and allow it to cure. Once cured, the patch can be sanded (unlike polyester resin epoxy does not require a sand coat).
5. Surface filler can be used to fill any pin bubbles, small voids or irregularities. This filler cures quickly and sands easily. Evercoat: White marine filler (white bondo type quick-cure filler). Regular auto bondo can also be used. Fine sand filler to 400 grit wet and dry.
6. Paint patch area: A quality aerosol (rattle can) paint can be used, or for a perfect match any automotive paint supply company will custom mix paint to match. However, they will need either the board or a piece to look at while mixing.

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