Grain Surfboard Glassed with Bamboo Cloth
September 20th, 2007, by MikeWe’ve recently completed a major milestone in our quest for a completely “green” wooden surfboard.
In its simplest form, fiberglass cloth is non hazardous. But the fact is that the act of manufacturing fiberglass consumes a huge amount of energy which earns it an ‘F’ in sustainability. One of our goals has been to replace fiberglass with something more environmentally positive. We are really excited that we have recently finished glassing a 6’0″ Wherry with bamboo cloth from Greenlight Surf Supply.
The good news about bamboo is that it is one of the world’s best sustainable resources. With a growth rate of a meter or more per day, bamboo holds the world record as the fastest growing plant. Because it’s actually a grass and not “woodâ€, bamboo continuously sends up new shoots after harvesting without need for replanting. It takes in nearly five times the amount of greenhouse gases, and produces 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees, making it an anti-global warming machine. Bamboo’s also good for the ecosystem because it doesn’t require chemical pesticides or fertilizers and its fibers are biodegradable without causing environmental pollution. And before you ask, the bamboo used in the cloth we used isn’t eaten by Pandas (there are over 1,200 species of bamboo).
The bamboo fabric stretches approximately 25% from its original dimensions which means you can glass a surfboard with approx 25% less fabric than any other material but with the same strength. Glassing the fabric when stretched creates tension distributed around the entire surfboard providing a quicker rebound when flexed through a turn.
Our experience:
I feel like we had some real success using bamboo. Unlike glass, the bamboo cloth is designed to be stretched over the board so it needs to be stuck down with double sided tape. The more the fabric is stretched, the less resin it seems to absorb. The main issue with having to stretch and tape down the cloth is that putting a logo down under the fabric is tough. You would need to put it down first, and try hard not to move it when stretching the cloth. If it does move, you can shift it back a little with a knife, right through the fabric. Difficult, but not impossible.
The laminate coat is slightly more challenging than it is with glass. We found that when we didn’t stretch the bamboo enough, it soaked up more resin then glass, and the squeegee tended to pull at the fabric, forming wrinkles that were often hard to get out. So that was lesson one: stretch the bamboo the full 25% if possible. We think that doing that will make the whole process go better.
Once the lam coat was finished, the rest of the process was similar to glass, with one exception; we found that alot of the fibers seemed to be standing up straight out of the hot coat – so don’t expect a glossy hot coat. But the final gloss coat goes on as smoothly as anything else once the protruding fibers are sanded off the hot (which is pretty painless).
Our first test board came out slightly heavier than it normally would – though that may be because we didn’t stretch our cloth enough and it took more resin as a result. We also noticed that, while it is clear down to the wood grain, there is a slight haziness to the finish, and if you look closely, the weave is visible where glass might be completely clear.
With all that said, we all felt that the plusses strongly outweigh the minuses though another test is certainly in the offing before the jury is in. If it goes well, in a couple of months we would love to be offering the option of bamboo cloth on all of our custom built boards.
Read more about the benefits of finishing boards with bamboo here.
September 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Well done guys,great work,like you say the cloth is slightly visable but this is a small cometic price to pay for a great board manufactured with the planets resources in mind…will have to try this cloth on my sea kayaks….cheers guys..
September 20th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
First time to your site, I love your honesty about all aspects of your production. It speaks to the sincerity of your message and desire to leave this earth better than when you came into it. This might sound like a naive question but can you not just paint or stain the logo onto the board before stretching the cloth across it?
September 21st, 2007 at 10:32 am
Beautiful board!!! Thanks for posting your results. One more step towards a sustainable surfboard. Progress!
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
[...] want to try something new, check this out, I just stumbled it across it the other day Grain Surfboard Glassed with Bamboo Cloth September 20th, 2007, by [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
And I must say… the bamboo fabric t-shirts are the most comfortable thing I have ever worn! so go Grain!! Go Bamboo!!
September 26th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Kristin
Thanks for the comment on the shirts. I have to agree. They are my favorite t-shirt. So comfortable.
Thanks everyone for the comments on the board. Were pretty happy with the results and hope to be using bamboo for all the boards soon. As far as the logo, yeah we could be painting it on or even staining it. Were looking into a branding iron as well. We’ll keep the blog updated with changes.
Thanks
September 27th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Okay, so I just got my GrainNewsletter e-mail-
Is that a single-winged twin I see posted in that tiny little teaser photo? Is it bamboo-glassed?
We, the faithful, need MORE pics of those new and exciting shapes! Especially the exotics like that winged twin and that double-winged quad that went out a couple months ago….
September 27th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Charlie
Thanks for your comment. That single winged Waka is not glassed with bamboo. The 6’4 has been our only bamboo test board so far. I’ve added a couple new photos to the Waka and Wherry pages as well as the gallery.
Enjoy.
Nick
November 7th, 2007 at 9:20 am
I,m very interested in your product as I do build wood aircraft. The concept of bamboo cloth is a new idea as to build lighter and stronger.
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:39 am
Hi Guys,
Glad to see it – will be using bamboo cloth and a new resin,eco, but not UV cured, on my Grain Kit
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Great work, the bamboo cloth is a winner !
A question: You mention a faster flex response, however the dimensions of your boards are such that they will not have significant flex, so making the flex pattern tighter would hardly be an advantage in your case.
It seems to me that talking about the flex response of your boards is misleading, given that they are one of the most rigid board structure types around.
May I ask how much deflection in an on land test a 6 foot and a 9 foot board to your stock designs has ? My bet is that it is minimal, less than 1/4″
This is not a criticism of your boards per se, and i’m sure that they have a wonderful resonance as all hollow woodies do. . . but I feel strongly that you are ‘talking up’ a feature which your boards don’t have.
I say this as I have been building flexible wooden boards for over 15 years, and there’s no way that cedar boards of the dimensions you are using can have significant flex.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hey Roy, thanks for the comment. Thats a good point that you bring up. We are certainly still experimenting with the cloth and do not claim to be experts by any means. We’ll be glassing two new boards with bamboo cloth over the coming weeks and look forward to reporting on those results and the performance characteristics of the boards soon.
For anyone interested in more information on the use of bamboo cloth, I would recommend checking out Greenlight Surf Supply at http://www.greenlightsurfsupply.com/.
Mike
March 9th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’m actually in the process of shaping my first (foam) board and I’m using the Greenlight bamboo cloth… to solve the logo, I used a thin coat of resin on the foam then put my logo down and spread another thin coat of resin on top of the logo. no moving! Talk to Brian at Greenlight, he’s been spot on for me so far!
pura vida
April 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Sir, Im a shaper in cali and have developed a blankless surfboard, I am in the process of obtaining bamboo cloth to test on these boards as well as typical foam shapes.Are you keeping this development exclusive to your company or will you make the cloth available to other manufacturers?
April 30th, 2009 at 10:09 am
You can get bamboo laminating fabric from a few sources… we got ours from Greenlight Surf Supply. Pay heed to the need for stretching – we pulled ours about 33%. Depending on what “blankless” means, this could be a problem in some constructions. But the cloth works great, tho it seems to take more resin than does regular fiberglass. Good luck!
August 9th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Hi,
Just purchased some bamboo cloth to use on a chambered paulownia board. I now realise why you guys go for the planking method… the wastage is enormous on chambered boards, but I’m using the off-cuts to make building blocks for my 1 year old boy so atleast they’re going to be used!
Anyways I did a test run with the cloth last night and it came out “milky” almost blocking out the wood grain all together… What have I done wrong, yours looks fairly translucent? What’s the process? Are there certain resins or mixes that work better than others? I’d really like some info on this one without having to buy their instructional DVD…
Cheers
James
August 9th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
The epoxy is probably not the issue; more likely it’s that you are applying the bamboo like fiberglass cloth which doesn’t work. You need to stretch the bamboo cloth in all directions – about 30%. Use double-sided tape to stick it below where your lap will be. Use a light touch on the squeegee during the lam coat as the bamboo will want to buckle easily. Good on ya for trying something new! Call if you need more tips.
August 26th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Cheers Brad,
Up to the chambering process and will be glassing next week all goin well. Yeah had another try with far better results. Thanks for the advice! I may be calling you down the trck to get some more help!
Thanks again
James