We really couldn’t ask to live and work in a better place. Our surroundings are as beautiful as they come. Yeah it’s cold and snowy for a large part of the winter…..but there are many benefits to sticking around home. Here’s a link to a gallery of some of them. Inside New England
The boards we build here at Grain need to be vented to let expanding air out of them. Up until now we’ve been working with a specially shaped aluminum or plastic screw with an o-ring under the head. It needs to be removed sometime soon after the board comes out of the water. And it definitely needs to be be put in before the board gets wet!
Once in a great while, people forget to put them in, or don’t tighten them enough and water gets into the boards. Usually it happens when boards are lent to your brother-in-law, or when we’re doing a demo and people are grabbing up boards and running in with them. Generally, they are totally reliable (human error aside!)
Lately, we’ve been experimenting with vents that don’t have to be removed. These are high-tech plugs, with a Gore-tex membrane inside them that lets air pass through, but not water. We checked with a couple of leading surfboard companies that have been using these vents in their EPS/epoxy boards and they’ve had no complaints in thousands of boards. But there have been some home-builders who have reported problems.
Gore-Tex Vent, assembled and with super-tech vent plug removed
Our experience is that this hardware is tricky to install, and it’s a good chance that the failures have come from poor installation, and not failure of the hardware. We’ve been putting them in some demo boards, and in our own boards for some time now with no issues.
While we’re not stocking them yet, HomeGrown Kit builders will soon be able to purchase these vents from our web store. We are offering them as an option on our custom boards, for those people that feel they may be forgetful and don’t want to take a chance. Or if their brother-in-law surfs.