There are more surfboard materials available to the consumer today than ever before in the history of the sport. Over the last several years the surfboard business has hit an all-time high with demand crushing supply. Having options is a wonderful thing, but it can also be overwhelming. With so many choices, how do you find the right surfboard for you? Or better yet, how do you know what surfboard foam is best for the conditions you’ll be riding in? When it comes to shaping boards, the three main types of foam are Polyurethane (PU), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and Polystyrene (PS). No one foam is “better” than the other, rather they all have unique performance characteristics that work well in different surf conditions. Here’s what you need to know:
Polyurethane
The most traditional foam used to build surfboards, shapers have been using Polyurethane ever since Grubby Clark first cracked the chemical code back in the 1950s. Extremely light and easy to shape, there’s a reason people have been using it for so long. The foam’s composition is very fine and very stiff, meaning that when a planer or sandpaper runs over it the foam comes off in a super fine dust and doesn’t tear chunks of foam off the blank. This allows the shaper to sculpt with more detail and to more exact specifications. The biggest drawback to PU foam is that it’s extremely toxic and bad for the environment. After Clark Foam closed in 2005, which had a virtual stranglehold on the surfboard blank business, more environmentally sensitive materials began to enter the marketplace.
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Polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) foam is the most common foam used with epoxy resins. The foam hasn’t gained a huge following because it’s difficult to shape and can take twice as long to produce the same result. The blanks are usually higher than PU foam, but they’re not as strong, which is where the epoxy comes in. Adding much more strength and durability without any more wait than traditional polyester fiberglass resin, epoxy boards are favored in smaller surf conditions. The other upside of PS foam is that it makes more environmental sense and the waste from the blanks can actually be recycled.
Expanded Polystyrene
Derived from polystyrene foam, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) has dramatically grown in popularity in recent years. A much more environmentally friendly material, it’s also extremely light, which makes it great for small-wave boards. Chances are you’ve come across EPS foam at some point in your life, it’s the same stuff those cheap “styrofoam” coolers you get at the liquor store are made out of or the packaging around a new TV set. Made by compressing small foam balls together to form a blank or sheet of foam, a lot of molded or “pop-out” surfboards utilize this foam for this reason. EPS foam is notoriously hard to hand shape because the tiny foam balls have a tendency to fall apart when hit by a planer or rougher sandpaper. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some great being hand-made with EPS foam, it just takes a little more time and diligence to get the shape smoothed out.
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