Right, your new surfboard's been shaped and sprayed, and having sat in the hot box overnight to make sure the paint's completely dry, its off to the laminating room. The reason we use a hot box, which
is effectively a large cupboard with a heater in it, is if the
paint isn't completely dry, small areas may reject resin when
the surfboard is glassed.
This is the most time consuming part of the surfboards construction. Impeccable care is taken to laminate the surfboard to the highest standard. Poor lamination of the shaped blank will show any imperfections if it is not done to highest level. Every one wants perfect looking surfboards, as well as to work brilliantly. Here you can see Jeremy adding the glass layer to the board.
This shot shows the glass being cut out for the rail 'laps'. In case you ever wondered how the logos are applied, they're printed on bleach-free tissue paper and go between the glass fibre and foam.
The polyester, epoxy or linseed oil resin is then applied and the
rubber squeegee soaks and wets out the logo tissue and then the rest of the glass fibre.
(polyester resing is used as standard. Epoxy resin is used on request for a slightly more environmentally friendly lamination process and for polystyrene foam blanks/Beach Beat super light Surfboards. Linseed oil based resin is used to laminate out Beach Beat Eco Surfboards)
This picture clearly show the 'laps' being wrapped around the rails as the bottom is glassed. Once the
surfboards been glassed top and bottom, it's painted with a coat of
resin.
The leash plugs are also added here. This ensures that they are firmly fixed into the glass layer.
Laminating is another part of surfboard production that's a bit of an art really. When you pick up a Shortboard, or a Longboard for that matter, and think it's really nice and light, its not because it's been shaped light, it's been glassed light. (Ok there are different weight blanks but you get the idea). Leave too much resin in the glass job and it'll weigh a ton, take too much out and it'll be too weak.
