BOARD CONSTRUCTION

Never a bad thing to learn more crap about stuff.

Wanna know where snowboarding began? Just curious about what makes a board?

Here we go: One of the granddaddies of the snowboard was the Snurfer. Ridden like a skateboard, it looked like a short, fat ski without metal edges or bindings and had a rein tied to its nose. Industry giants like Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims began experimenting about 20 years ago, adding fins for steering, homemade bindings and metal edges.

Today, snowboarding is a full-blown sport with highly engineered equipment, technologically advanced materials, and different designs that make snowboards perform in a variety of ways. Performance rather than looks is what makes or breaks the purchasing decision for most riders, says SIA, the national, member-owned trade association representing snowboarding equipment manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers.

Snowboards use much of the same construction and manufacturing techniques found in skis. The goal is to use light and strong materials to make responsive boards and eliminate vibrations for a stable ride. Also, high-performance boards usually feature steeper sidewalls extending to the edges for quicker turns and more turn control.

Snowboards are made stiff or soft. Different boards are made for riding in snowboard parks, racing, or carving turns down the slopes. But all snowboards are made with the same basic construction techniques.

Snowboards share the following attributes: length, sidecut, camber, effective edge, longitudinal flex, torsional flex, weight, swing weight and damping. Manufacturers adjust these elements to create different performance characteristics. While torsional flex and sidecut are the principal elements that allow the board to carve a turn, the other components can be combined to affect the snowboard's performance.

The core is the element around which the rest of the board is built. In most snowboards, the core's shape affects flex and weight. While wood is the most common core, foam is increasingly being used either as the first basic building block or injected into the board later in the construction process.

Wood is a good material to use as a core because of its vibration-absorbing characteristics. Wood consists of long fibers that transmit high-frequency vibrations along the board's length; these vibrations help reduce suction between the base and the snow, improving glide.

On the other hand, foam enables technically sophisticated constructions to be molded into the heart of the board's core. Usually polyurethane, the foam in cores of high-end boards is durable, lighter than wood, and doesn't compress. In lower-end boards, foam is often injected into a molded, cap-type board or mixed with other materials to form a light, inexpensive core.

Wrapping The Core
The metal, fiberglass or high-tech fibers used above, below or around the core also affect a board's performance. Two commonly used high-tech materials are carbon fibers and kevlar.

Carbon fibers are used for strength as an additive in fiberglass cloth. Lighter and stiffer than fiberglass or metal, carbon fibers are expensive. They're extremely strong in both tension and compression, giving boards a responsive feel.

Kevlar is a fiber that reduces weight without sacrificing strength and improves edge grip. It also has excellent damping qualities — the ability to absorb vibration, which causes fatigue and hinders performance.

Putting It All Together
There are three basic constructions used in making boards: cap, rim and laminated.

Cap construction is essentially placing a one-piece top and sidewall cover over the core. Cap boards enhance feel by transferring energy faster from the rider to the board's edge, improving performance. It bends the main structural element to form a bridge connecting the two edges so riders can more directly weight either edge. This allows for quicker and easier turning. The increased and more direct pressure to the edge also provides superior grip on all snow conditions.

Rim construction involves injecting polyurethane around a wood core. This construction, often used in entry-level and rental boards, provides durability and flexibility.

The more traditional laminated, or sandwich, construction consists of multiple layers of one or more materials glued to a wood or foam core. The major difference between cap, laminate and rim designs is that the cap's vaulted arch, rather than the core, is the board's main structural, or load-bearing, component.