The Ding Shop-Surfboard Repair DVD Now Available!!!

Finally a quality Ding Repair video has been made and we have it!!! This DVD has been a long time coming. It shows how to fix many of the most common dings and some unusual ones too. Every surfer should know how to fix their own dings, it is the best way to keep your boards value up and keep it in good working condition! The Ding Shop DVD also has a brief but informative section about board building with an appearance from Donald Takayama.



Charles Kirkley AKA Dr. Ding has repaired thousands of surfboards at the Ding Shop since 1982. After years of being asked where to start, what to do, and how to do it? This DVD shows you.

Go on a quick factory tour to view the board building process, see the 10 Step ding repair process used for all dings, and watch as Dr. Ding explains and shows how to repair dings anyone can fix. Then move to the Ding Shop to repair boards with more severe damage. Learn valuable techniques for cutting and manipulating cloth, pouring resin, glassing, and sanding.

Be prepared for the inevitable and learn how to fix your board, by watching the first of it's kind, "The Ding Shop Surfboard repair DVD".

Check the trailer below:

UV Catalyst …Will Make You Taller, Stronger, and More Attractive

That may not be completely true, or true at all, but it does kind of rule if you are using polyester resin. I’m a huge fan of the UV catalyst and I’ve been using it for about 3 years now, on and off, and have been getting it pretty dialed. I did a board the other day with a resin tint bottom, some additional resin tint splashes on the tail. I then did a resin tinted seal on the foam with multiple tints on the deck as well as doing glass on fins and finished it off with a two 4oz clear deck. I did the usual paste on the bottom and deck before hot coating the board and went 100% UV catalyst. After it was all said and done I only used a total of 2 ¾ quarts of resin and it only took about 3 ½ hours. Another bonus of using the UV catalyst is that the overpowering polyester resin smell doesn’t linger since the resin kicks off as soon as it hits the sun or ultra violet lights leaving less of a chance that a neighbor or family member will complain about the “smell” coming from the garage. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a strong “smell” however, it doesn’t linger as long. So there you go, if you are still hesitant to try it out, call us up and we’ll be more than happy to answer any additional questions.

Grizzley

Board Building in Prison!!!

One of my favorite things about being involved in the surf industry/working at Foam E-Z is meeting and getting to know new people, all kinds of people, from all different walks of life. Recently we have been selling board building supplies to an inmate at Pilot Rock State Prison in Crestline, California named Tony “Neptune” Stearns. This guy has gone through some rough times and made some poor decisions and has been in prison since 2001. One good decision he made was to turn his life around and do something positive with his time in prison and try to actively get involved in his rehabilitation. I have spoken to Tony a few times on the phone and the guy sounds amped about board building and his rehabilitation. I’m looking forward to more updates from “Neptune” and even meeting him soon in person to discuss his boards and board building in general. If anyone would like to contact him I know he would be stoked. You can send letters to him at:

Tony Stearns T-43417
P.O. Box 10
Crestline, CA 92325

This isn't the first time Foam E-Z has supplied prisoners with the supplies to build the board of their dreams. In the mid-nineties we were contacted by three Hawaiian inmates that were doing hard time in a Federal Penitentiary in Minnesota. We have pics and letters from them which we will elaborate on in a future post.

Keep up the good work Neptune. We're here for you!

Grizzley

UV Resin Now in Stock at Foam E-Z!

We're now stocking the UV Cure Resin Lam/Sanding in quarts and pints and will soon have it available in gallons. The keys to this resin is that it has an unlimited working time therefore making it easy to conserve resin. Basically you apply indoors and when you've worked out all the bubbles or what have you just walk the board outside. It will harden in a matter of minutes!

Check out this short video for an example of a board being lammed with UV Cure Resin:



There are a few tricks so don't treat it exactly like the traditional MEKP catalyzed resin. Use a small amount of MEKP catalyst when applying your logo to the board. "Flash it" when hotcoating, this means to walk it out side for a minute then bring it back for the wax to rise, then bring it back outside to fully harden. This resin can be used directly from the can since UV resin hardens when exposed to sunlight therefore it doesn't need to be mixed. If no UV source is available MEKP Catalyst must be used to cure the resin. There more tips and full directions on the back of each can.

This stuff is the best for ding repair, you just can't beat the speed in which you can do a repair correctly.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Brad

We Glassed RadRob's board!

We finally got our acts together and glassed the Quantum Quad Fish that was shaped in the EZ Shaping Box. The glassjob took place at Tim Stamps factory and we used UV catalyzed resin to do the board complete in 2-1/2 hours! It was a treat working with the UV resin but we almost ran out of sunlight. Here's what RadRob posted regarding the board:

"Recently Foam E-Z has been working on a project filming the shaping and glassing of a surfboard with Tim Stamps of Stamps Surfboards. The idea was to give everyone the unique opportunity to see a board shaped and glassed by a pro. The filming has gone great and we have already released the shaping video on YouTube, with the glassing video soon to come. There is another awesome result to all this; I got a radical new custom board from Stamps.The board is a 5'-8" x 20 3/4" x 2 1/4" Quantum- Quad Fish. I wanted to give a big thank you to Stamps, and everyone involved in the filming of the video. Stay tuned for the glassing video. "

We hope to have the glassing portion of the video out within a day or so. Stay tuned!

Thanks to Tim Stamps of www.SurfboardsbyStamps.com

Guy Okazaki is at it again!

Guy Okazaki always seems to find himsself on the silver screen or at least You Tubes version. This is a groovy little video with some shaping footage by a true Venice legend. Guy has a been a great customer at Foam E-Z for over ten years. Spending time between Californina and Hawaii for many decades has contributed to Guys evolution of shaping from the beginning of the shortboard era in the late 60's. Check out his website
http://www.guyokazaki.com/ for more info.

The 5-10RP Fish Blank by US Blanks

We've been waiting for this one since Clark Foam went out of business in December 2005! The 5'10"RP by US Blanks just arrived in our shop and we're stoked to have it. This polyurethane fish plug was shaped by San Diego legend Rich Pavel. He is one of the experts and innovators in the revolution of the Fish board. Rich has been deeply involved in the "Fish Fry" events around the world which are his inspiration for this blank. The blank is versatile enough to be able to shape short high performance fish as well as traditional fish boards up to 5'10". This blank is thick enough to yield 2-3/4" if you're trying to recreate an old school design.

Come in the shop and check them out.

See you soon-

Brad

FCS FUSION PLUGS!

We just got the Fusion Plugs in and they seem to be a nice alternative to the usual FCS Plugs. The Fusion Install Kit makes it extra easy to install teh plugs the correct way. Here is a link to the FCS Fusion Install Manual http://www.foamez.com/pdfs/Fusion_Manual_Final_Rev3.pdf

FCS created the Fusion because of a need for a high quality, easy to install system, that can be installed under the fiberglass (as preferred by boards using new technologies such as EPS). This also provides the consumer a higher performing fin system that fits the worlds largest range of premium fins.

The insert provides a base of high density foam. This helps disperse any forces on the plug. It provides a solid base so the plug does not rotate or sink into the foam. This is especially evident in EPS blanks of low densities.

The slots in the Fusion plugs are slightly elongated which allows slight fore and aft movement of the fins, this is great for fine tuning the performance of the board.

The FCS Fusion offers 3 different cant angles (0º, 5º, 9º): This makes the system easy to install and minimizes the chance of error in fin angles.

We appreciate any feedback you can give us on new products.

Seal Beach and Long Beach Surfing Pioneers

What an awesome night in the history of Seal beach! Thursday September 25th at 7:30pm some of Seal Beach and Long Beach's earliest surf pioneers got together for a Q & A session. Some of the panel members included Harold Walker, Bob "Ole" Olson, Harry Schurch.

Harold Walker of Walker Foam was one of the pioneers in making polyurethane foam cores back in the early sixties. He competed with Clark Foam for forty plus years until finally going out of business in 2007. He is now working with Ice Nine to try to perfect their foam formulas.


Ole is famous as an early master craftsman of surfboards in the beginning foam era. He still makes surfboards in Maui under the Ole name. Ole flew out to Seal Beach to join his old buddies to talk about Seal Beach surfing days.

Another of the legendary crew is Harry Schurch. He was involved in that first attempt at surfing Waimea Nov of 1957 with Greg Noll, Micky Munoz, and Mike Stange. They all paddled out in 15 to 18 foot Waimea Bay on 40 pound planks in an attempt to survive the massive drop.

Shaping and Seal beach legend Rich Harbour attended the discussion that included many hilarious stories from the boys. Of course everyone had something to say about the notorious and ever present Sphinx. It stood on top of Blackie Augusts (Robert Augusts' Dad) house for some forty plus years. They told about how they would show up at the beach to go surfing and there wouldn't be anyone else in the water so they would have to wait until a buddy arrived to adventure out. There were endless classic stories from this eventful Seal Beach night. Unfortunately two guys from the main crew ,Jack Haley Sr. and Lloyd Murray, were not present (having passed away in recent years) but they were memorialized in the many stories.

Cool Custom Colored Blanks!

Check these polyurethane blanks from US Blanks. This is just a small idea of the possibilities for your next custom surfboard blank. Most custom blanks take only one week to arrive! Let us know if you'd like to customize your next blank.

The ultimate shaping block is here!

Just in, FlexPad has made the E-Z Shaping Block exclusively for us. This Shaping Block is a multi functional shaping tool. Use the balsa side with 40grit sandpaper for hard sanding, use the Soft Yellow Pad side with sandpaper or screen for smoothing out bumps, or change out to the Blue Softie Pad with screen for finish sanding. The block is made of balsa wood and comes stock with a Velcro Soft Yellow Replaceable Foam Pad. Stop by and check one out.

ProBox is in full force here at Foam E-Z!

If you're looking for ProBox fins, boxes, install kits etc... we now have it all in stock and can be found on our website under Fins & Fin Systems. If you can't find the fins you're looking for call or email us and we can have them here for you usually within two days.

ProBox addresses many of the shortcomings of existing systems in the surfboard marketplace. Adjustments can be made to the fin position forward and backward and the cant [fin angle]. These adjustments allow the performance of a surfboard to be tuned to the conditions, type of surfboard or rider. The fin cant is adjusted through a revolutionary patented insert mechanism that provides controlled angles, initially 4 different inserts are provided 0°, 4°, 6°, and 8°.

This fin system is very easy to install with a minimum of tooling. A single reusable jig is used to handle the alignment, routing, and anchoring of the box during the installation process. No fin is required to install the box as the jig correctly locates the box on the board while suspending it over the routed hole. These jigs are extremely inexpensive and reusable!

UV Polyester Resin Laminating Demo at Foam E-Z

Check out some footage of Dave from Revchem glassing this polyurethane surfboard blank. The board was glassed with UV cure polyester resin. It went from a shaped blank to ready for sanding in one hour. Thanks to Dave and the sun for the awesome demo!

Stay posted for more video and pics from the event.