How Wingfoil Boards are built?

Understanding how Wingfoil boards are built will help you make the right choice when making your first purchase.

Wingfoil boards construction depends on the brand and where the boards are produced, this has a direct influence on the quality of the product, its longevity and the price. Learn about the Windfoil boards construction seems to us fundamental to make the right choice. The choice of the size of the Wingfoil board will also be an important criterion to take into account before making your choice.

Sometimes you can get tricked by a nice design that hide the real quality of the product and where they were produced. It’s when you go out on the water that you realise the difference: lack of rigidity, lack of nervousness, fragility at the slightest impact, limited life span of the board, delamination of the deck or hull….etc. The list can be very long.

Some brands sell products made in Asia for a solid and resistant construction at a more or less very aggressive price but unfortunately either the boards are very heavy or the construction doesn’t match your expectations. As a result, they leave very quickly for repair at the shapers.

Understanding how Wingfoil boards are built can help you choose the right package and avoid being disappointed with the Wingfoil board you buy.

The full carbon sandwich construction for Wingfoil boards is the best possible construction: stronger, more durable and better performing.

Construction Full sandwich Carbon or fiberglass: The construction of SROKA Sky rider boards

From a previously machined polystyrene slab, a sandwich lamination is carried out on the entire board as follows: polystyrene – fiberglass – PVC foam – fibreglass – finishing gel coat.

Depending on the constructions, the fiberglass can be replaced by carbon which brings a weight saving and a better stiffness and reactivity of the board.

By definition, a full Sandwich therefore consists of attaching two thin but rigid “fiberglass or carbon skins” to a light and very dense “core” (PVC or Airex foam). Generally speaking we use a 3 to 5 mm thick PVC foam, depending on the type of board built.

Most of the time, the inner skin in contact with the polystyrene core is made of fibreglass. In our Carbon model, the fiberglass is replaced by Carbon.

This type of construction is mostly used in windsurfing. It is the most durable and solid construction on the market. This is the technology we use in our Wingfoil boards.

We use this full sandwich construction on the top and bottom of our boards.

The result is amazing: lightness, rigidity and solidity.

This production technique for Windgoil boards is more expensive but gives an incomparable quality to the product.

The icing on the cake: these boards are made in France, close to our headquarters just like all our Wingfoil. All our Wingfoil boards are made in France.

Thus, the Sky rider 5,5, the Sky rider 6’3 and the Sky rider 7’8 are built in Brittany and in full sandwich.

This board construction is generally used by lowcost brands.

Monolytic construction: a cheap solution

This construction is generally used for a large number of boards made in China. It consists of taking a polystyrene blank that is slightly denser than the one needed for full sandwich construction. This polystyrene blank is covered with different layers of fiberglass. This construction is cheap and requires fewer equipment to produce. As a result, boards built with this technology are very regularly found in the arrivals of containers from Asia.

Depending on the brand, boards are made with more or less layers of fiberglass.

As a result, low cost Wingfoil boards generally have two to three layers of fiberglass, which tends to make them very fragile and deteriorate very quickly.

Other brands that are more concerned about the durability of their product put more layers of fiberglass or carbon, causing the board to be significantly overweight without having the responsiveness and stiffness of a full sandwich board.

Unfortunately over time this type of construction is (despite an increased number of fiber layers) less durable and less rigid than a full sandwich board.

This type of construction is generally used by major brands in Wingfoil. they are stronger than the monolytic version but unrivalled with the full sandwich construction.

Monolithic construction with banboo or carbon reinforcement

This type of board is built with a combination of banboo and fiberglass or fiberglass and carbon. This technique is certainly more efficient than the simple monolithic construction because it brings a little more rigidity to the whole. However, it remains relatively fragile to impacts and is definitely less rigid and solid than the full sandwich version. The bamboo layer being very thin, the rigidity is certainly better but not sufficient.

This technique consists of covering the polystyrene with one or more layers of fibreglass and then adding a layer of banboo on top and covering with resin.

As you can see on the picture, the load weight can be increased slightly compared to the monolithic construction but it is far from being comparable in terms of rigidity and ability to withstand violent shocks.

Some brands talk about full bamboo or double sandwich banboo construction. This consists of covering the polystyrene bread with a layer of fibreglass and then a layer of bamboo and then a layer of fibreglass.

This construction is not really a real sandwich according to the great man of the Shape: Jimmy Lewis. For this shaping legend, the only sandwich is the one stated above.

Therefore only the full sandwich construction will guarantee stiffness, strength and longevity of the product while remaining light.

The philosophy of Wingfoil board construction at SROKA

Since the first days of the brand, we have sought to develop, build and market quality products at an affordable price.

Since our first launch of foils in 2014, we have chosen to produce all our boards in France in order to guarantee the durability of our products and above all to avoid products return as much as possible.

Limiting production problems as much as possible by manufacturing Wingfoil boards in France allows us to guarantee you the best product at the best price. Cet objectif est fondamental pour nous.

We could have operated like 99% of the brands, producing our boards in Asia and order containers of boards with potential manufacturing problems. We could have operate like 99% of the brands, producing our boards in Asia and ordering containers of boards with potential manufacturing problems. This allows us to have a smaller ecological footprint than most brands.

We made this choice for many reasons.

Ensure top board quality
To be sure that each of our boards leaving our factory is identical to each other with an irreproachable quality control.
Give a longer lifespan to our products. (The first foil boards we built, 6 years ago, are still being ridden to their full potential)
To guarantee the best quality/price ratio to our customers. Although we produce in France, we are cheaper than the big industry brands and close to low cost brands.
Reduce our ecological footprint by using bio-sourced resins and reducing the cost and time of transportation.
Create working opportunities for the local industry.

For more information on our Wingfoil packs

Various wingfoil board constructions for a better understanding of how the boards are built.