El Jefe Jeffro is my barn door! After making two plywood boards, I wanted to experiment with a lighter core material. This one is made with a foam core that is used in aircraft construction. I made this board big to test its limits. It worked out great and I spent many a light wind day in 2019 cruising on this one!
Specs
- Designation: BPX3 – El Jefe Jeffro
- Length: 160cm
- Width: 55cm
- Thickness:
- Bottom piece: 1/8 in
- Upper deck: 1/4 in
- Core: Divinycell foam
- Glass Schedule:
- Upper Deck:
- 6oz S-Glass
- Bottom:
- 4oz Warp Glass
- 6oz S-Glass
- Center (Between pieces)
- 6oz S-Glass
- Upper Deck:
- Resin: Resin Research 2000 CE Ultra Epoxy
- Hardener: Resin Research 2100S Slow Hardener
- Paint:
- Acrylic
- Soundtrack Highlight:
- Inna – Yo
- Rosalia – El Mal Querer
- Systema Solar – Rumbo a Tierra
Building the Board
Before starting the board, I did some experiments with the core material, fiberglass and vacuum bag to see how it would work out. I decided to build this board in two pieces. A thinner bottom for the planing surface and rails and an upper deck thick enough for inserts.
I decided to go big with this one, if a big board worked, scaling it down should be stronger. Given that this was a pretty basic shape, I didn’t bother making a template for it and just measured out the pieces.
Being able to cut the foam with a razor blade rather than a router was a nice change from my previous boards. It was easier and less error prone. As I cut the outline of the board from the foam, I cut it as a quarter inch trench for the rails and taped it up as I went along. When I had finished, the board was suspended in tape surrounded by the original foam with a trench for me to pour the rail in.
For my previous boards, I had used epoxy as the rails. Epoxy without glass can chip away so I decided to give urethane a try. I picked up a 3 minute urethane from Smooth-On and some green pigment. I poured the rails, inserts and fin mounts in separate batches because this sets so quickly. The rail pour went ok but there were two things that became problematic. One is that the faster the set time, the more heat urethane produces. The heat warped the strapping tape I had used to seal the bottom of the trench. There were some spots that were clearly uneven as a result which required sanding in some areas and fill ins in others.
The second big issue with urethane is that it is very sensitive to water. The instructions said not to use wood stir sticks because the water content may affect the urethane. It’s that sensitive. So while taping the bottom did well to provide a form for the urethane, when I removed the tape, I found that the urethane on that side had a tacky, almost gummy, feel to it. Ultimately this wasn’t an issue, it sealed fine with epoxy but I was worried given the problems with delamination I had with my previous board.
With all the urethane in, I shaped a bevel in the upperdeck so it would slope down to the rail. The upper deck was made from two pieces of the remaining foam that had been glued together. The layer with the glue has different properties than the foam itself which is something to consider if you make composite pieces like that.
After two attempts with different spray paints with sketchy results on previous boards, I decided to give hand painting a go. I actually enjoyed the process more, it was less messy and I liked the texture the strokes left. Also, I haven’t had any delamination problems with this board so it seems like an all around win.
With the pieces painted, it was time to glass. This time around, I used a piece of masonite with a whiteboard coating on one side as the bottom mold and taped the bag down on top of that. I used a wax based releasing agent on the whiteboard surface and it worked out well. I didn’t use my rocker table this time around and just kept the board flat.
Since I wasn’t using a bag on both sides this time around, I didn’t want to use the vinyl bag from my previous board because using half of it would be big and unwieldy. My wife suggested I use a vinyl shower liner as my vacuum bag. It turned out to be just the right size and you can pick one up for less then ten bucks.
Even though I had a decent form, I decided to glass each side separately. I glassed the bottom of the lower piece and then the top with the upper deck piece attached. I didn’t glass the top of the upper deck yet. There was a small face around the bottom of the upper piece that I wanted to seal and smooth out first. I mixed cabosil into epoxy to form a paste. I used that to fill in the gap to make a smoother transition for the fiberglass cloth that would go on the upper deck. Once that cured, I finished glassing the deck and gave it a hot coat.
I placed the text for this board under the glass but didn’t wet it out first which made the rice paper a little more visible than usual.
Deck after glassing 
El Jefe Jeffro Haiku en Español!
After hotcoating, it’s time to sand. From previous board, it had been a pain to clean up all the dust after sanding so for this board, I set up a cyclone dust collection system and attached the intake hose to the port on my palm sander. This made a huge difference.
The Ride
El Jefe got it’s first ride at Jetty Island. With it’s size, it’s certainly not nimble and you will find that you need some leg strength to get it pointed where you want it to go. But, it turned out to be a light wind beast! I had quite a few sessions when the wind started to die when I came back to shore, swapped my usual board for this monster and kept on going. Often it was me and the foils on the water while everyone else was packing it in.
The asymmetrical fins on this are really noticeable. You can feel them grip as you dig in on the edge or tilt over to planing. It’s like shifting gears especially when you’re going upwind.
A person on the beach asked to ride the board one afternoon making this the first Banana Peel board to be ridden by someone other than me. After taking it out for a few tacks he came back and asked if he could commission one from me. I turned him down but it felt good to hear!
About Jeffro Rothenberg
Jeffro is the owner of the Urban Surf Kiteboarding School. The year that I signed up for lessons, they had a season pass offer which was “all you can kite” for the summer. I live pretty close to Jetty Island where the lessons are and so was able to sign up for quite a few lessons my first year. As a result I got to hang out with Jeffro and his crew quite a bit.
Jeffro has been a big part of the PNW kiteboarding scene since the start. Thanks to his school, he’s had a hand in developing most of the folks who learn to kite in the Seattle area. Even if you don’t take lessons from Jeffro’s school, he also teaches wind clinics to get folks oriented to Jetty Island in the summer and a variety of locations in the PNW for the winter.
His program has spread to La Ventana, Mexico, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it spring up in other places. He showed up to the 2018 Light Wind Olympics at Jetty Island with a big sombrero he picked up in Mexico. An image I will always associate with him and the basis for the second line of his haiku.
I’ve learned a lot from Jeffro about the wind, kiteboarding, being a part of the local kite tribe and just enjoying life. He’s always been a good friend and great to meet up with on the beach.