The “PROXY” Proctor Custom Epoxy Surfboard Series
Harnessing the New Order of Flex – “Proxy” Custom Flexible Epoxy
Proctor Surfboards Worldwide Custom
• Fusion Core –
Premium grade eps foam fused under higher pressure yields greater compression strength. This core is slightly more buoyant than polyurethane foam, so the boards can be ridden smaller and fit in the pocket of the wave better.
• High impact rails
drive through turns and hold up to a beating.
• Instead of just using standard fiberglass cloth in the glassing process, a combination of S-glass, inter-woven
composite fabrics and Kevlar
(a product that’s five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis) are employed.
• Kevlar compression patch –
this is a sheet of Kevlar, not a green airbrush. The beauty of this material is that it increases a board’s compression strength (the deck from crushin in), while maintaining the positive flex characteristics.
• Reinforced carbon-hinged flextail –
A thinner tail makes for better flex and a more lively feeling board by reducing rigidity and increasing torque. Interwoven carbon-kevlar composite has a rapid recoil flex memory that acts as a hinge to slingshot the board out of turns, as well as protecting the toe and heel areas of the rails from crushing in over time.
• Single-to-inset-double concaves –
I feel this is one of the most versatile bottom contours you can run in the modern performance shortboard. It has a wide-open sweet spot, is really drivey and predictable in waves small to large; and it allows you to break the tail free when you want to.
• Flatter deck –
I typically go ½” to one inch shorter, 1/8” narrower, and 1/16” thinner than your poly board. By using more buoyant materials, you don’t need to hide foam in the center of the board. The less-domey deck that’s achieved increases the flex characteristics of the board.
• Uniquely formulated epoxy resins
that have more elongation, or elasticity allow flex lengthwise as well as laterally throughout the board. This increases the performance of the board as well as its flex life/ longevity.
• All fin systems are available including glass-ons
(shown here) which are rare on epoxy boards.
• Environmentally friendly –
when a traditional p/u board’s life is over, there’s only one place it can go….to a landfill where it sits for 100 years before it starts to decompose. “Proxy” technology is recyclable.
• Made custom in the free world from concept to construction.
It’s your board….talk to the shaper.
Todd Proctor
Shaper’s notes:
I‘ve been working on alternative surfboard materials for 10 years with the commitment to improve technology while enhancing performance. I believe surfboard building is a unique hands-on process that will always be done best by the innovators who love the sport. The unique construction detailed here is done in our factory in Ventura, California. I custom design every board using cutting edge computer assisted design software. This allows me to detail every board keeping the quality, consistency and custom aspects of my shaping always at the forefront.
Surfer’s Feedback:
…the board I’ve been so ravin’ about lately is that Blackbird, the Proxy one. That thing’s incredible. Thanks mate. Jay Phillips, Gold Coast, Australia
Order a Custom Proxy ………………. Check Stock Boards
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The Quest For Flex
Posted 08.11.2005
It’s been a long journey for Todd Proctor. Not in his bold pursuit to develop surfboard technology that rides just like a polyester board but lasts longer. No, that he’s well down the road on. After leaving his home in Ventura at 3:30 this morning, he’s hit a wall of traffic on the 405 south, heading down to San Diego with a truck full of boards for the TransWorld crew to test ride.
By 7:30 though, he’s in the parking lot at D-Street in Encinitas, screwing in fins and looping in leash strings on five brand-new surfboards. The boards are the culmination of five years of R&D, inspired by the dream of developing a surfboard that would replicate the subtle riding characteristics of a polyester board, but would live a longer, happier life–meaning, a board that would flex like a polyester, but that would be more resistant to damage as well the aging process that seems to sap the “spring” out of polyester boards.
“I want these boards to do what you’re feeling in an ultra light polyester,” says Proctor. “Those boards are flexing torsionally and from nose to tail, but they’re killing themselves while they’re doing it. So I want to harness that flex, but make it so it’s not going to fall apart so fast. That’s where I’d like to see it go.”
The first step, says Proctor, was to research materials, including ones currently used in the surf industry and beyond. “I started going to plastics, polymers, and composite trade shows, and I’d talk to chemists. I’d bring surfboards, and man, I got some funny looks–like, ‘Eh, a surfer? What are you doing out here in Chicago?’”
After years of research and testing out myriad combinations of foams, resins, and cloths–with both surf and non-surf-industry materials–Proctor has found what he believes is the winning formula. And he’s confident enough of the results that he’s applied for a U.S. patent for the process. While he won’t divulge the entire production technique, he says the construction is comparable to that of the wing of a Stealth fighter, even down to some of the same materials. “Same kind of foam, same kind of sandwich structure, and they use Kevlar, even the same grain and density that I use.” Kevlar in a surfboard? While it sounds ultra high tech, the process is relatively similar to traditional surfboard construction. The foam core is shaped, then laminated with a couple different materials, including fiberglass, using epoxy resin. “I use e-glass, s-glass, and Kevlar in different combinations,” he says. “How you set up those combinations determines the flex.” In addition, there are variations on stringers, as well as a flex agent added to the resin that gives the boards a gunmetal gray tint.
Proctor stresses that although the boards are glassed with epoxy resin, they’re custom shaped in the U.S. Some in the industry feel that uneducated consumers equate the word epoxy with a mass-produced product or a foreign-made one. “Epoxy in itself is just a word that defines a family of resins,” he reminds.
So, is Proctor’s epoxy/Kevlar invention another tolling of the death knell of polyester surfboards? Not likely. Instead, Proctor foresees people using polyester boards to refine their boards so that when they do get a “magic board,” they can replicate it with his epoxy technology.
Price-wise, the boards are more expensive than their polyester counterparts, but not prohibitively. They’ll wholesale for 500 dollars and retail for 645 dollars, and will be at retail in mid-May.
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PUSHING THE LIMITS:
TODD PROCTOR WANTS TO MAKE A SMALLER, LIGHTER, STRONGER SURFBOARD, AND HE’S USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO DO IT.
• Instead of just using standard fiberglass cloth in the glassing process, Proctor employs a combination of S-Glass and Kevlar (a product made by DuPont that’s five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis), which is used widely for military equipment, helmets, and bulletproof body armor because of its lightweight strength. Todd chooses Kevlar over materials like carbon fiber because Kevlar has better flex.
• A semi-closed-cell polystyrene foam core replaces the typical polyester foam that’s been used for decades to make surfboards. It’s more buoyant, so boards can be smaller and fit in the pocket of the wave better.
• Special epoxy resins formulated with flex agents allow the board to bend in all directions and increase the flex life of the board by five times.
• A flatter deck is a product of using more buyant materials and thus not needing to hide foam volume in the center of the board. The less-domey deck that’s achieved increases the flex characteristics of the board.
• Accelerated single concave on the bottom starts under the front foot and gradually deepens through the front fins. “When you push on the tail,” Todd says, “water accelerates through the fin cluster, producing drive.”
• A thinner tail makes for better flex and a more lively feeling board by reducing the rigidity and increasing torque.
• All fin systems are available including glass-ons, which are rare on epoxy boards.
Shaper’s Notes:
“Theres no such thing as the indestructible board,” says Todd. “Everything eventually breaks. Even the space shuttle breaks, but you can make something that lasts longer and retains its original traits.” Using new innovations in surfboard technology, like unique polystyrene foam instead of polyurethane, epoxy resin, Kevlar, and the DSD system, Todd hopes to make his boards smaller, lighter, and stronger, and by doing this, he hopes to help push modern surfing forward.
These aren’t pop-out boards; they’re custom shaped using a cutting edge computer-aided-design program invented by Luciano Leao that allows a shaper to modify his designs dow to the slightest detail.
All Proctor surfboards are custom made in Ventura, California.
Transworld Surf Magazine
Surf Science
Page 080
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