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All You Should Know about Surfboard Stringers
The role of a stringer in a surfboard construction can’t be overestimated.
Though being just a thin stripe usually made of wood material and lying along its length or rarely, along the perimeter, this insignificant surface part of your board is responsible for much flex combined with maximum strength.
First being introduced in 1958 by the legendary shaper Gordon Dwayne, commonly known as the founder of the “Gordie Surfboards” company, it has become an integral feature of a modern surfboard though having been changed greatly.
The closure of “Clark Foam” production in 2005 posed a challenge to all the shapers. It has become an evolutionary era of the search for new both ecological and high-tech materials for surfboard design.
The stringer design materials weren’t immune to this innovative process.
It was the matter of not only materials the rails were commonly made of but also of the placement of these materials inside the blank. Hence, there can be defined several types of surfboard stringers.
The Choice of Materials in Past and Present
Just a while ago, only wood was used as the main material for rail production. Even today, the most common types of wood material are balsa, birch, basswood, red cedar, plywood, redwood, and spruce.
And still, balsa material prevails due to its small weight (half lighter than other woods) together with its density.
But today, carbon fiber ribs drive away wooden stringers from the surf market.
This high-tech material can be compared with balsa but carbon fiber stringers are simpler in their production and the material itself is more ecologically friendly regarding the extraction of balsa timber material.
The Placement of Stringers in the Foam
It’s decidedly the most classical variant of rail placement.
It lies down the bottom side from the nose up to the tail of a surfboard dividing the blank into two symmetrical parts.
A single or central rail is traditionally made of wood material, usually balsa. Its purpose is to strengthen the board in order to reach a better ratio of rigidity and flex and prevent it from shakiness.
Parabolic Stringer
Actually, it presents a combination of two ribs curved in the form of a parabola. It lies along the perimeter of the surfboard close to its rails.
It is typically used in surfboards of larger width. The common material today is carbon fiber.
A parabolic stringer gives even more strength to the surfboard than a central one.
Surfboards with a parabolic rail obtain such a key quality as memory flex that helps the surfboard to recover after sharp turns and prevents the foam from breaking.
Another property of a parabolic rib surfboard is that it allows shifting from one rail to another which makes the whole process of surfing more diverse.
And still, a double stringer gives more weight than a single one but it’s not a disadvantage in this case. It allows more control to the surfer together with much speed.
Multiple Stringers
Usually, it’s a system of stringers where the main one is central and the others are considered to be additional.
The purpose of adding ribs is to strengthen the middle part of a surf.
Such stringers present necessity in huge surfboards such as longboards but, in general, those are guns that comply with the larger surface.
No stringers
Today, you can also find stringerless surfboards on the surf market.
Such boards are fully made of high-tech materials such as epoxy and carbon fiber that are often combined together in the so-called sandwich design.
Sometimes, they are also coreless. Such a design allows for avoiding the use of rails.
