JP Australia construction

Hi all
I have been wanting to get my hands on a JP SLW for a while and been hoping to get a used one at a good price but after a year and a half looking it seems i have buckleys of this happening. The retail supplier I go through sells a fair few of them each year but there are NONE coming up for sale used. I have seen one in 18 months looking but it was a first generation 2011 and I was too slow to move on it. So I am resigned to buying a new one. Now this is where I'm a bit confused. For 20/21 models the gold/pro/fws has been ditched and they are now gold/lxt construction only.
The gold is going to be around $4400+board bag (Ouch!), the lxt around 3200+bag, yep that's $1200 cheaper. The supplier is unsure at the moment of the different construction materials due to lack of specific information about this on JP website as there is a new owner. So its fairly obvious, Gold: high or full carbon and very light yet maybe easier to ding. LXT: 2kg heavier and probably tougher. So does anyone out there know what lxt construction actually is. Is it just the new full wood sandwich?. Is it actually tougher than the gold?. Its been a long time since I've been catapulted and dinged a board but I would still rather be standing on a couple of extra kgs if its tougher, especially if it puts $1200 in my pocket. Any and all advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

There is a German shop which makes videos for youtube and they talk about construction.
Its in German of course, but you can get auto translations to English in the settings. Thats quite amusing as it translates LXT to electricity, amongst other errors
I prefer all carbon but with extra reinforcement than a lightweight slalom board for this type of board, but the cost is becoming too expensive (by the time all those in the supply chain have added on their %), unless you get a custom board made.
Their Gold is some fancy looking carbon, on show for the looks, but a heat magnet.

I guess the LXT is the old 'Pro' biaxil glass on the deck and the old 'FWS' wood sandwich on the hull.

Superride here, but guess the Superlight is the same. The shop also does a video of the Gold.

For the Gold, they still have footstrap plugs in the beginner inboard positions. Why? Adds weight and surely beginners wont buy an expensive full carbon board.

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tonyk said..
Only 400grams weight difference between to two construction types
There is a full discriptiom on the construction for each on JP website
jp-australia.com/p/windsurfing/boards/super-lightwind/
Hope helps, choice is pretty easy 400grams or $1200 off

The previous model JP construction FWS was awesome, hopefully using recycled materials doesn't mean they don't last as long because boards that end up at tip after couple of years ain't going reduce waste and save the planet

Its the first time I've seen JP put a diagram and details of the construction on the website. In the past I've emailed them about their 'Pro' and there was little carbon in the board from what they said, it was mainly biaxil glass.

Those weights given are odd.
Superlight 400g difference between LXT & Gold, 165l/92cm.
Superride is 800g difference for the 124l/72cm board.
Supersport is 800g difference for the 122l/76cm board.

All 3 are the same constructions. I'd expect the much larger Superlight board to have the greater weight difference. I could believe 1400g difference between Gold & LXT.

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Gestalt said..

tonyk said..
Only 400grams weight difference between to two construction types
There is a full discriptiom on the construction for each on JP website
jp-australia.com/p/windsurfing/boards/super-lightwind/
Hope helps, choice is pretty easy 400grams or $1200 off

The previous model JP construction FWS was awesome, hopefully using recycled materials doesn't mean they don't last as long because boards that end up at tip after couple of years ain't going reduce waste and save the planet

worldwide legislation is beginning to change to force industry to use sustainable materials. companies that can't adjust will disappear. Starboard is in the box seat so JP really had to get onboard sooner rather than later to protect themselves down the track. In the next 10 years using carbon will become problematic unless recycled carbon fiber or bio carbon becomes a reality. interesting times ahead.

Yep eventually found the technical info on JP website. The LXT is constructed mainly of paulownia wood, PET recycled sandwich, glass fibre and a couple of other things which I've got no idea of what they are, no mention of carbon at all, and tonyk was right its only 400gm heavier than the carbon gold construction, big difference from the previous almost 2kg difference and its $1200 cheaper. Its a no brainer for me the LXT would be the way to go, surely the carbon in the gold would not cost $1200 more to make, maybe its like a carbon tax or something to discourage the use of the material. I have never been a big fan of carbon anyway, i mean if you have a raw piece of wood veneer and a raw piece of carbon the wood is much stronger to start with so would that mean if you add the same epoxy to both materials the wood is still going to be stronger and more impact resistant. sure its a bit heavier but not by much in most cases. Future mast construction will be interesting without carbon, powerex has a line of masts now with bamboo fibres infused in them. Bamboo is apparently stronger and a lot more flexible than carbon weight for weight ,sometimes mother natures materials can not be matched by man.

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mob dog said..


Yep eventually found the technical info on JP website. The LXT is constructed mainly of paulownia wood, PET recycled sandwich, glass fibre and a couple of other things which I've got no idea of what they are, no mention of carbon at all, and tonyk was right its only 400gm heavier than the carbon gold construction, big difference from the previous almost 2kg difference and its $1200 cheaper. Its a no brainer for me the LXT would be the way to go, surely the carbon in the gold would not cost $1200 more to make, maybe its like a carbon tax or something to discourage the use of the material. I have never been a big fan of carbon anyway, i mean if you have a raw piece of wood veneer and a raw piece of carbon the wood is much stronger to start with so would that mean if you add the same epoxy to both materials the wood is still going to be stronger and more impact resistant. sure its a bit heavier but not by much in most cases. Future mast construction will be interesting without carbon, powerex has a line of masts now with bamboo fibres infused in them. Bamboo is apparently stronger and a lot more flexible than carbon weight for weight ,sometimes mother natures materials can not be matched by man.

Sorry man carbon is a lot stronger than plain wood veneer with resin. Plus also to consider:
- Natural materials have faults and variation for a start, and that causes failure points. = some boards break and others don't. Hardly fair on the consumer. Density also varies a lot in wood.
- Carbon is stiffer so yes some things are stronger or more flexible, like kevlar or dyneema etc, but that makes a flexy strong board and you often want stiffness for other reasons. Its best to have a blend of materials used the right way in different places. Like a full innegra board would be bulletproof but flex a lot more so delaminate under the heels badly. All the fibre intact so not "broken" but the movement causing delam. That's why we patch heels with nice stiff carbon, and as its brittle also use a bit of wood and/or glass there too.
On the nose to protect from mast strikes though, glass or kevlar instead of carbon.

But yeah $1200 more for carbon is disgusting. I'm a little guy making a few customs and I can get carbon at $30 per meter at the right places so JP wouldn't be paying that........

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mob dog said..

Yep eventually found the technical info on JP website. The LXT is constructed mainly of paulownia wood, PET recycled sandwich, glass fibre and a couple of other things which I've got no idea of what they are, no mention of carbon at all, and tonyk was right its only 400gm heavier than the carbon gold construction, big difference from the previous almost 2kg difference and its $1200 cheaper. Its a no brainer for me the LXT would be the way to go, surely the carbon in the gold would not cost $1200 more to make, maybe its like a carbon tax or something to discourage the use of the material. I have never been a big fan of carbon anyway, i mean if you have a raw piece of wood veneer and a raw piece of carbon the wood is much stronger to start with so would that mean if you add the same epoxy to both materials the wood is still going to be stronger and more impact resistant. sure its a bit heavier but not by much in most cases. Future mast construction will be interesting without carbon, powerex has a line of masts now with bamboo fibres infused in them. Bamboo is apparently stronger and a lot more flexible than carbon weight for weight ,sometimes mother natures materials can not be matched by man.

All the following figures a bit of a guess but I had a look on a UK materials website at the cost of a 100m roll of carbon v glass. I worked out it would be approx ?100 difference for a carbon v glass board.
If the carbon raw materials cost ?100 more than glass, by the time the manufacturer has added on their %, the brand theirs, followed by import tariff, distributor/importer, then shop, then VAT on top of all of that, it is 3.5 - 4 times the cost of the raw material.
I've been keeping an eye on price increases in the UK since Brexit, and the price just goes up by a % each year. Its never maintained a ?100 difference a board, carbon v glass. So after a few years carbon boards cost far more than glass. Hence they are stopping making full carbon boards for freeride/freerace and just have full carbon for slalom.

Edit - some brands have stopped making full carbon boards.

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Mark _australia said..

Sorry man carbon is a lot stronger than plain wood veneer with resin. Plus also to consider:
- Natural materials have faults and variation for a start, and that causes failure points. = some boards break and others don't. Hardly fair on the consumer. Density also varies a lot in wood.

How do you bend wood over complex double concave hull shapes, 'v' in the hull, quite significant dome shape in the deck. I've no doubt that some of the older Starboard wooden decked boards are durable, and they seem to be returning to those, but building wooden boards doesn't sound right to me.

for me buying, carbon cloth is 6-7 times the cost of fiberglass cloth. there is about $150 of fiberglass cloth in a board.

my personal opinion is, if built well, a wood and fiberglass board is pretty hard to beat construction for the average punter.

Regarding the difference in weights between the Gold & LXT constructions, I emailed them. They replied, albeit a bit slowly. Just because its on a website, doesn't mean it is accurate.

Hello Phil. Thanks for your message. The weights on the webpage of the Super Lightwind were estimations. You were right that the data would not be correct. But there was no point in making more "estimations". Now the database of weights was updated and are no estimations anymore. There difference is 1 kg.Gold: 8,3 kg | LXT: 9,3 kg Thanks for your patience. YourJP team

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MarkSSC said..

PhilUK said.


How do you bend wood over complex double concave hull shapes, 'v' in the hull, quite significant dome shape in the deck. I've no doubt that some of the older Starboard wooden decked boards are durable, and they seem to be returning to those, but building wooden boards doesn't sound right to me.

80 years ago they built the world's fastest aeroplane and it was made out of wood. The British De Havilland Mosquito had many complex curves and was aerodynamically clean, so it must be possible to bend wood around complex curves if you know how. That being said, they are yet to make a bulletproof vest out of wood so my guess is that carbon and kevlar construction win the strength test. Even so, it is the multiple layers, composite construction method, that provides the real strength.

Yeah, I've seen people heat wood up with steam first to make it more pliable and bend it into shape, but dont see how you could use steam in an environment with resin.

^^^ Yes for skateboard decks lol

For our application, it's 0.6mm pine that bends to curves just fine with vacuum bagging.
Compound curves are harder, so it will split near the nose and tail but that's shy you will often see wedge / dart / relief cuts at the ends (if the board is full wood. Its not an issue - I just let it split where it wants to and fill that little bit later before the final lamination.