Why use balsa wood for surfboard material?
This material was used before to create good, easy to a surfboard. But now most manufacturers use mixed materials, foam and more to achieve good quality. In the windsurf shop you can see that most of the boards are no longer made of balsa wood or are used not only it
A. It makes more ecological sense to harvest balsa as it only takes 6 years to mature and can weigh just 4 lbs per cubic foot, it isnt the lightest wood in the world-but its weight to strength ratio and flex makes it an ideal surfboard material. Balsa boards are legendary in surf history; in the 50s Greg Noll broke a taboo and rode Waimea bay on a balsa board! Today Laird Hamilton uses a balsa board for big wave tow-ins. The truth about balsa wood surfboards is that they have proven they surf under pressure from immensely powerful waves, time and time again.
