Technology / Build

HELM Surfboards - Advantage

NO WAX, NO MESS, NO WORRIES.
Designed by HELM Supplies, our surfboards are created by master shaper, board-building veteran, and former professional surfer Clyde Beatty Jr with his team of experts.  First, we build a real glassed surfboard using high-quality materials: EPS foam blank with wood stringer, and vacuum bagged fiberglass/epoxy resin lamination, providing optimal flex, weight, and characteristics of a modern board.  We've taken an extra step by wrapping the entire deck + rails with a soft and flexible rubber-like traction.  
***This hybrid construction adds many benefits, wax-free traction keeps your board clean, adds durability to dings/cracks, protection to the rider (& others) from impact, while still performing as well as any surfboard in the market, if not better.  Created with the intent to have maximum fun in any condition, an all-purpose, carefree board built to enjoy the journey.

• Clyde's extensive knowledge of building surfboards through years of experience figuring out optimal rocker formulas, thickness flow, fin placement, etc.
• Easy paddling and exceptional wave-catching ability providing speed out the gates by hiding foam in the right places.
• Rails are hand-sanded to achieve the intended curve and rail apex for sensitivity and maneuverability.  
• Custom-formulated epoxy resin helps dampen the EPS/Epoxy for a more familiar connected feel to the water.
• Glass bottom with planning hull contours and hand “sanded laminar flow finish” makes for less water friction and maximum speed.

HELM Surfboards - Production & Process

Custom EPS Blank

• CNC machine cut EPS blank to start, everything else is hand finished: Shape finish, lamination/glassing, EVA wrap, and sanding.

• Vacuum bag laminating/glassing process provides an evenly distributed, tighter and lighter finish with higher fiber-to-epoxy ratios resulting in a higher strength-to-weight ratio product.

• Longitudinal fine grit nose to tail sand finish - known to be the best bottom finish for the board to attain maximum speed.
• Water flow and Friction: The finish affects how water flows over the board. Generally speaking, a polished smooth surface is going to be slower through the water because the polish is wax and wax is a drag coefficient.
• On the other hand, a sanded slightly textured surface, usually microscopic, will pick up a layer of air in the small scratches, creating an air-to-water contact which is the fastest finish, making for less friction and more speed.

HELM Surfboards - Material information

• Custom lightweight EPS core.
• Density: 24 kg/m3, approximate 1.5 lbs.

• High strength, high impact, custom epoxy resin formulated through years of R&D.

• Double 6oz fiberglass on both deck and bottom.
• Glassing schedule dampens the EPS/Epoxy chatter for a more familiar connected feel to the water.

• 1/ 8" Wood Stringer: boards 7’0 and below.
• 1/4" Wood Stringer: boards 7’0 and up.

• EVA is an elastomeric polymer that produces materials that are "rubber-like" in softness and flexibility. The material has low-temperature toughness, stress crack resistance, hot-melt adhesive waterproof properties, and resistance to UV radiation.
• Hand sanded rails provide a refined apex, rail shape, and performance profile. 

• Authentic FCS II fin box system.
• Compatible with FCS II and FCS (2 tab) fins.