"Coil Technology (surfboard)"
Broken down to the basics, Coil technology is the vacuum-lamination of an EPS foam core to engineer better flex,  better durability, and better ride into a hand-shaped board. Developed by Kirk and Eric Brasington, the Coil process first involves a light-weight stringerless EPS core, hand-shaped to stock or custom spec and engineered to sprinkle flex, tension, and torsion in all the right places. Next comes 2x to 3x more fiberglass than is used in standard surfboard construction. Of course, you are now thinking the more glass, the stiffer the board will be; however, Coil utilizes vacuum-bagging to drive out excess resin, which is really the source of stiffness when putting down more glass on a board (Hint: think fishing rods; their high-glass, low resin content allows them to be very strong, yet very flexible). There are a number of other steps and specs that go into the Coil tech that have not been revealed to me or I cannot discuss, but the end product is a very light board with a lot of spring and pop, resulting in a very lively but controllable feel on the wave.
While these boards are very durable, it is not at the sacrifice of performance. The Brasington brothers, solid board-designers/shapers themseleves, also brought on master-shaper Mike Daniel (Mike is too  humble to claim this, so I’m sticking that label on him), who custom-shaped my board. This think-tank of designers and shapers (talking to these guys about shape, design, and flex is like taking an upper-level physics class), to help mesh the shape of the boards with the features of the technology to best take advantage of the features of Coil construction. Currently Coil technology is offered as their own in-house label as well as through WRV (Wave Riding Vehicles). Lots of pros and Joes have been riding Coils for some time, and an underground movement seems to be building steam.
A very important thing to note is that these boards do not feel much different than a really well-shaped, lightweight polyurethene/polester board (read: no epoxy chatter, lightweight skitter, or over-stiff feeling; the board feels fresh, but not foreign) UNTIL you drive it off the bottom or lay it on rail. It is then that the board, and the technology, really shines. The more you push against it, the more it loads up and recoils out of the turn.
From my experiences, my board has a hell of a gas-pedal and drives down the line like a bullet-train on rails; this board just locks in and hold strong in the barrel, as it should. As you may recall, we have been getting a run of solid South swells with steep drops and throating barrels. Believe it or not, I was about 3 sessions in before I really got a chance to start testing carves and turns on it; up until that fourth day I had been riding wave after wave of elevator-drops to steep barrels with very few opportunities to turn. When I did finally find some corners on which to lay it down, I definitely found that the harder I pushed, the better the board worked. The board really likes to swoop and carve and has a really crisp carry-through on the shoulder, and really likes it when you put the hammer down through turns. I am still unlocking the performance of the board, and as stoked as a kid with a bucket-full of Pixie Sticks.
As for the durability, let’s just say I put the board into a few pretty risky situations; one in particular comes to mind: an attempted floater over a close-out/suck-out section to a vertical nose-dive, buried the nose to about the mid-point of the board and watched the wave steamroll the tail section. I had that instinctive oh-sh*t, I-really-liked-that-board feeling in my gut, but came back up to the surface to see my board intact and ready to go do it again. Needless to say, I am very relieved that it held up, especailly after halving my last expensive wonder-tech board (the 6’2” Firewire Flexfire I reviewed previously) in far-less ciritical circumstances. I have also manged to get myself and the board solidly crushed a few times in shallow-sandbar barrels and I put my elbow into the bottom of the board twice will protecting my face during beatdowns, and the board has come through like a champ with no dings or dents whatsoever. None. Nothing. I am still pretty dumbfounded by it. I get the impression I could go at this board with a mallet and do little to no damage.
Coil’s custom-approach and customer service is top-notch, and the final product lives up to the build-up. While there is an additional expense up-front (base-price is currently around $650, give-or-take, plus shipping) for a board built with Coil technology due to the amount of materials, equipment, and labor that goes into building them, they are considerably less expensive than the other high-tech boards out there (Avisos, Firewires, and TL2’s), and I even see poly Merricks and …losts on the racks with pricetags of equal or higher price. The fact that I think this board is not in two pieces after some of the situations in which I have put it, and has me stoked out of my freaking mind to ride it, convinces me the board is a sound purchase/investment.
You can check out www.coilsurf.com for some more info. The website is due for a revamp, which I have been told is coming soon, but all the info is there. You can also search “coil” at www.swaylocks.com and www.surfermag.com/forum . I also plan to be at the NJ Anything But Three with an insane small-wave Coil quad-vertible, so find me there.
Finally, the current board (6'3" x 18 7/8" x 2 1/4") I have is a “keeper”, but since I am building up my dream quiver in Coil technology, I will be posting the current board on the Buy Stuff page soon (includes traction, noseguard, and a set of VF460 RTM Vector fins), or you can get a jump on it and contact me directly at sak@eastcoastsurfer.com .
Also, check out the Coil being ridden to victory by Jose Graves at the Barbados Reef Classic in the video below. |
