Tiki

Tiki latest R&D.

40 years ago we started making surfboards. 5 years ago we began a development process. Traditional custom board materials are outdated and toxic and we had the world’s best resin experts at our fingertips.

In 2007 we released SLX. Stringered, EPS cores, Epoxy lay-ups. Lightweight, strong, super responsive and not super expensive. Not a bad 1^st try.

Then we added Biaxial cloth to improve the strength to weight ratio, tried multiple fin boxes, foam inserts, patches, parabolic stringers.

Finding the limits of standard cloths we went to Carbon; top sheets, rails, stringerless configurations. Getting a little pricey we brought it back down a notch to an SLX, Carbon combo: the CLX. And if you want strong, light and responsive. That’s pretty much the one – available 2011.

But we wanted more. We’d used technology to make the custom board materials lighter and more durable and much less toxic.

But what if we could make them surf better?

Bamboo. Up and running again, we used a sheet on an SLX board. It was terrible! Forget dropping a piece of bamboo onto a stringered epoxy board. It sucks up resin, weighs a ton and with the stringer in place doesn’t flex at all.

So we took the stringer out and broke a load of boards. So we developed a higher density EPS foam (6 x denser than the industry standard), combined our knowledge of parabolic rails and Carbon and developed a HD-EPS, Stringerless, Carbon, Bamboo combo.

It’s a bit of a mouthful so here’s a summary:

These boards weigh a fraction of your board. They are stronger than anything we’ve produced before. They combine the natural feeling flex of Bamboo with the precise response of Carbon rails.

We 3 have shapes by legendary shaper Bruce Mckee, from 5’6 to 6’10.

Check it out here: www.tikisurf.co.uk