I've surfed for more than 30 years, but I am newer to Rich's boards and the Harbour community. My newest board is a one-year old Banana, and on the other end of the continuum I have a 25-year old longboard revival bluntnose that I bought new, and a high performance longboard that's about a decade old. And in between, I'm currently owner/caretaker of a newer SR type board shaped by Tim, a San-O, my son's Turbo, a Harbour Fish, etc.
Here are the questions. On a longboard, how many of you can genuinely feel "flex"? (I can feel it on the Turbo - but it's thin, has lighter glass, etc. And I've recently owned a new shortboard Surftech: it felt "dead" to me.) Does shelf life have any impact on flex? I raise the latter, b/c my shortboard Hawaiian surfing buddy swears that the boards he leaves at his elderly mom's house in Oahu "feel dead" after a few years even though they've only been in the water a handful of times. I'm doubtful. (Of course, my Hawaiian buddy loved the Surftech.) Is there any industry science correlating a surfboard's shelf life and loss of flex?
If surfboards should have expiration dates, most of mine are expired.
