Any body out there had first hand experience with boards made with parabolic stringer blanks ? Perfomance,cost,strength etc.

What kind of Parabolic stringer are you talking about?

there's the solid balsa rail ones - names escaping me
the carbon tape ones - fibreflex style
or there's ones with a 1/8" strip between the rail where the rail and body of the surfboard are different densities.

Whats a parabolic stringer?

Thanks crazy canuk,Iwasn't aware of anything but the solid balsa or ply type.are you familiar with how any of the 3 types you listed change the performance of a board ?Are they sronger etc etc ?

yes first hand experience - i snapped mine on the 3rd surf!

so walkington, I'd like more info about your bad parabolic experience.was the board an experiment or was it made by someone who knew what they were doing ?what sort of material was used for the parabolic stringers ?was the surf cranking or did the shore dump get you ?

hey lucky... also snapped my board in tiny surf... hardly used... balsa rails... reputable brand... epoxy glass job.
i have also heard many other stories of these boards snapping a little too easily... my advice is to stay away from them and stick with traditional shaping methods and poly glass jobs, plenty of local guys still manufacturing so buy aussie made

Lucky - take some of what every one says (including me) with a grain of salt I've got a couple mate that ride the balsa rail boards most of them are a little over 2 years on them and they surf 5 times or so a week on their boards.

That's not to say it won't snap there a lot of different factors that go into why a board snaps. Don't forget standard poly boards break all the time as well.

Lucky, sorry for my slow response,...been getting pitted all week down south.
The board I snapped was a Firewire, the one with balsa rails. To their credit the company gave me a replacement board for free (one that was sitting in their factory and used for testing by customers etc). The replacement board was 2nd hand, but better than nothing.

I submitted the photos of the snapped board a couple of months ago to this forum.

The board rides very well for a mal, but dont listen to anyone that claims parabolic stringers are stronger than standard boards - they aren't! If you buy one do it coz you like the board not coz you think it will last longer than a normal PU board.