My 145lts Fanatic Allwave SUP, many years old now, no vent or gortex vent plug and never an issue. I do wonder if they are needed at all unless you fly with your gear.

Epoxy softens at anything over 90?c, using heat is how we disassemble bonded aviation parts. Leaving a board to cook inside a board bag in the hot Sun is a really bad idea. Try putting your hand inside a the bag one day on the surface of the board and feel how hot it is. I doubt a gortex vent would relieve the increasing pressure fast enough before delam occurs, especially if the vent is old.

Great testing Mark, good to know these vents are mostly crap.

So some questions arise here for me ....
How do Severne and Simmer get away with it ?
And more importantly I`m about to buy some new boards , so what type do I buy then ? ideally i would like to keep them for while lol .

It's interesting the goretex vent is more expensive than just a bung.
I guess it's a marketing thing, or maybe ignorant customer pressure.

(edit)
It's easy to get sucked in, I put goretx vents in a few of my boards until I accidentally discovered that water on the inside prevents venting.

Having used a few hollow boards I can tell you the biggest pressure difference is when the hot board first hits the water. You could really hear the air whistling into the vent. So by closing a manual vent on a hot board on the beach before getting in water actually traps a vacuum inside the board during use. Now any minor pin hole or crack will actively be sucking water most of the session. If one vent is not enough just use 4 like the new starboard ??

DarrylG ............ so you reckon gortex or no bungs at all ?

Yay
4x the chance that a tiny membrane fails.

Its very telling that the Goretex people say to mount it on a vertical surface where it won't get water pooling or contaminants. That's cos these are designed for venting electrical enclosures on dry land.
I strongly suspect the first surfcraft use was a huge mistake and they had to cover up their lack of ability to read the specs / intended use by continuing to run with it.

Don't get me wrong its better than nothing ..... but they know it only works briefly and don't care as warranty is 12mths and a fail rate of 5% is ok

I'm working on a manual replacement.

I had my Carbon Art Speed SP40 for 18 years and it never de-lamed with it's membrane plug. That included taking it to Africa and back by air! That one was destroyed in the trailer fire.
I now have 3 others on hand, and a Mistral 41 speed of the same vintage. (One CA SP40 has had repairs), and they are still sound. Maybe I was just lucky? All used in salt water.

A mate did have one if his CA's delaminate. There could have been water in it from a repair though?

My old Starboard Isonics from 2008-2010 have the steel plugs and I very rarely undid them. Both are still in my shed and perfectly sound (again), although the IS87 is very tatty and the IS110 has has some repairs after I punctured it on some snags.

I have not been undoing the vents on my new Isonics, but after reading all this I think I will from now on.

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Yawning said..
DarrylG ............ so you reckon gortex or no bungs at all ?

One of each
Arrive at beach and do up your manual vent.
Then the membrane vent maintains the daily fluctuations ( in /
put of water etc)

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Mark _australia said..

I'm working on a manual replacement.

The goretex plugs have regular metric threads. I think a they are m12 and come in different pitches. Couldn't they be simply replaced by a screw with a o-ring?

Yup and there is one but its too hard to find. I'm doing a grub screw with a washer glued on

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Mark _australia said..
Yup and there is one but its too hard to find. I'm doing a grub screw with a washer glued on

Would 3d printing be able to form the part ? or maybe multiple parts and assemble it ?

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Yawning said..

Mark _australia said..
Yup and there is one but its too hard to find. I'm doing a grub screw with a washer glued on

Would 3d printing be able to form the part ? or maybe multiple parts and assemble it ?

Yes but any excess torque and the layers separate very easily so you would need spares / ensure you don't over tighten.

They have been designed, here is one I found M12 - cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/sup-vent-screw

Typical Windsurf Vent Screw - www.thingiverse.com/thing:4150597

If it is simply a M12 course thread, there are all different headed plastic bolts on Ebay.

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Mark _australia said..
Yup and there is one but its too hard to find. I'm doing a grub screw with a washer glued on

Or just grab some of these:

www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/aeroflow-metric-port-plug-m12-x-1.5/SPO3820905.html#q=m12x1.5&srsltid=AfmBOoqPQALizzdHRtryE8LoSZls0rtvgakEhHQOau1MTAcb3T33_BoQ&start=26

Just says "silver finish" not necessarily marine quality stainless.
You'd probably have a blob of rust after not very long.

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decrepit said..
Just says "silver finish" not necessarily marine quality stainless.
You'd probably have a blob of rust after not very long.

Used one on Severne Alien for three years, no rust at all. I did remove after ever session though, like a vent plug should be

That is a super simple part that can be done in aluminum. I have a wing board with the goretex plugs Bought it used and just replaced the vent. I only use it in fresh water so I have a couple of years to learn how to make threads in my mini lathe.

I drilled a hole up the middle of one of these to fix a lamp. They come in M12 but I don't know about the thread pitch.

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WillyWind said..

Mark _australia said..

I'm working on a manual replacement.

The goretex plugs have regular metric threads. I think a they are m12 and come in different pitches. Couldn't they be simply replaced by a screw with a o-ring?

Bunnings have 12mm nylon bolts, file or grind the head to round and cut a slot and you're all good.

All these are a lot of Fkn around to have a supply of 20 of then

most plastic ones are too long
the ones designed to work with a screwdriver cos way too much for what they are so that's why I said working on something. Like a buck each max.. not $10 each

The ones I showed are a couple of bucks each, with a nut.

The ones I looked up on eBay were $0.70 ea when buying 50 inc postage. 20 mm long. There are hundreds to look at. Some 10 mm long. Worth a look.

I'm a bit surprised, reading the posts in this thread.
I have had no issues using Gortex vents in my current boards, here in the UK.
The lack of a removable vent screw has meant I can just leave the board, even for air travel.

I do understand that the board then adjusts to ambient temperature and to the humidity in the air, on its own.
In winter, I keep my favourite wave boards inside my home, to store the boards in low humidity, and which then keeps them lighter.

For sure, it's still important to check the rest of the board laminate for water ingress.

The problem some people are missing here, is that when the board is holed, a Gortex vent allows air to escape as water comes in. So the water comes in more easily.
The key problem however, is still the puncture hole in your board, and not the vent.


In summary: Fix any hole in your board!
And then store your board in a dry space so that it dries out - or stays dry on those damp/high humidity days.
Stop blaming the style of vent!

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Basher said..>>>Stop blaming the style of vent!

Basher you miss the point enntirely.
Yes he vents will be mainly fine if your board has never had a ding.
But once water, (especially salt) gets inside the board that's when the problem starts. Water/moisture on the inside of the vent will stop it venting.
You can't completely dry a board out once water has got in.

On my gortex vent tests. I used tap water, not salt.

Once I had tried the vent the wrong way round, it wouldn't vent in either direction.
It never recovered!
Even through the Aussie summer left to dry out.

I was planing to use this vent in a board, and expected it to recover, so I could.
But after that experience I went back to ordinary bungs.

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Basher said..
I'm a bit surprised.........

We are all surprised you didn`t read the spec sheet for these vents

Basher did you even read my post? They don't vent after a while

the specs say no pooling of water on top or contaminants (salt)

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Mark _australia said..
Basher did you even read my post? They don't vent after a while

the specs say no pooling of water on top or contaminants (salt)

You are right gore vent srew are not designed to vent boxes in water. Our tests show that it can do it a little in our use, but without reliability and not for long. First firewire surfboards had Bert Burger gore vents (like sunova) then they disapeared from boards. Not enough effective? Not needed? Too expensive? May be a little of all...
Not a windsurf expert but the screw in chinook mast box seems for me really effective and reliable. Never forget to screw it, can't put mast base if open.

These M12 X 1,5 screws from Amazon work perfectly as a replacement for my Flikka GoreTex vent: www.amazon.de/dp/B0DC9NG8V3?th=1

I'd prefer a normal screw vent to a Goretex valve, seeing as Goretex doesnt last forever and it wont be obvious if it fails. Living in the UK there isnt the same high temperatures as in Oz. I've kept boards inside a van permanently, never touched the screw valve, always left it shut and never had a problem. I generally keep boards 5-8 years or longer, replacing them when they are worn out. Before I got a van, boards have been left inside a car during the day. The only delamination was due to other factors, on the deck of a lightweight slalom board from gybing where the feet go and a very small area on the nose on another board from catapults.
That included a board painted black. After one session I noticed water bubbles coming out of a tiny hole in the hull. The board was up against the van in the sun so it heated up. If it had a Goretex vent the air expanding would likely have come through the vent. So having a screw in vent was a bonus there as the hole wasnt visible.
The only board I unscrew the vent on is an AHD as the importer stressed it should be undone. Maybe AHD have had issues.
My newer AV board has a Goretex vent, and I am thinking of putting a screw in vent instead of relying on the Goretex.
Of course, the board is probably already knackered by now, as I havent kept it inside my house in the winter, according to Basher. Jeez.
Thanks to Mark for doing these tests, it has further convinced me to avoid Goretex vents in the future.

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Te Hau said..
Bunnings have 12mm nylon bolts, file or grind the head to round and cut a slot and you're all good.

They completely deny that, searched online and with two staff members
Trying to avoid lots of modifying too.

I want lots, to supply to customers.

The F-One or Naish ones are perfect but neither are stocked commonly in Oz, not at a realistic price