Kai Wa'a Surfski

Can it be true? Crossing over from OC1 (which I have one of his) to surskis?!

I can only imagine that it will be very downwind oriented.

Kai Wa'a Surfski news

I'm a jackass. Just looked back and I misspelled surfski. Ugh. It's hard being dumb sometimes!

Or maybe I just coined a new phrase. "Want to hit the water after lunch..........surefski!"

[Rob: Not to worry, fixed the heading...]

Yes it is true. Kai has a prototype surfski that people have been paddling on Maui, and it has been getting very good reviews.

I'm not sure when they'll be in production, but they'll be built by Outrigger Zone and if they're anything like the outriggers they build, the regular models should weigh at about 18 to 19 lbs (8.5 Kilos), with the pro models even lighter!

I'm willing to risk my life to demo one in flatwater. Just ship the surefski to my home is South Carolina. I'll even make a video for free.

Finally, someobdy in Hawaii is going to make a good modern ski.

Those Ares in the carbon layup are ridiculously light with a seemingly awesome build quality.

8.5kg? there has to be a catch, no?

The web says that my Antares is 18lbs. I think fully rigged (iakos an ama) its only like 24lbs. And that's for a nearly 21ft boat.

Just the canoe is crazy light. When you knock on it, it's like a super stiff egg shell. Not fun to move in strong winds.

I've said it before, but that's what a modern mutli-thousand $ ski should weigh. They are using a manufacturor with modern methods in China to build the skis. Monocoque construction.

Bikes and other sporting goods are years ahead of the current surfski offerings and its about time somebody got the skis up to date.

Davg, I find it kind of strange that people accept the weight of surfskis as they are, and yet at the same time are incredulous to see how light the outriggers are that are being produced presently. It seems that the OC-1 market has become weight driven, and that if you're not making a sub 20 lb (hull only) product you won't be getting sales.

Will the weight and manufacturing process of this new ski by Kai Wa'a/Ozone be a game changer for the surfski market?

Not sure what planet you guys are on but they were building 8.5kg skis nearly 10 years ago and are still doing it?

Who is "they"? Got a link?

Epic has their black carbon gen 1 v10's. Very basic ski. They weighed 8.5 kg's. That would be 8-10 years ago. I have a mate who still has one. Not sure if it still weighs 8.5kg. If Ranga says they make them just take it as gospel.

Check the video of Clint Robinson winning the Doctor. That was a super light ski.

Kai’s outriggers are monocoque cobstruction with no seam. I am not really sure how they do that. Does anybody know? I am imagining a boat shaped balloon that is wrapped in cloth and then inserted into a 2 piece mold and pumped up to high pressure. But I am day dreaming. I have no idea.

Zachhandler, you are probably pretty close to how they do that. One piece bike frames are made with a bladder / mold and put under high pressure. One of my bike frames is built like that and is very light and strong. It would be opposite of vacuum construction. The bladder is in the inside and then blown up in the mold, instead of the bag around it under vacuum. Im sure the lay up process is still the same either way.

The only thing is, sometimes the bladder has to remain as part off the structure. It is very possible for the ski to have an access point/hatch to remove the extra weight of the bladder. I'm not an expert by any means, but learned about the process through my years of cycling...

Don't like to burst your bubble but ALL ski are monocoque, there is no chassis that the ski bolts onto!
As for one piece construction Nelo have been doing that for many years, all the kayaks are made that way.
It is however possible to make a ski one piece but as there HAS to be a longitudinal stringer through the centre of the construction for strength, they no longer make them that way as they will snap very easily, as has been found to happen.
So just do a bit of research before statements are made that will make you look a bit foolish.

Ok Ranga - you seem to know a lot about this stuff. So how does Outrigger Zone make a carbon fiber OC1 with no seam?

OK so here is the part where we ask Ranga to follow up on his comments and he never does. So after 4 minutes of googling here is what I found.

From the Websters Dictionary (pretty reliable source from what I hear):
"a type of construction (as of a fuselage) in which the outer skin carries all or a major part of the stresses"

From the Ozone website:
"In 2011 we started work on our monocoque construction that is currently used to build the Storm and all of our ama’s. Rather than build the hull and deck separately, then bond them together with epoxy putty, the canoe is molded as a single unit. This process eliminates the hull/deck seam, which makes the canoe both stronger and a lot lighter"

So the term refers to the fact that the shell provides the strength instead of a chassis (or maybe stringer in this case to provide the strength. No bolts, its not a car.

Yes a monocoque is a one piece construction, joined separately or not, the structure is still the same, you save weight with no seam and there is no official join on the inside therefore it cannot split, in theory. However under load everything will break, like a fuselage that is why they have internal structures as skis do.

As for a car, most modern cars are monocoque as they have no chassis but still have all sorts of structure to make them stiff.

Bike parts are generally not made the same way as skis would be as the molds for bike parts are steel or ali hence can take a lot of internal pressure from a bladder, a large composite mold cannot take that sort of load so it would still be vacuumed with an internal bag after been blown up with low pressure. That is one way but assume there will be variations out there.

As for Outrigger Zone, without looking at it I would have no idea. All I know most of the outriggers I have repaired are very light but NOT very strong, hence they come to me in a few pieces where I have to make them one piece again.

Relative to lightweight skis and balloons, remember this one guys?

www.surfski.info/reviews/surfskis/story/...tra-ultra-elite.html