Patent ID: 7963815

Claim:
A process for producing an aquatic sports board having broad generally planar top and bottom surfaces and curved edge portions, comprising: preforming a left side board substrate portion and a right side board substrate portion, each said portion providing a convex shape-defining exterior surface and said board substrate portions being formed to be mutually symmetrical about a common longitudinal axis; and vacuum thermoforming a structural exterior skin about the exterior convex surface of each of said board substrate portions, said structural exterior skin being formed with a layer of vacuum-thermoformed plastic conforming to said board substrate portion, said vacuum thermoforming being accomplished by heating said layer to facilitate deformation in proximity to said shape-defining exterior surface and evacuating the space between said layer and said surface such that said structural exterior skin has a single continuous surface on both sides of the point of greatest breadth of the board and through the area of sharpest curvature of the board surface, thereby forming a perimeter rail intermediately connecting the top and bottom surfaces of the board; and joining said left side board substrate portion and said right side board substrate portion together and bonding said structural exterior skin to said substrate portions, either before or after said joining, to form a complete perimeter rail portion of the board.