The Factory

Decay Kiteboards are manufactured in our very own  factory on Kepa Rd in Northland, New Zealand.  The 200sqm facility is well fitted out with a family of machinery which makes it possible for the high quality boards to be manufactured to modern world standards.  

Decay headquarters are in the heart of the factory, where all the new boards begin.  Here's an overview of the journey a board will take from inception to completion. 

Board order, design & graphic

When DK is contacted about a new board he'll go over all the design criteria with the customer before starting the board, including shape, size, core and lamination criteria.  The customer will then decide what graphic to go for.  

Graphics can be as simple as a single colour or clear wood finished board with a colour or clear rail,  or more complicated combinations of colours and clears in the laminate and the rail.

For our Full Colour Embedded Graphics we print the design of your choice onto either cotton or silk using Big Betty (the wide format printer).  Photo quality prints are possible, but small detail does not have the same impact as bold lines.

The Core

The most common core material we use is New Zealand grown Paulownia.  Paulownia is an Asian Native hardwood, which thrives in the Central North Island of New Zealand.  Our Paulownia cores are grown in the Waikato and milled and glued to size in Keri Keri, Northland.

We also create WebCore boards - a combination of wood and PVC foam - and traditional PVC foam core boards.

The Laminate

We have done laminations with carbon, fibre glass and a multitude of combinations with different weights and weaves.  The laminate has as much effect on the feel of a board as the core shape and material.  

Our standard boards have 600gm/sqm of Fibre-glass top and bottom.  We do not use any plastics/thermoplastics on the outer shell of the board, as these do not bond well and once damaged are near impossible to succesfully repair.

Our graphics are placed under a layer of glass and are therefore hardwearing.

The first process the core goes through is the machining of the rail slot.  This then has the appropriate colour Seamless Rail added and is then placed back on Fred (the CNC Machine).  Fred puts in the appropriate deck dome, tip and rail thicknesses and machines the insert locations.

Once shaped the core heads into the laminating room.  Here the Core and laminate are assembled on a casette, which determines the final rocker and bottom shape to the board.  The glass, carbon, graphics, core and New Zealand Made Epoxy Resin are put together on the casette and placed in Barnie or Dino (the two Presses).  The boards are pressed for several hours and taken through a heating and cooling cycle to cure.

Once cured the board is popped out of the press, the mould-flash is trimmed off and DK gets into tuning the rail shape for the customer.  All that remains is choosing the right hardwear and then packing and shipping the boards.