Spine-tek channel islands
I have a 5'5 Neckbeard in Spinetek, and had it for around 6 months. It's really lively if you like eps/epoxy, still is nice and white and apart from the usual dents in deck, it's still great. The dents in the deck are no worse than normal.
It's a good tech, and I'd surely get another. Personally, I prefer eps/epoxy construction for not only liveliness on the weaker days, but they tend to last longer as well. That's my experience anyway.
They are more to buy initially for sure, but the construction feels less brittle compared to a standard PU board.
I have a spine-tek pod mod. Bought second hand in pretty much brand new cond. for $450
Definitely does feel lively and has good "pop" i guess you'd say, especially off bottom turns and off the lip.... Goes well in clean conditions
However i don't like epoxy really, boards is no good in messy conditions i found, if its clean, great, if not have to use something else which is no good really.
I also managed to crease mine pretty good on a 4ft day which was disappointing, pretty close to going straight through, paid the large repair bill and it still goes well.
I wouldn't buy another epoxy board i don't think, personal preference though.
I'll second Adsi's experience.
You do get some extra liveliness and pop in small surf. But most of the small, weak surf I ride is in summer and is onshore.
and epoxy feels bad to me in onshore.
I had a spine-tek rocket wide. Had some good surfs on it, had some shockers. Passed it on to a mate.
I was thinking about buying a 5,11 fever with the new spine-tek technology, but it comes with a pretty hefty price tag upwards of $1,000. It is worth paying the extra 200 bucks? Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with boards with spine-tek?