At H2O Composites we use a variety of composite materials to create our products. We use each type of material in a fashion that is advantageous to the final product's designed specifications.

Fiberglass
We use standard fiberglass for applications where ultimate weight and strength do not take precidence. Laminates made from fiberglass (while less expensive) tend to be heavier because more material is required to achieve the desired strength. When used in conjunction with the more sophisticated materials fiberglass becomes very valuable as a bulk material and as a buffer to help limit abrasion.
Kevlar Aramid Fiber
Unlike fiberglass which is actually window glass extruded into thin fibers, Kevlar is a synthetic fiber produced by the Dupont Corporation. It's structural advantages over fiberglass are its ability to resist stretching, its resistance to tearing, and its lower weight. These advantages make it the ultimate material to construct durable, lightweight products. It is the main ingredient in our lightweight canoe lines.
Carbon Fiber
Pound for pound carbon fiber is one of the world's strongest materials. It allows us to build super light weight products such as our ultralight canoes and our Olympic rated rowing shells. Since it is also quite brittle, carbon fiber is normally used in conjunction with Kevlar to combine the properties of both materials. These hybrid fabrics allow us to build sub 40lbs canoes that retain all of the strength and more of a 55 lbs glass canoe.
Core materials
To enhance the properties of our laminates and provide industry leading stiffness and strength, we employ several core materials in our laminating process. Cores separate the layers of material providing thickness without adding weight. The result is a lightweight structure that retains the physical properties of a much heavier structures.