Serious structural board repair recommendations

[tcevans]

I have two boards with beginning deck buckles I want to have repaired. These are serious structural repairs (not simple nose dings - I fix those myself)

I've been in contact with Eva, she's unavailable until the summer. Her other recommendation, Kevin Fowles is re-doing his shop. It won't be ready until late March - April. I was hoping to be back on the water before then.

I've searched this forum, but all the threads are about dings.

If anyone has experience with having deck buckles professionally repaired in the greater Bay area, including long term durability, please share.

Thanks
Tom

[churan]

If your board is from the cobra factory, not a poly and foam construction use caution when considering cracks etc. When these boards fail it is fast and violent ie: they split in half. They are bomber til they fail, but when they fail it is usually big.

it has happened to me and to people I know so be careful.

Think of the board like an egg. if you squeeze a raw egg with all your might with the full of your hand you still cant break it. Put one crack in the egg and it fails easily.

I had an 07, 78l naish global wave that suffered a buckle across the top deck. It was cracked but not enough to even let much water in so i filled it with epoxy. Cosmetic. Til i landed a big jump at ob flat. say 5 foot wave . the whole front broke off just before the mast. Just glad I was not under the north tower like I was 4 days before.

My advice, ditch the board and buy a newer used board with no cracks.
If your board fails you might also loose your rig etc, or incure a cost, guard fee etc. Hope this helps.

[swchandler]

Tom,

As a long shot you might give Mike Zajicek a call. I know that he repairs boards of his manufacture, but I'm not sure if he's taking on other brands. Mike's a very busy guy, but I think it's worth a try. If he can't take the work on, he might be able to direct you to someone capable who can.

http://www.mikeslab.com/

[tcevans]

swchandler, thanks for the Mike Z idea, I hadn't thought of that. He certainly knows boards.

churan, thanks for the advice, but I am well aware. Just filling it with epoxy is setting it up for a disaster.

A properly repaired sandwich structure can be (almost) as good as new, which is why I'm looking for someone with good experience. For example see http://www.boardlady.com/[/i]

[OESmaui]

All boards can be repaird if you can find someone who know what he's doing!! It depend on how bad the buckles are and how much you ase willing to pay to get them fixed properly
The fact that these boards have buckled in the first place is the bigger problem.These asia build production boards are build to a lower cost for better margins for the shops and by people who have never windsurf and have no incentive to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
check out our new custom / productions
www.oesaustralia.com [/img]

[rigatoni]

Last season, I had softness/delamination between the footstraps and Mike Zajcek did a great job repairing it. He does first rate work.