Tiny cracks in the front of my board

rgomez · Joined: 13 Dec 2012 Posts: 112

How did these cracks come about and what can I do to fix it?

I was thinking of applying some epoxy putty to stop it from getting worse.

cgoudie1 · Last edited by cgoudie1 on Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:18 am; edited 2 times in total

That looks structural from a bang on the rail to me Mr. Gomez.
You need to sand the entire area down to see how bad the sub-dermal
damage is, and then glass it over, and repaint.

Good luck,

-Craig

p.s. I wouldn't ride that until I had done so, and made sure
there wasn't any water in there.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Fully agree. That's serious damage from your mast crashing down on the board. It's why for > 20 years now I've padded my board noses, forward rails, and masts. Some people kid me about it, but you should see the repairs on their boards. Me? No nose damage in >20 years now.

bred2shred · Joined: 02 May 2000 Posts: 989 Location: Jersey Shore

I agree, looks like damage from the mast slamming into the nose of the board. It also looks very likely that there is damage to the fiberglass underneath. I would not recommend just applying putty and crossing your fingers.

As stated above, it needs to be sanded down and then evaluated after the paint has been removed. There's no other way to fully understand what's going on without removing the paint. Very likely the fiberglass will need to be repaired. It's not that difficult of a job, but if you're not up to doing the repair yourself, bring the board to someone who is. Otherwise you risk getting water into the board (if that hasn't happened already) and causing further damage.

The recommendation to pad your mast/board is a good one. If you're at the stage of the windsurfing learning curve where you get catapulted a lot, then padding will help save you from a lot of unnecessary board damage.

sm

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

U2U2U2 · Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:03 pm Post subject:

It needs to be repaired.

Prevention , is a nose protector, a mast pad, ION , is nice.

See boardLADY.com for the best free advise anywhere.

Potential that you have H2O, inside, if so worse yet.

The VERY LEAST , repair is sand down and cover with glass or carbon using a suitable epoxy

rgomez · Joined: 13 Dec 2012 Posts: 112

LUCARO · Joined: 07 Dec 1997 Posts: 661

I dont know of any videos but these pages may help you get a feel for what you are up against

http://www.boardlady.com/no-vac.htm

http://www.boardlady.com/jpjetski.htm

Epoxy putty alone is unlikely to keep it water tight

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

What you need to discern is whether you can acquire fiberglass cloth, epoxy resin and hardener, to include thickeners or media to effectively change the nature and mass of epoxy resin. That will allow you to fill, laminate and finish an area. Check out the Boardlady's website to learn about the process and the way things are done. Believe me, it's all doable with the right materials.

I will say this, look for a 5 to 1 epoxy resin/hardener formulation. It's versatile and up to performance when it come to strength, flexibility and durability. Moreover, good results can be achieved in normal ambient conditions.

rgomez · Joined: 13 Dec 2012 Posts: 112

On further inspection, the area around the damage still feels solid when pressed...I assume that means there is no need to use a foam filler and probably no structural damage??

I'm worried that I'm going to create more damage to the board if I go ahead and sand it down and glass it..I'm terribly clumsy when it comes to handiwork and I've never really had a good experience using epoxy.

However I am comfortable using putty, perhaps I could use putty first and observe if the damage gets worse, if it does I could perhaps sand it all down and fill it up. Would that work?