Repairing a shortboard

[mnskier]

I will move this to tech talk if everyone thinks it should be, but thinking I'll get a better response here.

Total surfing jong here. I got a shortboard here, but the nose is broken but not fully broken off. I am pretty sure you can fix this and I am just wondering what the cheapest way to fix it would be? It had been repaired once but that repair job didn't work out to well.

[Hugh Conway]

its fucked

[QuikR12]

yup, what he ^ said

[Ottime]

It is fucked as a high performance piece, but if you are just playing around..

A few options.

1) rip off the nose, round it off and fiberglass it so it is sealed. You will lose some planning power, but not to much. Watch out for nose dive.

2) Gently rip off the nose. Mix resin, cavosil and Qcell. Spread on both pieces, attach together. Sand down, and fiberglass a wrap.

3) Just fiberglass a wrap to seal

2 and3 will add weight, screw with balance and the rocker a bit. Who gives a shit. Learn to ride the board, and when you get a real stick, you will be that much better.

If nothing else, it is worth screwing with. the more repairs and fiberglass work you do, the better you will get. It sure is nice to be able to repair your own boards, as shops will charge you a ridiculous price for even the smallest repair.

[Hugh Conway]

meh, minor ding repair can be done decently with some sandpaper, resin and glass and an hour or less. to do something like this decently you'll need more - stand, grinder, more paper, more glass. ~$50 in materials+equipment easy if you don't have anything, and it's quite frankly a pain in the ass.

you can buy a decent used board in non-fucked shape for $150-200 it's not worth repairing unless the shape is great/sentimental value. If so pick up "the ding repair scriptures" somewhere around

[big mike]

take a look at the stringer and see if its broken, thts the piece of wood that runs thru the middle of the board. if its broken it will need to be reinforced if you want your repair to last. there are different ways to do it but anything will help. dig out some foam and a couple of small pieces on either side could work. dont forget sanding down glass is messy do it outside. good luck Montucky surf club

[Piggity]

The nose isn't really a critical part of the board so you're good, just get it water tight. If it breaks it breaks.

Sand 'er down to get rid of the resin/glass from the previous bad fix though. The bad fix will flake off a lot of times because someone mixed a smoking hot batch of resin and turned it brittle. That's usually the reason the initial fix didn't work was the catalyst/resin ration. U have to mix the batch according to the temp/weather conditions. Dry hot day ='s less resin than a 65 degree cloudy day.

After sanding 'er down, mix your batch, apply some cloth but not too much to avoid adding too much weight. Again, it's the nose so water tight is more important than too much cloth. Chances are it's going to snap at some point anyway. Just get it strong enough to surf and water tight until you can score another board, it's life as a surfer.

[Piggity]

meant to say dry hot day ='s less catalyst

[peterslovo]

Only suggested addition: Add 2 short stringers (6" long) into the foam that provide additional stability into the nose of the board. Fiberglass the stringers into the main part of the board about 1-2 inches on either side of the existing stringer, then into the nose, then proceed as ottime recommends.

Or burn it in a trash can and follow Hugh's rec's on getting a new board.

Note: I've done this to 2 of my previous boards, and they held up for an additional 2 and 3 seasons, respectively. Never surfed the same though.