I've just been out for my first decent sail on my new board (new for me!) and come home having snapped it across about a foot from the nose. Is this sort of thing fixable or is it best to say good bye forever? It is a mistral flow and I paid $170 for it so I would rather try and do a home patch job rather than paying more for repairs than the board cost me to buy.

Aren't these type of boards supposed to be indestructible?

The Industry survives by selling boards. Pure economics : to make profits/survive by selling new boards (or sails or whatever) there must be one or a combination of:
1) rapid innovation/design progression (hence why each years boards are ALWAYS better than the last - though is the case with innovation) (similiar to 3 below - obsolescence),
2) growing demand base for new and old (2nd hand) (unfortunately Windsurfing has been dying for many years with a recent resurgence to some extent from what I can tell), and
3) built in obsolescence/short term life failure (a short life means people must replace boards within so many years on average) (think of white goods and why they have a shorter expected lifespan today than they did 20 years ago, and cars etc etc).

They certainly can build boards stronger (but maybe at the cost of slightly more expensive or heavier, though IMO there seems to be too much promotional emphasis placed on the shedding of a 1/2 kg of board weight compared to what the actual performance effect probably is - primarily generated by the brands and sponsored riders of course). There are a number fo niche equipment makers that build stronger equipment.

But remember one thing - if board makers don't survive we won't have many new boards being built and a large reduction in choice and innovation - so we must pay for that - that's why healthy competition is always good.

My 2c worth (yet again ).

Thanks for the tips. Maybe mine isn't as bad as I first thought, especially after looking at some of the photos's of nebbians. The nose has a big crease through the under side of the board but the rails aren't as mangled as in some of the photos you posted. I have a mate that makes surfboards so he may be able to give me a hand. Otherwise I'm back to looking through the buy/sell section.
cheers

Thanks for the tips. Can you put any rods or the like through to help strengthen it?

I think I need help! I've started repairing my board. All the damage is underneath with the plastic cracking and the nose with a crease through it. I tried using sikaflex marine sealer and bond. I let it dry for 24 hours and went to sand it and it all came away in rubber chunks as it didn't harden and didn't bond to the board. Any suggestions for other products? I have a tube of selley's plasti bond, would this be appropriate to use? It is a plastic putty and says on the tube resin contains 160g/kg styrene
I'd appreciate any advice
cheers

akhawk said...

Any suggestions for other products? I have a tube of selley's plasti bond, would this be appropriate to use? It is a plastic putty and says on the tube resin contains 160g/kg styrene

Any product with styrene in it will eat the inside of your board. So don't use it!

You need to open up your board until you have cut away all the damaged layers, and then replace the layers that you cut away. From the centre of the board this is:
Polystyrene (white soft foamy stuff)
Fibreglass with epoxy layer
Divinycell (hard foam in a layer about 5mm thick)
More fibreglass with epoxy
Thin layer of filler
Paint


That's if you want to do it properly. If you just want to stop water getting in, get some cans of epoxy from a boatbuilder or hardware store, and slap that around. It won't last, and won't make the board as strong as it should be, but it should stop water getting in for the time being.

Did you read the board lady site?

and futher... not to be rude but please please stop right now, and read boardlady.com (all the little bits of it), and listen to the guys here.
The mention of sikaflex and plastibond has me scared.

board repair is easy but it is nothing like surfboards and most things with "marine" written on them are probably for gluing 5ply to aluminium on boats.

PM decrep or Juice who build boards, or ask me (not that I'm the guru like those two are). Sorry but I won't type it here I'm tired of typing the whole 3 page run down on board repair

yours sounds pretty easy, at a guess it needs a section of the bottom divinycell removed and another bonded on followed by 2 layers of glass. Post pics?