Does this need repair?

[TJ1984]

I need some advice. I Was surfing shallow waters and dinged up the nose yesterday. I attached some pics, sorry the quality is not so good(camera phone). I ran my fingernail across the area and it caught on the cracks. I sanded the area lightly and now it is pretty smooth for the most part. It doesnt look like water got in but hard to tell. The board does feel a bit heavier but I think it may be in my head. Should this be repaired before surfing again? I cant get a hold of the shaper right now and although ive repaired some small dings Ive never repaired anything like this.
Thanks

[drowningbitbybit]

Hard to tell from these shots...
But it looks more like a crease than a hole - if so, and it's smooth and unbroken, then there's no real need to repair other than aesthetics. I've got half a dozen dings and creases in my usual board that are worse than that

[TJ1984]

Is there anyway to make sure its not leaking water?

[jaffa1949]

As strange as it may seem put your lips on the damaged area and suck! Bear in mind it will taste of both salt and resin. The resin is probably not good for your health so just enough to taste salt.
Taste salt means it needs fixing! Or pepper!

[oldmansurfer]

If your fingernail caught on it initially it needs to be repaired. Another way other than sucking is to make sure your board is dry and place it in the sun for 5 to 30 minutes and look for water droplets anywhere but especially at the ding. I have found a ding when I am going surfing due to it sitting in the sun in the bed of my pickup truck on my way to surf.

[TJ1984]

Ok if I leave it to dry out standing on the nose should I open the crack up or just leave it and let gravity do its work

[drowningbitbybit]

should I open the crack up

Is there a crack? Or do you just mean that there is "cobweb splintering" of the glass?

If there is a crack, then yes, it needs repairing. It's unlikely to have taken in a huge amount of water (certainly not enough to make it heavy enough that you can feel the difference). Just leave it for a few days to dry out and then fix the repair.

If it's just splintering, then it doesn't need fixing, or just needs a thin layer of resin to coat the damaged area.

You're getting conflicting advice because the picture isn't good enough to be able to tell what the problem is. From the picture, I'd say you're worrying about nothing, but if there's a crack that's penetrated all the way through the glass to the foam, then it needs sorting.

Better picture required (or there really is nothing to see and it's absolutely fine)

[jaffa1949]

Ok if I leave it to dry out standing on the nose should I open the crack up or just leave it and let gravity do its work

There has to be a huge amount of water in the foam for gravity to do its work! water is held in the foam by capillary action. The 5 to 30 minutes in the sun will work but does run the risk of causing delamination, the amount of water that may be there is not likely to be much and I wouldn't worry about it.
So my way of fixing because the dent is from the foam being crushed is simply to put a thin veneer of solar resin over the onion ring cracking.
That's all, major repairs would add weight to the nose area.

Look at the ding as a battle scar

[waikikikichan]

Trying to repair those cracks might do more damage than already is. Plus it's bound to happen again in the same area. So i would put on a good mylar sticker from your favorite local surf shop. ( tell them what's it for, and they might give you it for free ). Probably will last longer than a bad resin brush on that peels off like a fried egg drippings.

That's why i like molded epoxy boards, no need to worry about "spider cracks"

[TJ1984]

Thanks everyone for your help. After alot of inspection I dont think the cracks go all the way to the foam but its hard to be sure. The glass job on the board is paper thin. I wish I would have known that before but it was a good deal so yea... My longboard seems to be a hell of a lot tougher though . Anyways I used a qtip(all i had) and pasted some solarez clear over the cracks until I can find a sticker that fits to slap on there. Kinda sad cause this board was in great shape when I got it and Ive already dinged it up 4 times. I love the way the board catches waves but wish it had a bit of a thicker glass job...oh well lesson learned maybe my next board will be epoxy or I will improve enough to stop hitting rocks.