A whole head of hairline cracks!!!

[GnarlerNE]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster! So recently I've stepped down (up?!) to a long board from a short board. I borrowed a friends performance long board first and loved it. Another friend was then selling his standard log board which had hardly been used, almost brand new apart from the wax. Tbh, I've struggled to get on with this board and was considering moving it on so I could get a more performance orientated long board. Unfortunately, after my last session I noticed a huge amount of tiny cracks on the underside of the board. I've never seen this many before, the conditions I was in were only small but I suppose it could have nose dived into the sand or something? Is it maybe a shitty glass job?

Anyway, on to my main question. I want to sell this board but obviously this is going to kill the price a bit, can I (and is it worth the effort to) get this repaired pre sale? I think if I were getting on with it and I wanted to keep it I wouldn't mind so much but I want to recover as much cash as I can. Advice muchly appreciated!

I've attached some pics for everyone

Edit: Just to say that these are only present on the underside and near the front of the board. They tend to run the entire width of the board.

[dtc]

It almost looks like the board was bent but (just) didnt snap. A nose dive into the sand could have done it.

Are they leaking cracks (you can get your nail under them) or just spider cracks (in the glass but not all the way through)

Not sure about how you repair such a wide area easily. I guess you could put a whole new sheet of fibreglass over the top? That level of repair is beyond my skills, someone who actually knows stuff will come along and let you know

[Big H]

I don't know what a visit to the shop costs where you live but I'd take that in to be repaired....looks like you damn near broke the nose off.

Shop repairs are so cheap here I've never tried to do the work myself; cost of buying the materials and the effort to find out where to get them (not easy, I did try enough to know that) and in quantities that are not designed for businesses (5L of this, 50m of that) makes taking to a shop the move here. That being said, I found this for a do it yourself approach; personally it is beyond what I'd be comfortable doing, and WKK might have another more simple approach, but to add a glass patch this is what this guy said to do:


"There are stress cracks that are just in the hotcoat or glosscoat..then there are more extensive ones that could be all the way into the glass itself. The proper way to repair it would be to use a sander with rough grit paper such as 60 grit and completely strip off the glosscoat (if it's glossed) and also the hotcoat...and maybe just a bit into the fiberglass. This will open up the cracks so that resin will seap in and wet out the cracks.

Then apply a layer of 4 or 6 ounce as you mentioned and squeegee flat removing all excess resin. I use 4 ounce for shortboards and 6 ounce for longboards. Hotcoat, then sand flat without removing your patch and feather the edges in. You can apply a glosscoat at this point if necessary. If you just lightly sand it like you mentioned chances are when you apply your patch of glass the cracks will not disappear. You will also have a noticeable bump left over from adding a piece of glass and resin (on top) of the existing surface. Using the method I mentioned digs a bit of a trench for your patch to lay down into making it possible to feather the whole deal in and feel and look flat when your done. Not so easy if you are not experienced with a sanding machine and you could farm it and go right into bare foam.

Follow my method...add a piece of glass. It'll be fine. Something that I didn't mention was styrene. Many may not know what that is. It's a solvent that is a component in resin that is basically like thinner. It is thinner than water and used by itself can be applied to wet things like cracks out. Or visible weave. So for this one with the cracks on the nose area...I would sand into it carefully until I felt I was into the cracks a bit. Cut out a piece of cloth to fit over the entire area, then paint some styrene over the cracks and while wet apply my glass and lam resin. The whole thing would completely disappear.

FWIW I had a board that had a couple of stress cracks similar....took it to the shop and they told me they sanded it down and put some glass on it.....came out like new.

[waikikikichan]

Comes down to Dollars & Sense. Depending how much you bought that Used board for ( say $250 ). If the repair cost $50 and the new buyer works you down $50 more than you paid, then you're out $100. You might want to check repair estimates then figure out if you should just cut your loses early and dump the board cheap. OR....... keep the board as a back up for when you snap that 21.5" x 2.5" hi-performance longboard in half. ( oh, and don't buy gloss polish boards if you tend to get shatters and dings a lot )

[RinkyDink]

Is it maybe a shitty glass job?

That would be my best guess if you didn't see the cracks when you bought the board. If you took a hammer to the deck of a surfboard, I imagine the shattering of the deck glass would be a bit more localized around where the head of the hammer hit the deck. Your cracks cover a pretty large area so I suspect it's probably a poorly done glass job. I suppose it is possible that the board got slammed hard over a wide area of the deck on a reef or something. I'm just speculating though.

[waikikikichan]

I don't think it's a shitty glass job. Maybe a head over heels front flip over the falls. But try see where your hands grab when you turtle roll. Then see where they are in relation to those stress fractures. Your arms pushing up and the wave crashing down on the tip of the nose creates a fulcrum point.

[pmcaero]

might as well ride it as your "beater" board till it either snaps, or it gets yellow with age and then sell it for 100 bucks.
As it is right now I wouldn't pay any more for it, even though it looks new.

Also, curious, is it a "pop-up" mass-produced board ?

[GnarlerNE]

Hello everyone. Thanks for the replies. Yes, it is a pop out, the first one I've ever bought actually, all my others are local shaped. I bought it at a fairly good price from a mate who needed the cash, he'd surfed it a maximum of 6 times, I figured well it may be a pop out but it'll up the wave count and be a laugh to mess about with. NEVER AGAIN!

The cracks are a mixture of non-nail feel and those you can feel with the nail. Really shocked by it as I've only taken it out in stuff around 4ft maximum (all we've had here lately) and had no mega bails at all. Not turtle rolled it once so it remains a mystery. Going to drop it with the local repairer and ask for a quote. I think anything that will make it look good as new is preferable, definitely want rid of the thing, it's just not very responsive and walking to the nose just doesn't feel right unlike my other longboard which is currently on loan from another mate, doesn't feel like the rails are setting right or something? Anyway will let you know what happens!