When do cracks become a problem / Waterlogging?

[surf patrol]

Hey all,

Was wondering at what point surface cracks with no foam exposed on the nose/rail/tail become a problem. I noticed a few recently on my mini-mal (couple on the tail edge, one on the nose edge, and one on the rail) and wasn't sure if I needed to patch them up in any way. I don't notice any darkening/yellowing/discoloring near the cracks. Some pics below.

Also, is there an easy way to notice if your board is absorbing water? I'm not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me but I feel the board may have gotten slightly heavier since I purchased it (didn't weigh it then) but I don't notice any salt traces at the cracks or any water swishing around. No discoloring anywhere either.

Thanks!

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[IanCaio]

There's a little trick I learned. When you go out of water and your board is dry, suck at the crack. If you taste salty water then it's an infiltration and you should repair it.

Although I would fix the dings you have with resin (no need for fiberglass on such small cracks). Cracks are usually tension holders on any material and simple vibration can make them get bigger (enginnering classes applied on surf, who would know this day would come? )

[oldmansurfer]

If you see discoloring then it's kind of late. The crack on the nose looks worrying to me. One way to tell if there is a problem is after you surf then dry your board completely and sit it in the sun for 15 minutes. If you see droplets of water on your dry board anywhere you have a leak. Or in your case you might stand the board on it's nose in a dry area with some plastic underneath it so that water from the nose will run out onto the plastic and check it every 30 minutes or so for water leaking out.

[enjoy]

If you see discoloring then it's kind of late. The crack on the nose looks worrying to me. One way to tell if there is a problem is after you surf then dry your board completely and sit it in the sun for 15 minutes. If you see droplets of water on your dry board anywhere you have a leak. Or in your case you might stand the board on it's nose in a dry area with some plastic underneath it so that water from the nose will run out onto the plastic and check it every 30 minutes or so for water leaking out.

Thanks will try those out. Are you referring to the first or second picture? Those are actually both on the tail but the angling of the pictures is weird so my fault!

[oldmansurfer]

The first picture is the one I would worry about but if I was fixing it and I woudl fix that one I would do a lesser fix on the other ones at the same time

[enjoy]

Gotcha, may take a look at some resin application tutorials. When you say worry, do you mean it looks like it might expand or that it looks big enough to let water through?

[oldmansurfer]

If water hasn't come through yet it looks like it will at some point. One other method to know when to worry is if your fingernail catches on the crack then it needs to be repaired if it is still smooth enough to not catch then you can wait or just cover it with a layer of resin. The first ding looks like I would want to glass over it. But there is much that goes into repairing boards like how much money you have and how much longer do you want to use that board and is there a repair guy available and how soon you want to surf again.

[enjoy]

If water hasn't come through yet it looks like it will at some point. One other method to know when to worry is if your fingernail catches on the crack then it needs to be repaired if it is still smooth enough to not catch then you can wait or just cover it with a layer of resin. The first ding looks like I would want to glass over it. But there is much that goes into repairing boards like how much money you have and how much longer do you want to use that board and is there a repair guy available and how soon you want to surf again.

I'm gonna bring it to my repair guy tonight to see what he thinks. Surf's looking good for the next 5-6 days, so I was thinking of holding onto the board through that then getting it repaired after if needed. I know this isn't the best course of action, but do you think the damage will be considerable if there is a chance of water going through? I did the fingernail test and on a couple it seems to catch but I also tried to suck water out of those cracks post-surf and nothing came out.

[oldmansurfer]

I wouldn't worry unless you get water coming out of the areas. But check it each time after surfing.

[enjoy]

okay thanks. I haven't tried drying the entire board and letting it hang to see if anything drips out yet, but it's not obvious that water is coming out the cracks, even when I suck the cracks which makes me think it's not easy for water to get in even if it isn't 100% watertight. Just wanted to make sure using it for the next 5 days wouldn't mess up the board bad. Thanks again.

[dtc]

Duck tape...

[jaffa1949]

Duck tape...

Seals the quacks.
That is a temporary fix but can still leak,or be pulled off by wave pressure.
Solar Rez quick and easy jus make sure you use epoxy if your board is EPS foam, otherwise dissolving board.

[benjl]

Funnily enough with the timing of this post.. I finished my surf today and normly I put my board straight in my bag but I left It sitting in my gf's car and noticed a lot of droplets of water coming from a crack in the rail that I had sealed with durarez about a month ago.

It just kept dropping beads of water continuously for over an hour! I put my mouth over the crack and sucked out about 3 small mouthfuls of salty water and it kept coming. If I pushed down on the board from either side of the crack it sped up the drips. There's no discolouring by the crack but it must've taken on a bit of water somehow!!
I've actually wondered the last couple of surfs whether it had water in it as it seemed to be less stable with paddling and wave catching but I wasn't sure if that was just choppy conditions or whether I was off my game?

How do I make sure to get all the water out before re-resining up??
Does anything speed up the transfer out of the board? Do I need to do anything else?

Urgent help sought as I was hoping to go surfing tomorrow!

[waikikikichan]

" Hey you there with the boardshorts, put the hairdryer down and step away from the shortboard ". Whatever you do Benji, don't put a hairdryer to the board. It going to turn the liquid to vapor and then it will find it's way deeper into the foam. When you heat up something it expands, when it cools it contracts.

You knows those "get rich quick " late night infomercials ? Same goes for waterlogged boards, can't do a "get dry quick over night". That's not going to happen unless you have a industrial sized dehydrator you can put your whole board into.

Just use one of your other boards.

[benjl]

How will I know when it's fully dried out and when to seal it?

Thanks