Massive Dings in new Board

[Oldie]

Hi all,

I just purchased a brand new Channel Island Waterhog. After 2h in very calm conditions (2-3 feet week beach break) the board shows heavy dings especially under knees but also in other areas. I had no nosedive or other crash etc. The shop says this is normal use, but with my longboard that is used much more this isn not remotely as bad. This is a Epoxy on PU board in CIs standard glassing 6+4/4

Here is an example. Should i accept this as normal??

[oldmansurfer]

I would be disappointed but not using off the rack boards I am not sure if that is normal. If I had one of those days where I felt clumsier than a bear cub playing with himself then I might figure I was responsible for the damage otherwise I would be wondering why.

[saltydog]

All but one of my boards are locally shaped and glassed longboards/egg and I believe they have 6+6/6 poly glass job so they are pretty sturdy although they are not totally ding (dent) resistant. The fun shape is a poly but possibly a pop out of sort and it's such a ding magnet. It's possible that it has more of a typical shortboard glass schedule which is lighter than most longboards. So I'm not really sure of your case... I thought you can contact CI directly too, but they may say that's normal just to cover their back, That's so frustrating... I've only seen Water Hog in water from a distance but it seems like a nice mid length board.

[RinkyDink]

It looks like you got some pressure dings, but I'm not sure that's out of the ordinary. Same thing happened to me years ago when I bought a new board. The question is, was the shaper negligent or skimp on something to cause it? I don't know enough about surfboard blanks or glassing to know what kind of expectations are appropriate. I suspect that pressure dings should not be a surprise. They happen and I'm not sure there is any surefire way to prevent them besides a heavy glass job. I saw pressure dings on one of the World Surf League's professional's boards the other day, probably a very light glass job, so I think they just come with the territory.

[waikikikichan]

4/4 oz glassing on deck. Same glassing as a Shortboard. Normally longboard glassing on the deck is double 6oz. Hybrid/Fun boards I've seen 6/4 oz. Those pressures dings are normal.

[Big H]

I wouldn't call those massive......any dent hurts on a new board, but now the cherry's popped you can enjoy it.....


BTW, those are strange looking dents....what did they come from? Doesn't look like from your body, knees or feet....did you stack the board/wedge it in somewhere or put some things on top of it?

[Big H]

I have one board....it gets pressure dents when you stare at it too hard....dings really easy too....I love and hate that board; fun to ride but can literally see the life draining out of it each time I use it, and because it dings so easy I stopped taking it in and do the ding repairs with some marine putty stuff that is sandable and holds up pretty good even if it's ugly............pretty is as pretty does; doesn't much matter I guess as long as I can surf it.....

[Big H]

One last note....the more I surf and the greater frequency I go, the more I am appreciating the epoxy boards I have....especially my longboard and mini mal shapes; I'm forever hitting doorjambs, ceilings, side of the car....longboard slipped out from under my arm in the parking lot the other day and skittered about 5 feet; couple of paint scratches (not a big deal since I've already touched up with spray paint on my own), but that was it. Light, strong, clumsy proof....PU boards I have, heavy wipeout and they come up with a ding, ding it putting it into the bag, taking it out of the bag, knee dents, heel dents, spiderwebs, cracks around the fins......doesn't stop and forever fixing them. For banging around daily, for the board that stays in the car, for the one you let the kids ride until they ground the board on sand at the water's edge, for the one you loan out and don't have to worry, the board you ride kamikaze into heavy close out shore breaks............epoxy all the way.

[icetime]

Like Big H said, epoxy is amazing.
My hybrid fish has 3 coats of resin and the top one is epoxy, it's very sturdy, I have yet to ding it, I've done so many heavy wipeouts, landed on shallow rocks and other stuck that would tear apart a PU board, so whenever you ever get a board, get one with a nice thick coat of resin

[RinkyDink]

One way to avoid pressure dings is to try to stay light on your board. On my foamie I have huge knee indentations on the deck from bad beginner form and my complete indifference to treating the board with any TLC (the sponge kind of encourages you to be rough with it). When I ride my 8 foot hard board, I treat it a lot more gingerly.

[Oldie]

Thanks. Bad form may play a role and my 90 kg make it difficult to be light . But i did not have that with my old board which has 6+6 and glassing with poly on top while this one has 6+4. I did not expect such a difference.

Agree with prefering epoxy. Even if you get dings, you do not get cracks so easily.