Surfing Waves

A friend of mine bought this brazilian board and he cracked the top of the board horizontally from one rail to the other. Surprisingly it didn't crack the bottom of the board or split.

I want to help him repair it and I also want to know why this happened since, according to him, the waves were not big and he didn't even notice it cracked until he came out of the water.

The board doesn't have a wood stringer and the foam looks like cheap styrofoam. If you press hard on the board with your thumb it bends down a little. That doesn't happen with the boards I have.

The bottom of the board is not bent and the curve of the board was not affected. Is it worth repairing and how should I repair it? I have experience doing minor ding repair but never repaired anything like this. Thanks!

I'm not sure but it looks like a carbon fiber board where carbon fiber strips were used to try to strengthen the board so the heavier wooden stringer can be eliminated. It also looks like it didn't work. I think it would be very difficult to create a board that worked well enough to last for a while without making it too heavy. If you were going to fix it you would first need to remove all the damaged fiberglass. The result would be a 2 piece board then you would need to remove all the damaged foam. Then you need to make sure you line up the two halves correctly and do something to replace the carbon fiber reinforcements and replace the missing foam then glass it

That's some pretty severe damage. You might be best letting a professional take care of it. In all honesty, if it were mine I'd consider binning it.

You'll need to remove all the damaged glassfibre from the top and I'm guessing there'll be some degree of foam damage underneath too, which may need repairing. You would also need to take care when reglassing that the rocker is maintained correctly. The board will be much more flimsy, especially when you remove the glass from the top. Are you sure there's no stringer?

The full structural integrity of the board is damaged,
The Rails and what appears to be carbon fibres in the glassing in the centre.
The board may have had damage to the rails prior to purchase, and yes the board is styrofoam. ( EPS ) construction, made to be light and sadly disposable. The deck crease means the foam underneath is probably cracked.
Normal resin will,dissolve the foam , epoxy resins ( the ones you need to use ) can be used.
To repair it will be a big job, the board will be a lot heavier. Can you get repair supplies in Costa Rica?
Cost for results, hmmmm!

I don't think there's any carbon fiber. This looks like a cheap, flimsy board IMO.

I don't think the foam has been cracked because the crease was only at the top. The bottom of the board is intact. I don't think the rocker of the board has been affected because at the bottom the curve seems intact. It's probably just the top of the foam that has a dent because the cracked fibreglass put a minor dent into the foam.

I am sure there's no stringer. And the glassing kind of sucks because it's soft when you press hard on it with your thumb.

I asked at the hardware store and they sell 2-part epoxy resin but it's for glassing tables. Would that epoxy work for a surfboard? And we can get fibreglass cloth that are used for surfboards. I don't think adding weight is a problem since he is a beginner/intermediate, it's a 40 litre board and he will move on to a smaller board soon.

The shop told him that the repair will be at least 100 USD. Where we are we can get a decent used board for 200 USD.
The only way it's worth fixing it is if we fix it ourselves.

Yes there is where reality bites in the fringe surf zones and local income, not sure about the two part epoxy, , though1
Why not you will learn a lot.
Many surf repair guys started in the same way!

Those areas of black stripes look like carbon fiber strips that are used to stiffen up boards with or without stringers

YTsurf wrote:The board doesn't have a wood stringer and the foam looks like cheap styrofoam. If you press hard on the board with your thumb it bends down a little. That doesn't happen with the boards I have.

It looks like a foamie to me.. with a slightly tougher outer shell or foam skin. If the surface of the board sinks in when pressed like you mentioned, then it probably isn't a glassed surface. Probably damaged beyond repair unfortunately.

OK, I'll tell my friend it's probably not worth repairing. But why did this happen if the waves were not big and he didn't notice any hard trauma during the session? Is it possible that some cheaper boards are less strong? I want to avoid buying stuff like that in the future

YTsurf wrote:OK, I'll tell my friend it's probably not worth repairing. But why did this happen if the waves were not big and he didn't notice any hard trauma during the session? Is it possible that some cheaper boards are less strong? I want to avoid buying stuff like that in the future

My guess is that the leash may have wrapped around the rails and broke through the board skin, when the board was loose and being pulled through the whitewater. The leash can break through the rails on fiberglass boards also, but usually only in very heavy surf conditions.

Foamies break much easier from what I've seen.. I personally saw 2 foamies break during hurricane surf this summer, during the initial paddle out.. they never even made it out to the lineup. Some of them just aren't really built for those types of conditions. Wavestorms seem to survive those conditions better from what I've seen, but it could just be coincidence

When it comes to surfboards, you can choose only two of the three, Light, Strong or Cheap.

Strong and Cheap, but won’t be Light.
Light and Cheap, but won’t be Strong.
Strong and Light, but won’t be Cheap.

You can snap a board like that pearling the nose and death grabbing the rails going over the falls. ( especially at dumping beach breaks )

It's an epoxy board, it bucked. It's a pain to fix so I would have it done, but it should last once done professionally.