Surfing Waves

Hey guys

So after 3 weeks of crap and unruly surf here, I bit the bullet and decided to do a dawn patrol before work with a mate.
Let me put this in perspective.. it's been near freezing the last few nights and it was 1 degrees arriving at the beach this morning.

Beautiful horizon! long 17sec lines in the ocean, with apparent 1.7m set waves and light off shore.

Decided I'd take the short board out .
Good lord my shoulders are not used to paddling, especially in a full length steamer! Although made it out to the break before my mate who's been only shortboarding recently so I suppose that's not bad?
Picked up the timing pretty quickly and dropped in to a head / shoulder hollow wave. Immediately up, but a bit shakey on the feet. big jump from 8'6 x 29 sup to 5'9 x 19 shortboard. Especially with little am2 fins having a smaller centre.
Bailed off and as I grabbed the I felt a long ding.. what the hell.. this is the worst ding I've ever had happen to a board.
I realised my mate had put his board fins-down in the car and jammed it up tight against mine. In the hour long trip to the beach, it must've just slowly scraped down the board and cracked the glassing..

I swear this board is jinxed.!!
1). I had this custom made. 2 weeks after the long custom process I snapped my achillies and was out of the water for nearly 2 years
2). After 1x surf, I noticed cracking in the glassing around the foot area and the shaper said it must not have cured properly and had to 'repair it' with putty and more glassing around the feet area.
3). Second ride on it following rehab, it slipped out of my hands and fell on some rocks
4). Third ride, the leash snapped while 200m out (due to a manufacturing defect in the leash)
5). It now has a massive crack and ding in the glassing which is worse than any of the above!

Thoughts on this repair job? Mostly just cracked glassing with some denting, a few areas which have gone through the glass.

Luckily I had also packed my sup in the car and went for a blast on that and had a few surfers paddle over to say I did some 'sick turns'.

yeah, just sell it and buy a new board.

dtc wrote:yeah, just sell it and buy a new board SUP board.

I fixed that for you. Obviously he enjoys the SUP and seems to be doing well at it.

It is not the board that is jinxed. It is you who joined the dark side

Forget the ding repair. Your board needs an exorcist.

Little AM2 fins? Do you mean AM2 futures (which are a pretty big fin) or FCS AM2 (which is in fact the am1)?

So sorry, benjl,
I feel for you. Something like this happened to me this week.
I truly mean me. Not my board.
Best to you. It's been a while since I've said, "Aloha," to you.

Haha i had the board before I ever picked up a sup. I only got in to sup as I physically couldn't prone surf for close to 2 years due to a twice snapped achillies tendon and the physio suggested it for balance and rehab.

It has crossed my mind about selling and getting another board thoUgh.
Sadly when I had it made I was 62kg, a competitive Muay Thai fighter and surfing a lot so the 28l volume was fine.
I'm now 72, and rarely prone surf as the board just tires me out quickly if there's any ocean current or strong break and small waves don't really interest me- particularly on a board that's not made for them.

Thoughts on a new board for me?
Would love to keep something for when I don't want to sup but still keep it fairly short.

As for the fins, they're the small am template in futures. The back middle Is small. I love the template, big drivey sides with a lose small trailing fin. I even run the exact same set on my sup!

Hey Benji,

I was considering you board dilemma and have a suggestion.

Have you ever heard of Sculpt surfboards, out of Sydney? There is a model called the "Two Step" which looks like a pretty good for smaller waves and you can ride it pretty short. Check it out: http://www.sculptsurfboards.com/

Here's a review from Compare surfboards: http://comparesurfboards.com/reviews/al ... ard-review

And a review of another Sculpt model: http://comparesurfboards.com/reviews/al ... ard-review

I really like the sound of the latter, as I am very partial to 80's style surfboard (beaked nose, flat deck, full rails, wide squash tail). I'm about the same weight as you, 6' tall, and my board ( a Source surfboard hand-shape from Santa Cruz)which I use from waist high up is an 80's style thruster with all the attributes I mentioned above. It's 5'7.5", 19 1/2", 2 1/2", and it's really user friendly. It's glassed pretty thick so dings aren't really a problem.

Of course you could always go to a local shaper. Are there any good ones where you live?

AM fin templates are the way to go. I prefer the AM2 larger fin, (I'm 75kg), it seems to go better than the am1.

Hope this helps.

benjl wrote:I swear this board is jinxed.!!
1). I had this custom made. 2 weeks after the long custom process I snapped my achillies and was out of the water for nearly 2 years
2). After 1x surf, I noticed cracking in the glassing around the foot area and the shaper said it must not have cured properly and had to 'repair it' with putty and more glassing around the feet area.
3). Second ride on it following rehab, it slipped out of my hands and fell on some rocks
4). Third ride, the leash snapped while 200m out (due to a manufacturing defect in the leash)

Kill it with fire!

RinkyDink wrote:Forget the ding repair. Your board needs an exorcist.

Or at least let the board sit for 2-3 weeks before patching, so the evil spirits can gas out and leave the board.

Put a post up on this surfing Facebook group and have met a dude who quoted $50-80. Pretty good rate and his page of previous fixes looks impeccable.

Might get it fixed and then look to sell and get something with a bit more volume. Although the sentimental value of the custom is hard to let go!

You can always get another custom hopefully with a good luck charm in it this time.

Haha not super keen to fork out another $1100 on a custom just yet
But might get something like a torq 6'3 or 5'11 fish which will still paddle well and provide a bit of performance. Would love to take my 5'9 custom out in some good waves though. I've never really been able to test it! At least one further positive from supping is that it teaches you how to work the rail, tail and move on the board to turn it, similar to a long board. On the brief moments back on my short board, I've been able to rip turns harder than I ever could previously!

On a side note.. I am working on getting a mate to send over this board at the moment
Shaped by the Hawaiian waterman Jason momoa. Only 8'2
https://www.thesurfboardwarehouse.com.a ... son-momoa/

So I got my custom board fixed! I had said to the shaper that if the ding looked like it was an obvious repair and didn't match the board, then I would like it painted or have some graphics applied.
After telling me that the repair was done the board looked amazing I went to pick it! Sadly it looked terrible.. not colour matched (not even close) and made it look as though it was a bad condition beater board. I was pretty disappointed given the shaper had said you couldn't even notice the repair..

He was hesitant to listen to my suggestions of graphics to cover the repair but reluctantly came round after sketching it out.
I'm due to pick it up tomorrow but he sent me this image lastnight and I think it's come together well!
Maybe even better than the original plain looking board?

I'm also due to book my surfing trip to Bali tonight!
We're thinking on staying at the Padang Padang surf camp: Anyone seen or know first-hand information about this place?
https://www.balisurfingcamp.com/surf-school

its a rocket!

haha that's also what I thought!