I had termites, flies and bugs land in my hot coat and/or even my gloss coat before but I never seen carpenter bees boring out a PU blank before. I was over Charlie Wong’s blank shed checking out the last his Clark Foam blanks when we inspected an old 8’8”H blank. These blanks are used for wave sailboards or big boy surfboards. We found the oddest shaped holes in the blank that were perfectly round. Upon closer inspection we found more holes that wormed through the nose section of the blank. The holes made the nose of the blank somewhat chambered. We blew compressed air in the holes and out came black and a few golden juvenile carpenter bees.
With a few patches of foam and a resin – Q-Cell mix, Charlie shaped me an 8’8” x 12” x 22” x 13.4” x 3.5” big-boy round pin tail.
Knowing that the patch jobs would show up under a clear glass job, I opted to glass it with pigment and do an epoxy swirl. Epoxy Swirls were really popular threads at the time on Swaylocks anyway. I glassed the bottom win a single 6 oz. and the deck with two 6 oz. and 4 oz. layers using FGH 2 to 1 epoxy. I hot coated with epoxy and did the gloss coat with PE resin. I hid the holes pretty well but the flaw was in a wobbly pin stripe job. Epoxy does swirl well but muddies out fast too. The thruster fin set up was with FCS C-7000 fins.
Lessen learned: wrap your blanks in plastic if your storage area is exposed to carpenter bees and bugs.
I don’t mean to hi-jack your thread, UncleD, but let me add two pictures: one is balsa lumber chambered by those carpenter bees (happened to me a few months ago) and the other is my friend Ohana’s finished SUP with that fine logo you sent me. (I polished it yesterday). Aloha!
