I buckled the nose on my PU/poly today in a shallow beach break close out, i think the nose went head first into the sand.
The damage:
The top of the board is cracked and delaminated from the foam.
Stringer appears to be partially or fully snapped but i can't tell yet
Rail is cracked on one side through to the bottom slightly
The bottom of the board has some stress fractures but did not crack
The nose itself is also damaged but this is a separate repair which i'm comfortable doing
I think there is still hope for the board.
I am thinking of cutting out the damaged glass with a razor blade, cutting out any damaged foam, sanding back, and trying to bend back the rocker to its original shape.
Then fill with Q-Cell and criss cross 2 - 3 layers of 4 oz and hot coat.
Basically no different to a normal ding repair.
Should i brace the stringer if it is broken? Or glue it back together? I don’t have access to power tools and don’t want to do major surgery to the board and hoping i can get away with leaving it as is given it is up on the nose of the board?
EDIT: Now I see you have no power tools. Well, everything below can be done by hand, it just takes longer. Forget bracing the stringer, IMO. The new glass will be good enough and a braced stringer will not keep this from happening again.
That happens a lot where I surf.
Get your sander out and sand all the glass off where any damage is +2"/50mm boarders. Then sand another 2"/50mm beyond that border just to rough up the glass.
Straighten out the nose and splint it into the location where you want it using tape traction, weights, whatever
After you straighten it out, the foam will crack and open. You need to fill the void with resin + glass fiber to lock the "new" rocker in place
Once that is done, sand any glass flat that is sticking out of the damaged areas so you have a relatively smooth working area
reglass the whole nose (top and bottom) like you would and entire board but only go to where your roughed area is; you might want to NOT make the glass stop with a straight edge, rail-to-rail. It will create another snap point. Make an arc or diamond finish to the glass end.
feather in the new glass and sand it smooth and flat
Mask off the damaged area and hot coat, then gloss coat. Polish.
The upside is that a crease in that area of the board will not change how the board rides, unlike a crease mid-board. Be patient and enjoy the process.
Yes on Qcell and chopped fiber in the epoxy mix. Just get it moderately thick.
Regrading the straight edge with the glass going across the board: try to avoid that. cutting the cloth so it goes perpendicular with the stringer creates a break point for the board in the future. Make the cloth cut in a nice arc or triangle or diamond pattern.