I noticed these marks (sort of like shallow creases? - see photos) on my Merrick MBM the other day.
Strange as this may seem, but I am almost 100% certain they appeared after leaving my board in the car o/n in temps of -5° Celcius (sorry not sure of °F equivalent). The board is less than a year old and was glassed by ‘Swell Glass’ (not absolutely sure who / where they are, I was under the impression that all Merrick boards were glassed in Ca, but the only mention of ‘Swell Glass’ I could find suggested they were in France). The lines are all running at roughly 90° to the stringer and traverse most of the underside, but stop about an inch in from the edge of the rail (the wrap?). Some (see last photo) only involve one side of the board, only going as far as the stringer. The reason I’m pretty sure they are not surf related is that I’d just taken my fins out and cleaned the board (just using a wax comb - no chemicals of any kind) and am positive I’d have noticed these. I’ve been surfing for 25 years or so and have had many many boards, but have never seen anything like this. I’ve creased a few boards but this doesn’t look quite like that. I’d appreciate your advice guys - it’s the best board I’ve ever had and was hoping it had a few more waves left in it before having to fork out another £450.
That looks like a stiff legged floater re-entry to me, no amount of heat or cold will cause this.
Your board has entered its self into the death pool, there is no surefire repair for this other than stripping and re-glassing, way too much effort for a board that has been compromised to this degree, wait, isn’t that Kelly’s board that he rode creased at the Pipe Masters!
Did the board experience a very fast temperature change? I mean did you take it directly from the top of your car (-5degC) and bring it into your heated house(approx 20degC)? Rapid temperature changes are no good for stuff like a surfboard that has air sealed in it.
Here’s my take on that: It looks like your board suffered some serious stress. Maybe you didn’t notice it, but some dampness in those tiny cracks perpendicular to the stringer may have frozen at -5° and got much, much worse, expanding the cracks.
I have virtually the identical thing on the bottom of my 9’ er. If you run your hand over it , the resin feels very slightly raised either side of the fracture, and you can catch your nail in the crack , right ?
I’m pretty sure it happened when I tried a floater in the shorebreak ( I’ve seen two other mals snapped doing the same thing at the same spot ).Nose hits the sand … etc.But, as you say , I didn’t notice it for a while.
I showed it to the guys who made the board and they basically said not to worry about it - there’s nothing can be done, and the stress fractures are in the hotcoat, while most of the strength comes from the cloth.
I’ve been riding mine like that for at least a couple of years now and there’s no sign of water ingress.Bit of a shame cosmetically , but if I like a board I just ride it 'til it dies anyway.
Sand down the area lay a diamond shaped peice of glass over the area go and extra 4-6 inches farther than the cracks. glass with epoxy it will still work don’t give up on it I fix real bucks all the time for people. those are just stress cracks.
Grind it down rail to rail until you see weave then re-glass over those cracks. -5C = 28F, below freezing but not likely the cause for those cracks… any chance you might have missed them after that last session?
Your board is buckled, plain and simple. The reason the fractures stop at the lap is the extra glass there has reinforced the board and stopped the damage.
Not a heat-related issue nor a glassing defect. This is typical stress cracking from a load on the deck. This is always characterized by cracks parallel to the stringer on the deck and perpedicular on the bottom. The deck went into compression (parallel cracks) and the bottom went into tension (perpendicular cracks). The cracks only go to the laps on the rails because the glassing is heavier there. Could have slammed it on down a wave, or from trying to duck it in heavy waves.
You have to repair it or it will eventually snap (as well as getting a lot of browning in the glass). To fix it, sand it down until the weave is just showing. Laminate a layer of 4 oz. cloth lapping the rails on both sides. Just before you lam each side, apply straight styrene along the cracks. Hotcoat, finish as the rest of the board was. The glassing area needs to be about 6" beyond the cracks on the side where they’re the worst.
Thanks everyone for the comments. There seems to be a consensus developing that a) the’yre not cold-related and b) I need to fix them.
All good advice that I will certainly heed. I still find it hard to believe that I could have missed them after spending ten mins or so dewaxing the board and removing the fins, as the moment I took it out of the bag to go for the next surf I saw them. Still, I can’t be 100% sure, so I’ll certainly bow to your (collective) better judgements. Out of interest I just rechecked the deck and there’s absolutely nothing - not a sausage in terms of cracks.
I know this is a bit of a ‘how long’s a piece of string’ question, but assuming I can avoid pulling into 8ft close-outs, is it just too risky to carry on using it until I can get it fixed (or hopefully better - fix it myself)?
Is it possible the board was glassed/cured in “tension” ?Then a year later was brought inside and subject to rapid heating on the bottom more so than the deck? The loaded side then being the top causing the bottom to expand,stretching the glass and crazing like this?Too bad there’s not a sealant which can be injected versus adding all that weight with a series of glass bandaids.Structurally wouldnt the weave still be providing enough strength?If this isnt possible why not 4 oz. glass the whole bottom?
I’ve seen buckle cracks like this, although maybe not throughout the entire board, occur with someone straps the board down with the nose pointing forward on their vehicle, then driving highway speeds for long distances.
Which is why I always put my fins forward. I believe this was even covered as an issue in SURFER magazine a few years back.
I slightly buckled a 10’0 once paddling over a wave at Rincon. The wave was about head-high and the lip slapped the forward area of the bottom as I went over the top. Didn’t notice the stress cracks until later. Luckily they were only in the hotcoat. I was able to sand them out. Then just in case there had been any damage to the glass that may have gone unnoticed I layed a piece of 4oz. over the area, hotcoated and finished it off. I did the 4oz just to be absolutly sure it didn’t take water. No noticable weight gain and you couldn’t detect the repair. That Merrick looks worse than mine though. I’ve repaired quite a few buckles over the years. If the foam is damaged I won’t repair it without inserting small stringers.