A friend of mine pulled out an old twin fin from under his house (yes, he is a total pack rat. Fred Sanford would be proud). I can’t remember the label but I do remember it is not a collectable but looked like a fun board non the less. It is about 6’ (like a rounded diamond tail) with a big tiger airbrushed on the deck. Probably made in the late 70s early 80s Anyway the fins are ripped out of it & the end of the tail is split along the rail line. The deck is in good shape but the bottom at about the mid point next to the rail has a big indention (about 8" long and about 4" wide and about 1" to 1 1/2" deep) which looks like it was from concentrated heat in the area. I traded him a used fin for it, my question is how to deal with the indention (the rest of the stuff I can deal with, no big deal). My first instinct would be to cut away the sunk in glass, fill the indention with foam or spackle then glass a patch over it. Another thought would be just to fill the indention with resin & cabosil, but that might throw off the weight balance of the board. I’m going to do a paint job over the whole bottom after ever thing is water tight, so I’m not really worried the appearance of the repair. I just want the easiest way to get everything to flow again. Any suggestions besides don’t mess with it because it sounds like too much hassle would be appreciated. THIS BOARD MUST BE RIDDEN AGAIN!
I would go with filling it with foam and patching it. By the way, I remember you were looking for a pair of star systems on 2ndlight. Did you find some or opt to go with something else?
That wasn’t me on second light, that place freaks me out (bad ju ju). I guess there are a lot of mike d posters out there. I shall now be know as mikedwalrus. Thanks for the feedback. I just know that blending a glass patch in the bottom of the board can be a pain in the @##. I’m probably going to make some plywood fins like the fish I did in the link. Better come up and surf the NSB inlet before it is gone for good. There is a plan to extend the NSB jetty out 1,000’ and dump a bunch of sand on the beach south of the rocks. The powers that be say it will make ponce inlet safer for boaters thereby increasing its usage and cause an upswing in $$$$ for the surrounding communities. They have done no studies on the impact it will have on the One if not THE most consistent spots on the entire east coast. It is a $4,000,000 project and the funding is in the bank. Very scary! ESM ran an article about it this month, check it out. At first the funding wasn’t there and everybody thought it was over and done with, the next thing you know the funding is back and the project is scheduled for summer 2004. It is not totally lost for us but it doesn’t look good. We have started petitions but who knows. http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/Detailed/337.html
You could use herbs diaper dust(archives) seems strong…don’t know about weight though. Thats a shame about the inlet,very nice hard breaking beachbreak for sure…ya never know…could it break better?? Question walrus Mike,how do you like the fish you made in the link? Does it ride sweet ? How much do you weigh?? Just curious,I am in the process of finishing a similar board at the moment.Thanks and good luck.Peace and waves…
Yeah that is the counter argument at the moment. No one really knows what will happen. But with the jetty extended out that far and with all the new sand that is going to be pushed toward it I’m afraid it might block a lot of that north/northeast swell that makes that place come alive. In the article mentioned they talked about surfrider and others in the area working with the new construction at sebastian to ensure 1st peak wouldn’t get ruined. Unfortunately surfers are not really not know for their community awarness and activism. As a resident, I’m as guilty as the next guy but like I said it hasn’t happened yet. There are concerns about the extended jetty causing more beach erosion toward the south which is right were the state environmental preserve is. Maybe that would be the to block it. Save the turtles, birds & waves! That fish rides great. I’m 6’ and 200lbs. It is a different animal. I grew up riding thrusters and a fish like that takes some getting use to. Instead of pumping the wall by working the board top to bottom along the rail line, boards like that work better if you work them side to side (like tic taking a skateboard). Once you get it figured out they haul ass. The most important thing I learned about that shape was that fins make a huge difference. In the past (before swaylocks) I had made about 10 twin fins with various configurations. I had read up on them and had learned to drop the fin placement back but what I didn’t realize (having never seen one in person) that the fin base was much larger. Needless to say that made a huge difference. There is tons of info in the archives on fin sizes and placement for boards like that (look under post by “magic man” & herb. There is also good info on rocker and foil. Good Luck.
“Don’t mess with it because it’s too much of a hassle”?? …I don’t know that anyone here would say that. Last time I checked you could get 3 or 4 bars a wax for the price of a cup of coffee, yet I’m willing to bet there will be more than one person this weekend heating up some paraffin and going at it thanks to Rob’s recipe… I’ve been having a lot of success laying in foam with my (and my roommates/friends) repairs. You need to have some scrap foam laying around, so if you don’t shape it might be a problem… and 4 x 8” would almost defineately take more than 1 piece; I usually use the sticks that come off of the nose and tail outline – longboards work best. I route out a rectangle around the ding (just using a Dremel), and try to make the bottom flush. Then cut a piece of foam a bit bigger than the hole. Grab some 100 grit and slowly fine tune it, until it fits snuggly in the hole… make it deeper than the hole, so you can pull it back out. Mix up some white lam resin and lay it in. Once dry hit it with the sander, and expose the weave around it all in one step. Glass as usual, overlapping the exposed weave. You almost can’t tell, unless you heat up the surrounding weave too much, then that’ll show. Probably more effort than needed, but I’m in this for the fun of it. I find spackle is too soft for large fills. Though that could be because of a poor glass job, which is entirely possible…