So I recently got a 6’ 8" retro fish and after the first time surfing (squish 3/4’ waves) I noticed one or two pressure dings from my heel. Lon story short. Took off the wax from the tail to about 1’ up and found that there’s quite a lot of them. Is this pretty normal for a new surfboard?
Deck is going to cave in and make wells under your feet over time anyway. Ride and enjoy.
If it is a brand new board with only one session I’d say shitty makesmanship. Probably cut into the foam too deep on the deck side or too light of a glass job on the deck. Or, both. I’d be bummed. Mike
I think both of y’all are right. I think the glass job was not done thick enough. Almost seems like one layer maybe two at most. I guess all I can do is get a kick pad and hope for the best and use another shaper in the future. What do you think the shaper will do if I send him images ? Most likely say it’s normal? The business has almost 5 star rate and can’t find anything negative about them.
It’s not good, but not that uncommon either.
On your next board, if you want to prevent that sort of denting, have the deck glassed with one 4 oz and one 6 oz. Unless you are really good, and entering contests, you won’t notice the difference.
Maybe it was very recently glassed and cured fully? My friend rode his fish the day he picked it up and got a bunch of pressure dings just like you, couple weeks later he stopped getting them as much
It was glassed a week prior to being sent. That could very well be a possibility. I’ve never purchased a new board before and when I asked them, they said it was fine to ride once you review as they don’t ship until fully cured I guess.
Thanks for the tip! Being a beginner, there’s only so much I could know coming into a purchase without having any friends that knew enough about buying new boards/ glass grades and thicknesses. Only been surfing for about 5 sessions now and have managed to IMO accomplish so much! Helps knowing someone who is half decent at surfing though! Here’s a picture of my first wave on the new board.
I think it is very very important to the maturing (or seasoning) of glass job for the complete crystallization of the polymer chains.
In my experience is not good surfing a board recently glassed, after 2 or 4 weeks (depends to temperature) fiberglass reaches the maximum mechanical performance.
Who made it?
Also, two layers of glass on a deck is standard. That many pressure dents in one session tells me the foam is soft.
didnt realize it took so long for a full cure. I waited 2 weeks before surfing. I have worked with fiberglass and always was told it takes around 1 full day to be 98% cured.
Not quite sure if im allowed to state who made the board(forum rules?) am i? Might be a possibility though
Also is it glassed with Epoxy resin or Polyester resin?
Do you have a Pes cavus or high arch foot? Like when you stand all the pressure is on your heel and the ball of the foot (don’t know if it’s the right expression). So basically you penetrate the deck with two small points instead of the whole foot. I got this and I think it’s the reason I get pressure dings on every board even with 3x4oz or 2x6 glassing. My friends with flat feet can even surf my boards with 2x4 glassing without dents.
So I blame it on my feet and allways use stronger glassing and live with it. And also keeping the glassing standard but using a higher density blank helps a lot.
There is no rule that says you cannot name who built it.
You said the board was shipped? Was it shipped from over seas? There are a number of companies out there making boards. and other just selling boards that are made in mass production factories in China, Thailand and Viet Nam. That many pressure dents in the deck makes me think it could be a poor quality blank. If you paid with a Credit Card you may want to inform the card company they can put a lot of pressure on a company if you dispute the purchase. if it was bought off Amazon you can also make claim to get your money back.
This is why I asked who made it. I suspect it may be one of those Asian mass produced cheapos. Possibly one of the fake labels from Sena the Ripoff Artist.
Board was made by Savage surf company out of North Carolina. I mssged the owner who shaped it and he said it was normal. I showed him some images of me surfing and he pointed out that i was using my knee when standing up on the board and that would cause the extra dings since im 170lbs. He suggested i get a kick pad and that would help out alot if i got one with an arch. So i did so. Im surfing this weekend hopefully and will test it out and see what does for the board. I dont have a super big arch (imo?) but my shoes size is a 12/13 so that might be the reason?
I gotta laugh at some of the comments here, how quick we forget! Before 2004, these type
of depressions in a Clark blank board were common and to be expected, specially if we
glassed the board and surfed it within a week. Clark foam shaped like butter, but it was
soft. I didn’t know either until I shaped my first Aussie foam after Black Monday
(or was it Wednesday?, don’t remember now).
The palm edge of my hand was red and raw from how hard the foam was.
Now to the question…
The board is probably shaped from US Foam, like Clark but a bit harder. I checked the
website, no old school fish shown, so this must have been a custom order. That means
that the board was shipped quickly (keep the customer happy) and had not fully cured.
I always add two weeks to any order to make sure that a board is fully cured before a
customer gets it, and make sure that it is in the 90 degree range for most of that time
and no longer has a strong smell. I glass fish with double 4oz deck & 4 bottom and
have no issues that way. I get two + years on my own personal boards before they
even come close to looking like that.
I would recommend to the poster to put a new board in a warm spot, covered of course,
for about a week and if it doesn’t have a lot of resin smell, surf it. If it does, wait a week.
You will end up with a strong board that should last you a long time. Could comment more,
but who needs a history lesson when there is the search function? Just my 2c…
I’ve been surfing for45 years. I’ve never had a board look like that after one or two surfs. Maybe after a couple years of hard use… Mike