We’ve had an awesome run of surf here here lately but unfortunately it took out a board I was falling in love with. When it broke I searched everywhere for tips on how to fix it but didn’t come up with much. I wanted to do this repair thread for anyone else who comes into a similar problem. I’m definitely not a professional and I know what I did might not be what most would do but it’s good enough for government work.
I just realize I’m and idiot that can’t imbed photos (on a mac, might be the problem) so I’m just going to do this in a series of posts. Also can’t figure out why the pics are sideways.
First is the broken board and the waves the day it broke. It got a crease in the bottom after getting blindsided by some backwash. I thought “this really sucks but shouldnt be too bad to fix, i’ll head in and grab my other board”. It then snapped completely in half when I caught some whitewater in on my belly because its basically vacuum bagged cooler foam.
First step was to get it Q-celled back together. Since the top layer of glass was in tact it wasnt hard to get the rocker right. Just threw some weights on it upside down on my rack and it was pretty much spot on. Once I got it back together I used a Dremel to cut away the loose glass on the deck.
I figured just glassing this thing back together wasn’t going to be enough so i cut a couple 8" stringers out of some leftover 1/8" plywood I had from another project. I used my handy harbor freight trim router to cut a couple of slots through the board for the stringers to go in. If i did this again i would have used a smaller router bit. 1/4" left way too much of a gap to fill. I also wasnt paying attention and took a nice chunk out of the bottom
The plan was to put some tape on the deck and Q-cell the stringers in. I mixed up a nice color grey to add to my epoxy but didn’t even think about the white from the Q-cell that would wash out my color. In an effort to fix it I added some more black pigment and ended up with a mess. My duct tape on the deck also wasn’t sealed very well and a bit of the epoxy dripped out. I did a bit better on the second stringer but still needed to go back after it hardened to fill in some gaps. At this point I was still thinking that I would do a clear glass job and the stringers would be visible. The one on the lefthand side was wrapped in glass while the one on the right was not.
Once the Q-cell around the stringers hardened I sanded them flush. On the deck I applied a thin slurry of Q-cell to just even out any gaps and make everything smooth for glassing. This was sanded smooth after the picture was taken.
I went bulletproof with the glassing. I had a long strip of carbon infused glass that i got from a buddy that i used a bit of. On the bottom I did a large 4oz patch with 6oz over the break. I also did carbon strips over the stringers and on the rails. On the deck I did the cabon with 2x 6oz (i think) and maybe a little 4oz too. All of the glass was scrap offcuts I had left over so I had to kind of piece it together on the deck. I made sure to put a lot of glass over where my foot indent was. Once the hotcoat (or fillcoat really) hardened I sanded up to 400 grit, making sure to sand into the glass wherever possible. I used to re-hotcoat these areas but it was always lead to sandthroughs in the areas surround the original sandthrough so I’ve since started spraying it with polyurethane and calling it done. Theres enough glass on this thing that Im really not worried about it.
I’m not one to really worry about how things look but even i thought the repairs looks pretty ugly. I grabbed a rattlecan of the closest color I had (Kraylon fittingly named “Surf”) and covered up the ugliness.
I should add that this was all done with Greenroom epoxy and harbor freight tools :). I’ve never tried any other epoxies but Greenroom is made locally and Ive found it to be super easy to work with. I think it wets out as good, if not better, than any poly resin Ive used and the fast hardner has about a 20 minute pot life.
Even with the repair and the extra glass and filler the board only feels as heavy as any other poly board. And yes, I know the flex pattern will be completely off. I’m 6’2"x190lbs and I always felt nervous on steep drops when it flexed under my feet.
The actual initial break point is now the strongest part of the board, and the new weakest spot of the board is right where the new stringers end, especially since they both appear to be the same length and appear to end just in front of where your front foot will reside, or very close to it.
The board will flex right there and grow weaker over time. In the future, Spread out the strength of any reinforcement as wherever any strong spot ends, causes a weak spot. No flat spots. Oval or V the ends of the unequal length carbon tape, and pull it tight. One can also thickness taper the added stringers, offset them slightly or have one longer than the other, or have them taper to zero from deck to hull to spread the load of the repair.
I hope you get a lot of use from it before the new weak spot reveals itself. Even with all the extra cloth and tape bridging the ends of the added stringers I’d expect to see some stress cracking developing at the end of your stringers in time
Thanks Huck and I had a feeling that would be true wrc. Sort of like a broken bone healing and being stronger than ever. Good idea about the tapered stringers. I also should have considered offsetting them a bit to spread the surface area of the repair out even more
That’s a fine looking repair. That wave shot sure looks like the east coast, I’m guessing Jersey. You mentioned you really like the board. Now would be a good time to record all of the dimensions so if you ever destroy the board again you can make a brand new one. Are the rails carbon (I doubt it)? Also, what’s with the original board being stringerless? Is that a design feature or just a cheap decision by the board manufacturer?
@Jballen2
The stress points might also (still) be offset with a 3rd, center stringer that is longer and whose ends extend beyond those of the 2 outside stringers. The 3rd stringer could be thinner than the outside 2 for a quick do-over (piece of 1/16” basswood from Hobby Lobby, cut slit with jigsaw?) — just a thought.
Cool repair thread.
I’m curious what the original build schedule was (EPS density & lam schedule), if you know.
Thanks for posting this.
I’m not sure. It was a custom HaydenShapes for a local surfer that I picked up off the used rack at a local shop. 6’0”x19.25”x2.44” and it was pretty much perfect for me. I’ve never owned another HS but did repairs on one for a friend. They seem to be well built, but I’m not sure about the GSI ones from asia. I think since this was a custom it was made closer to home. It seems like 1lb eps but I just don’t see that being possible without some sort of veneer. There is however what looks to be innegra on the deck, so it might be possible. It just doesn’t seem dense enough to be 2lb, but my only experience is with Marko foam so I’m not too well versed in eps. The rails are definitely carbon as far as I can tell and it was glassed quite well. I’m a terrible sander and barely hit any of the surrounding glass around the repair.
And stoneburner i like your idea of a center stringer. That’ll probably be my solution if I have any issues. Forecast looks pretty weak for the next little while but I’m hoping to get a few waves on Thursday. I’ll report back.
