where are based then mark? You’re from N.Pembs aren’t you?
I’m a Pembs boy myself but now live and work in Cardiff so Vale coast breaks are my nearest at 25 mins drive but I put in a lot of earlies before work and hit the gower reefs from time to time.
I get back home from time to time if it’s pumping and get wed down in manorbier soon.
I’ve heard good things from SDF, a lad who posts on my forum on ‘offthelip’ on the bbc wales surfing site, rates them as do a lot of the local crew.
The welsh shapers know they’re stuff but tend to cater for their own local mkt rather than experiment which is fair enough I guess as it’s not easy to make a living out of it.
Personally I’d rather buy a fish from a guy who makes fish 24/7 and is passionate about it and pushing the design a bit rather than buying one from a guy whose made bog standard thrusters his whole life and now does fish because they’re popular. I’ve see some horrible shapes around with big fat tails, proper fat boy fish.
*I had a reply from malcolm re: my board and he said he’s seen it happen many times on old and new alike and said it was probably down to the blank rather than the glassing.
“It occurs because there is impact right next to or on the stringer where the flexibility of the blank and glass meet the rigidity of the stringer and you get that crack right along the stringer.”
I need to get my hands on some of this cabosil - no idea if we have this in the uk? Is it the same as Q-cells that you just add to resin to form a paste or something different…
I’m out injured at the mo, stuffed my back up a few weeks ago but hoping to get in on sunday. It’s looking lovely out there today, weekend should be better.
Unfortunately you will end up paying quite a bit for their courier to send it unless you have other things to order from them to make it worthwhile. Think I have seen it on ebay as well. I have a bag of it and can send you some free for a repair if you pm your address I can send it monday. I used it to seal an eps blank but used q cell glass bubbles on the next ones so have some of those as well if you want. As to the practical differences the glass bubbles are lighter and easier to sand and are a nice white colour when mixed but imparts no extra strength. The cabosil whilst not so light is more difficult to sand but is more fibrous and seems to be stronger and as I remember not so white. What did Malcolm advise, fill then patch with glass?
Agreed about your comments about welsh shapers. I just got the impression of a little less care and respect given to a customer (ie me) when I am outside their local catchment area. Im in St. Davids so S. Pembs. and beach breaks and lots of holidaymakers but a pretty good atmosphere in the water. Lots of sand missing from the beaches so things aren’t too good so will be heading to Fresh more. Standard of surfing in N. Pembs is in general I think higher.
funny you should say that as down my neck of the woods i.e. freshwest - my old local we refer to st davids, newgale, aber etc as north pembs and we’re in south pembs
cheers for the cabosil, much appreciated. Yes, malcolm said to add some of that to fill any gap, <there isn’t much> and then to add 2 layers of cloth, 1 bigger, one smaller overlappping over the stringer and repair, for added strength and it would last the life of the board.
S.Wales is my destination of choice theses days, heading down tomorrow morning actally. if you see a guy on a bright yellow 7’8 it could be me.
I agree with what you said about the local guys
I’ve stayed with the Gill, who shapes Odd boards and met Guts down at crab Island, nice friendly people. Sam at SDF makes a nice board too, before setting up shop he worked at beach beat. I used to own a JP lasted a long time but sold it off not too long ago. Have you tried the surf shop/shappers on the industrial est near poerthcawl?
Your stringer crack looks qite deep/wide, if you don’t mind the extra sanding then I would recommend using a nail to make a fillet inder the existing glass once any lose material is removed and filling it with saturated roving, once saned cover with 2 layers of cloth like a normal repair.
Its more work and not as essestic but is a lot stronger, think of the forces that fixed fins are under.
