Dings are hearbreakers on a new board. But hey, if you surf it, you're gonna ding it. But what about those dings from hitting the door jamb on the way out, dropping it on the concrete garage floor while buffing it out, lean it against a wall and turn your back and it falls on the glass coffee table.
Ever mash a brand-new board really good? Share your anguish!
That’s an easy one. My 40th birthday. A group of my friends all chipped in and bought me a gorgeous 10’ Stewart Classic. I was so stoked, I just had to have a picture of it before it hit the water… before any wax… before anything happened to it. So yeah, I leaned it against the fence, turned around to get back a few feet and heard the most hideous sound in my life as it slid down the side of the fence and crashed into a wall, then bounced onto the concrete patio. Upside to the story is, a buddy of mine introduced me to a guy who was a great ding repairman. I spent the day with him and he taught me some great stuff… probably planted the seeds for my future board building. Oh and my new board got a kick ass repair job.
I’ll give you two… a finished board and an unfinished board:
Borrowing my brother-in-law’s brand new, never ridden, 9’2 Robert August noserider… undid the straps and turned away. As soon as I did that, it blew off the roof of my truck and landed in the paved parking lot. Felt even worse because it wasn’t my board…
Polishing the scratches off a freshly shaped 6’6 squash tail in my driveway… wind blew the blank off the rack. SNAP! About three inches of one corner of the squash broke off when it hit the pavement. I glued it back on, took about a 1/2 inch off the length, and made it a round tail.
This board fell off the racks right before installing the fin boxes. Snapped a chunk of foam out of the nose as you can see in the pics. I wasn’t even near this thing when it happened. Just heard the horror from accross the room.
Then I lost it and ‘went postal’ (reference to another thread) and punched a hole in the bottom. Let’s call that destructive testing…
A TON of planning and work went into it. Compressed my own blank with ground scrap EPS foam and bamboo dust and binder (~1# density), bamboo stringer, chambered 3/16" bamboo cross laminted deck inlays (playing with flex), bamboo veneer on bottom, bamboo glass, RR 2000 epoxy…
Never finished the board. It’s been sitting in my surfboard room at home collecting dust. Another exercise in academics…
~Brian
Wasn't me, but I was there. Back in the late 70's this guy shows up at our hotel in San Blas. He gets a room and invites us over for beers, but can't wait to show us his new round pin. After he takes it out of the bag, he picks it straight up and immediately stops the metal blade ceiling fan (so strong it had guywires to the four corners of the room) with the nose! Just gouged the shit out of the nose. I told him at least the board's "broke in" now, won't have to worry about dinging it on this trip! It really wasn't any consolation to him...
I had my bro's 9.8 board up for sale and proped it up in the living room (vaulted celing) to take pics
of couse, as I back up to snap a pic it starts sliding,,,, first into the treadmill then into the steal railing to the stairs
a big stab in the rail and the nose was sliced off about 2 inches,, stringer and all!
and
my new Harbour 9.8 out the door,,, bang!,,,and then loading it on my truck .,,Bang!
that board is a ding magnet