Yet another refurbish on this 9' beater

I posted this up in the board archive, and its listed as being made in 2014. Which isn’t all that old, but it was rode hard and put away wet, as they say. Its had its share of dings, been left out in the hot sun and the blank rippled and deformed, I gave up on it, then I got inspired and patched and repaired it. Rode it for a few more years, but eventually the blank kinda deformed a bit more over time, and finally I shaped a new daily driver, and put this one away. I pulled it out recently, and decided to give it one more last hurrah.

I based the shape on a glider that Ace posted here, and this board has been a favorite of mine for a few years. It started as a single, then I added quad fins, and liked it as a quad, but in later years I started riding it as a single again.

I patched all the dings, there were several, especially on the rails. The deck has been filled in and repaired where it had a deep foot well, but then it came back as I mashed it down again. So this time I routered out the deck to set a wood veneer band where my foot always seems to mash in the deck.

I added my signature leash attach through the stringer, which I should have done in the first place. I usually do this with a wood tail block, but wanted to try it with a foam tail, so this is my first time like this.

The bottom really got rippled in the sun, and has never been the same. So I sanded it back down to shape, hopefully it is done deforming.

The pics are in my phone. I’m on computer here, but will try to add pics from my phone.





I block sanded the bottom pretty intensely with a large sanding block and 60 grit sandpaper. I wanted to take it down to the foam in several places, since I will be re-glassing the bottom and the rails with 4 oz cloth.




I don’t think I can hide all the damage, so I’m gonna try to disguise it with a color splash type tint when I glass the bottom / rails. The deck is ok, other than adding the band of wood.

Its not like its gonna look new when I’m done, but I hope it looks respectable, I would like to start riding this board again now and then, even tho I like the 9-6 I have replaced it with.

This is actually a lot of work, I don’t know if its really worth it in terms of time = $$, but its not costing much out of pocket, and I get a sentimental attachment to my boards. And since I like the shape, and the fin placement has worked out, I figure its worth the effort. As long as it doesn’t get all rippled again over time.

BTW this was a “classic” density blank from US Blanks (brown) and I’m not that crazy about it, if I had to do it over I would have went with a lighter blank. Cuz I never had this kind of weird deforming with the lighter densities, and it really is a pretty heavy blank. But whatever, I’m gonna try to make it look good and hopefully it still rides good. I’m basically just a point and go type surfer anyway, this type of “glider” outline is good for me, I’m an old man and just like to catch a few waves and trim.

The platform here gave me a pop up window that tried to convince me to edit and add commentary to my previous posts, rather than put up a new post for commentary, I don’t know why that would be an issue, but it was kinda weird.

Clamping up some balsa wood panels for the deck

Use opaque pigment and nobody will be the wiser…

I dunno. 4 oz cloth, I don’t think it would cover, especially not a lighter shade, but I think the acid splash will do the trick. I actually thought about just glassing with clear resin, it has a lot of character:-)




I would think an opaque laminating coat with opaque fill might be enough.

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Go clear I think it looks awesome. Sometimes it’s better to embrace the imperfection!

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Great project @Huck – i feel like this one belongs under Build Threads…

Thnx, I’m not sure how to move it. But it’s really not a build, and I don’t think I ever did a real build thread when I made it. Its a re- build I guess, lol. It looks pretty drastically different from what it looked like originally, but hopefully it’ll be good for a few more waves before I retire (geez I’m gonna be 69 in a few months!)



It was kinda a compromise, I did some color splash but mostly clear, all the funky repairs show through, but they don’t jump out at you.

Thats my buddy and close adviser Niño in the pic, giving me his suggestions on the project.



Just keeping the conversation (hah!) going in real time. Everything is 2nd coated & sanded, next up resin pinlines, then final coat. But I’m packing it away for a few days, other fish to fry & the weather getting ugly.

Probably gonna finish up at 18 lbs. That’s why this will be the last hurrah, it gets a little heavier every time I do a major renovation. The masking was for the cut lap, new cloth on bottom and rails.



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Re-did the pin lines, not my finest work, but passable on this 10 year old board. Finished up at 17.5 lbs., pretty sure the original board was 16 lbs. back in the day (2014). Hand sanded wet to 1000 grit, maybe go to 1500 tomorrow, but pretty close to water-ready.

All the repairs show through, I didn’t try to hide them, just added the color splash so they kinda blend in.




Some pics of the board over the years.

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So I hand sanded wet 1500 grit then hand polished with a bit of turtle wax car buffing polish. Popped some FCS II quad fins in, made a leash cord loop, and rubbed on a base coat of candle wax. Its locked and loaded!

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Nice job! Looks great.

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