I bought my first surf sup board a few months ago, a used 8'8 carbon board. A couple days ago I noticed the corner of the pad peeling,I look under the pad and see a totally messed up repair that was done incorrectly. Long story short the board delaminated and the local repair shop said the board was done and he wouldn't even attempt to repair it. A total loss.
My question is besides X-ray vision , when buying a used board how can I tell if there are issues under the pad?
P.s I need a new surf board, any suggestions?
I am 51 years old 66kg and the board i was riding was 110lt. Its a good 2 mile paddle where I surf and I enjoy surfing for longer periods of time.

Everything is repairable, except water left a long time in the board.

I guess weighting the board, checking the handle is at the balance point, and letting it 3-4mn in the sun (no more) to check for bubbles are the only practical ways to check for this.

If you were happy paddling it before, and it has not got dramatically worse, it should be repairable.
Maybe not back to new condition, but to a condition you are OK with.
Maybe your repairer wants to sell you a new board?
Open it up, dry it out, have go at a repair yourself.
Or, a perfect board to paddle 2 miles to the break and surf for ages.........
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/Review/Sunova-Search-12-0--Nozza-?page=8#lastpost

I got the pad off the board, so I have nothing to lose and will follow the advice to try and repair it myself. I'm alright with OK as it is under the pad so it doesn't have to be pretty.
Got a link to a youtube video you feel is worth me looking at to "learn how" to do this repair as Ive not done it before?

Can you take a slightly more zoomed out shot?
Hard to tell what you are looking at there.

Looks like a knee well caused the failure. That looks easy enough.

Me? I would cut the glass off the entire damaged square area , let dry completely, maybe cut out any water damaged foam.
Cut new foam to fit and glue with Gorilla glue. Sand down then reglass.

It also looks cracked on the stringer line, behind the handle. Cut out that as well, dry and reglass.
All super easy to do, since its under the pad, no need to be fancy.
Just make sure it is DRY before re-glassing

put a nice pad pn and enjoy!

"the board lady" is a great site to learn everything you need to know about repairing SUPs.

There are plenty of ding repair videos on youtube. Watch more than one, each is a bit different.

My advice: you cannot go wrong in trying to repair, except for 3 very important things:
- Buy quality surf-specific epoxy resin, working with them is much easier than the ones in the hardware shops.
- Mix the epoxy resin components perfectly. Use a precision scale ($10) for this. And stir at least for 2 full minutes. A bad mix wont harden and will be a pain to clean to retry.
- Avoid exothermia: thick globs of resin (1/2") trigger a "chain reaction" that get so hot that it will melt the board or even start a fire. Always put a minimal amount of resin at a time, fill holes with something else (EPS foam, foaming epoxy, gorilla glue, ...)

If you avoid these 3 mistakes, any error can be corrected by removing/sanding it and re-trying.

Thank you for the advice. I will follow it
Would anyone consider helping me narrow down a sunova sup that I can use here in waikiki as my "everyday board". I am retired and sup surf about 4 times a week. I pretty much do the same thing every time. I park my car near kaiser's in waikiki, and stop at threes, four,pops,publics to old mans and back. I will spend the bulk of my time where the waves are good, but most importantly where the crowd is the smallest. I usually will surf until I can't lift my arms anymore. I am currently demoing a 8'0x28 3/4 (not sunova). I can surf this board, but can only spend about half the time in the water as I get tired twice as fast. My wife owns a 9'6x30 board and can borrow it if needed.
So, I am thinking about something in the middle.

Get yourself a 8.7 flow . 120 litre ..very fast paddler ,should be good for the Waikiki wave .
8.9 flash
8.10 acid
8.10 speed .
8.10 creek .

how heavy are you .

Select to expand quote

sup808 said..
I got the pad off the board, so I have nothing to lose and will follow the advice to try and repair it myself. I'm alright with OK as it is under the pad so it doesn't have to be pretty.
Got a link to a youtube video you feel is worth me looking at to "learn how" to do this repair as Ive not done it before?

Have you tested in hot car with ding down or in sun to see if water comes out? As Supthecreek said if water has traveled down stringer and around carrying handle it is likely it will have sucked in quite a bit of water. Bigger job but if any water is coming out of stringer or carry handle I would be tempted to dig the carrying handle out and maybe put a cut down edge of stringer and dry it out first. Even get some hig density foam, cut generously around handle, resin it in, router it out and put handle back in. Glass it strong.

Had this happen on a couple of Sups and when I just covered it it came back to haunt me. Good prep is essential.

Select to expand quote

sup808 said..
Would anyone consider helping me narrow down a sunova sup that I can use here in waikiki as my "everyday board".

If you live near Waikiki, I would advise to go to a reputable shop (there must be tons where you live) and get advice "in real life" by people that can see your actual level, and where you can demo boards. It will be much better than internet advice, even by experts...

Blue Planet, Jimmy Lewis, I do not know the Honolulu shops but you should have plenty...

Hi sup808
Several questions:
how powerful/steep are the waves you surf?
What ability level are you?
what kind of performance are you looking for?
do you prefer performance shape or more stable outlne?

I respectfully disagree with my friend Tardy on paddling ease of the Flow. I find it to zig zag noticably because of the rail curve. I beleve it would be a chore to paddle a signifficant distance. I frequently paddle 5-6 miles on my surf SUPs in flat-water... but I have never chosen my Flow for that distance.