Hey Gurus, my 8' 10 speed has developed a couple of large " bubbles " about the size of my feet right where I stand. Seemed to of happened suddenly , I stopped riding it straight away, no sign of water ingress and it's been out of the water for over a year.
Just wondering the best way to fix it ? Was thinking I would pump epoxy under with some sort of syringe then a couple of bricks on top or do i need to create some sort of vacuum?
Thanks in advance ??

Resin injection will work OK much of the time but not recommended as lots of traps
- need super slow resin just in case it pools deeply anywhere and gets too hot (= melt styro)
- if there is a crack in the core your resin may run down into that and then there is not enough spreading out under skin = limited bonding of skin to core
- the resin may not spread well, it tends to not move far and you only get spots of adhesion all over the skin so its OK but much weaker

Rip it off and re-laminate is far better. I'd strongly suggest that course of action.

However, if the board is not worth much and you want to do injection, a foaming 2pack polyurethane like Erathane GP2 is much better. You'll get another season of use and then if it fails again you can cut off the existing skin and glue it back down to the good foam as another temp fix.

Thanks for the info mark .

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sudsy said..
Was thinking I would pump epoxy under with some sort of syringe then a couple of bricks on top

Yes, works well. I have done it some time ago, the early windurfing boards were prone to delamination close to the feet.

- use as much microspheres as possible (1:1 weight, 7:1 volume) and the slowest resin to reduce the risk of overheating
- drill 2 holes on each side of the delam, of just the size of the syringe
- inject into one until il get out on the other side, with area well taped to care for this extra resin
- push the deck down, making as much resin get out as possible from the holes, wipe it off.
- tape them over and let cure under weigths

But Mark is right, overheating and filling cracks can be an issue. A more cautious but uglier approach would be to make many holes 1" apart and inject a bit of resin+microspheres in all of them, like I did for cracks around fin boxes and handles.

injection and compresson will work well if its only the laminate separated from the hd foam .If its separated from the core it will just suck loads of resin and may heat up.

Repaired a Sunova Style with a similar problem. The mast track had leaked and the gortex plug receptical had cracked allowing water in. Only slight discolouration of the deck but the foam underneath had been eaten away causing the softness. Had to lift the deck off, replace the deteriorated foam with closed cell PVC foam then refit the deck. Quite a big job but so far no further problems.

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sudsy said..
Hey Gurus, my 8' 10 speed has developed a couple of large " bubbles " about the size of my feet right where I stand. Seemed to of happened suddenly , I stopped riding it straight away, no sign of water ingress and it's been out of the water for over a year.
Just wondering the best way to fix it ? Was thinking I would pump epoxy under with some sort of syringe then a couple of bricks on top or do i need to create some sort of vacuum?
Thanks in advance ??

I've used 2 part expanding foam to repair delam Windsurfer's. Just drill a few holes , inject foam ,clamp covering most of the holes with something flat and the excess foam will exit out the hole. Place plastic between the clamp and the something flat otherwise it will be glued there. Fill holes with our favourite filler. No heat issues with this method.

Sorry haven't got a link but Bert has a video on youtube showing exactly this repair, can't complain about that, yes it involves 2 holes and resin injection.

Thanks everyone for all the input

I have the same problem with my Speed at the moment.

Here's the link to the vid mentioned. Bert explains it well.



It's beyond my capability so if anyone can suggest a good repairer in Sydney that'd be appreciated!