I have been a Naish SUP fan for a year now, first purchase, a 2014 14'x 29
Naish GX Glide. Great board, tough & works well, no repairs & since sold, in hindsight, a mistake to have sold it given the news here.
This year I bought a second hand 2014 ~ 14' x 26" Naish Jav LE, awesome board, no repairs to date.
Also bought the 2015 10' 6" x 30" Naish Nalu GT, great board, no repairs to date.
In September of this year & at the same time of buying the Nalu, I also bought the 2015 14' x 28" Naish Jav LE as an ocean DW board. I enjoy the board on the water, however have lost confidence in its ability to not continually fracture after DW runs.
I have fractures on the rails (away from paddling areas) & on the tail region of the board. These areas are very soft & I now have rail tape on the fractures until the ongoing issues with the board are resolved.
I don't want to be paying any more money for repairs to the board. It's been over 2 weeks now with no feedback from the local dealer who said the issue had gone to Naish International, waiting?
Basically I don't want this board again, lost confidence in its ability to be durable & after paying $3,999, I would not expect this to be a problem. I don't understand carbon board construction, except this board is a problem & as a consumer, I will not be paying any more money for repairs.
I'm into my second season of paddling, at intermediate level & do look after boards, sure you take spills when learning to DW, however where some of these fractures are, they are located nowhere near a potential fall onto the board region.
A few pictures to view the fractures.

same problem with mine, i find the deck so soft

Hi Maxee, the LE range is ultra light weight carbon construction which is incredibly stiff and light - but unfortunately also very fragile to any kind of impact. All those pics seem to indicate damage caused by impact with something or other and would be difficult to warranty as they do not per se indicate any manufacturing defect.

I think it's important that buyers of ultra light weight carbon construction boards understand that this is the other side of the coin - you get ultra light and stiff but you also get extremely fragile skin which is not impact resistant. That board weighs in the region of 10-11kg the GX Glide about 12.5-13kg and the Glide GS around 16kg - the increased weight also adds impact resistance and if this is a requirement/concern then buyers must choose accordingly (and sellers must inform customers of this).

Unfortunately the price tag is converse to impact resistance in this instance....full carbon is lighter but also more fragile to impact stresses.

I have an 2014 26" LE with similar dings in places - I love the board and treat it extremely carefully on land as this is where majority of dings happen, but I still knock into things and put holes in it. I seal up dings like that with quickset putty and board still weighs pretty much the same.

In your instance I would fix the board up and sell it and replace it with a board in a more durable construction as this would save you the stress and frustration.

Hi Peter, as mentioned, like you I have 2014 26" LE & no fractures.
I get that they are lightweight & fragile, however you have missed my point re the extreme fragility of the 2015 Le 28" Jav & assumed I'm knocking it around & don't have a case, so should spend more money & sell it?

I see where peterp is coming from but to me it doesn't look right- egg shelling comes to mind


I had a starboard race a few years ago and you could hardly take it out with out another ding or fracture or something or other.

im very careful with boards.


for a carbon board if its soft to feel especially around the rails there is a defect imo and for that amount of money you deserve better.


these things happen from time to time with sup manufacturing.


that being said light weight means fragile. ie a bump will do nothing or you have a ding. there doesn't seem to be any in between with light weight carbon lay ups


ps this can happen with any brand

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PeterP said..
I think it's important that buyers of ultra light weight carbon construction boards understand that this is the other side of the coin

When you pay $3,999 for the board it is a bit hard to swallow...
You would expect a construction fit for purpose, end of story.

They look like compression failures to me. That's not good...

Great post Maxee,

I can't comment if it's a manufacturing fault or not, but I bought a standard glass construction over carbon because I wasn't confident in my own ability not to strike my board as I develop my own DW skills. I feel I am confident paddler, but it's surprising how many strike marks - particulary in cross chop - I have picked up along the way. I remember back when carbon bikes were also first produced there were allot of issues with frame failure early on due to carbon having a critical stress point. When your throwing down 4G on a board though, you'd expect the retailer to be honest with you if your right for that purchase, or at the very least it's robust enough to sustain some knocks to a reasonable degree. It seems to be a common beef amongst top end board buyers that the ability to sustain damage is very weak.

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Rob11 said..

PeterP said..
I think it's important that buyers of ultra light weight carbon construction boards understand that this is the other side of the coin

When you pay $3,999 for the board it is a bit hard to swallow...
You would expect a construction fit for purpose, end of story.

Hi Rob, this is the problem - the cost of the board does not give any indication of durability - as I stated earlier it is in fact converse, as in more expensive = less durable....

The construction is aimed at making the board as competitive as possible by reducing weight, this costs money as more exotic materials have to be used, but it does not necessarily make it more durable.

The board should not be in any danger of breaking during normal use (which means board should be fit for purpose), but any contact with a hard object will be problematic.

Having said that, and having read Maxee's further comments, perhaps there is a problem with board - only an inspection by the dealer/qualified board builder can establish this. If board was sanded through in places I'd say there would be a case for a warranty claim but this cannot be established by looking at pictures only. At first glance it looks like impact with something which normally would not be warrantied.

Have a look at the bottom picture, it's on the verge of being a fracture.
When you apply thumb pressure it's very soft. Other areas of the board are hard.

I'm not commenting on this particular board or wether it's a warranty or not. Naish have been extremely good to me in the past and as someone who has a history of damaging boards, I can put my hand on my heart and say I think they'll do the right thing.

But as was mentioned, somewhere Naish will have written what is claimable as a warranty and it's usually manufacturing faults. The boards are designed as a top of line, as light as possible carbon race board. They have the GX range for those who don't need the full carbon (most of us, realistically! myself included). It's strange how in the surfboard industry, if you buy a brand new board, take it out and snap it... **** happens. But when it comes to kiting and SUP that these boards are meant to last years and years? A surfboard is worth $800 new, you ride it once and you're lucky to get $300 for it. Buy a sup, trash it for two years and you can still resell it for about half of what you paid for it. And if you take it to the extreme and look at the boards ridden by pro surfers - they are lighter but also much easier to snap than your standard production boards.

A little unfair, in my opinion, on the brands to be expected to make bulletproof equipment, while keeping it ultra lightweight but not blow the budget. You get two out of three and the other suffers; weight, price, durability. Or something like that.

Hope it works out for you in the end

Drew

Cheers Drew
The SUP dealer will do the right thing by me as I have with them.
This opens up quite a bit going forward.
Buyers beware.

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Maxeeboy said..
Cheers Drew
The SUP dealer will do the right thing by me as I have with them.
This opens up quite a bit going forward.
Buyers beware.

You have hardly done the right thing by the dealer!

I put dings like that in my GS board. None have been on land, all in the water. Paddle, head, elbows, knees...
I hate the weight of my GS, but I know I couldn't keep a carbon board afloat for long.