So..... I was dumb (twice) and took my big free ride blast out in to some fairly unforgiving dumpy cross off shore conditions and well the the inevitable happened eventually - I got smashed.
I did not notice any damage then or even for a week or two but now I can see the nose has a bash, nothing massive but when I suck on it you can get out air, i.e water can get in. It feels firm, there is no visible gaps in the glass, just some tiny hairline cracks in the paint so I assume the foam is undamaged.
So....
Do I send it off for an expensive maybe un necessary repair that will no doubt devalue the board, or do I just tape it up and ignore it(present solution), or do I super glue it, or rub surf wax over it, or solar reso ????/
Whats the conventional wisdom?

The second dumb thing I did was take out the vent plug to let any water out (nothing visible nothing on some tissue rolled and wicked in to the hole) and then went for a sail forgetting to put it back in, yes yes I know pretty dumb!
How much water do people think would get sucked in after an hour sailing on flat water?
What is the best way to check?
Whats the best way to get it all out? (I have a 3 phase vacuum pump, too savage?)

Ive never had boards with vents before so its all new to me.
All comments welcome....ok..... all Constructive comments.
Thanks Pete

Dear Friend,
?n my opinion this is not a serious fracture. Don't worry about the water it is max. 5-10 gr water. Get an epoxy (15-30 minutes) and repair your board. Just spread the epoxy with spatula on the damaged place of your board. Same event happened to my Fanatic board and I repaired my board with this method. Good luck..
There are many professional board repairers in this website if the damage is serious you can get help from them.

Have a read of the following .. I disagree with melih's comment based on the material in board lady's great site:
boardlady.com

With your lack of experience in board repair you may want to consider a professional repair.

Weigh the board and compare to manufacturers spec.
I fix little ouches with clear araldite. I'm not fussed about looks. If you are tape around the area and remove the tape after the (what ever you use) has gone off but not yet hard cured and the finish can be quite ok. Light sand if you like.
Put the plug back in too.

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Put the plug back in too.

Never take it out . Unless it baking in the sun.

Whatever you do don't vacuum it.
A pump is capable of imploding the board completely.

To check if its wet, stick a cotton bud down into the polystyrene core. If you can't feel wetness on it its good........ and if it has a dry foam white powder on it even better.

If you are sure its only a paint thickness crack I agree with the above temp easy repairs. It always worth draining it to be safe though.
Drill a 5mm hole in the nose, roll up paper towel really tight so you have a long pokey bit that will go in far enough to contact styrofoam
Jam it in with a wooden skewer or similar, you want it really stuck in the core. Now do same with the vent plug hole.
Leave it upside down in the sun for a week.
The nose hole is easily fixed with solarez at the same time as you do the crack

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Imax1 said..

Put the plug back in too.

Never take it out . Unless it baking in the sun.

always take it out unless its on the water.

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Mark _australia said..

Imax1 said..

Put the plug back in too.

Never take it out . Unless it baking in the sun.

always take it out unless its on the water.

I wonder what the ratio of damaged boards is from expanding in the sun damage , to water in the board damage from forgetting the plug ?
I have never taken the plugs out of any of my boards , ever , and never had a problem . Disclaimer ; i have never left a board roasting in or on a car without a cover . I take it out before and during a repair. I would also take it out on a plane.
I would imagine riding a board without a plug would suck a lot of water inside , bouncing around flexing the deck and bottom would work like a suction pump .

I am with you Imax, leave the bung in unless flying. Don't leave board in a hot car, crack the windows so dog, child and board can breath.

I know a fellow who does not believe in the plugs and fills them up with resin. He's a great customer, I have done multiple delams on all his boards. They are of course dark coloured, but still...

If all they did was put the plug at the rear of the track, so you see it is sitting up when you try to put the base in the board.... no forgetting. Guess where all my vent plugs go now lol
Why oh why don't they all put the vent there?

Sparkman, many people have to leave boards in a hot car..... I have to a lot of the time

Given $3K for a board now even if vent plugs are the biggest load of w^nk in the world, I will err on the side of caution..... just have a system where u can't forget to do it up

Thanks all, as usual food for thought and plenty of opinions. I am well capable of a high quality repair I work with foams and resins in the film industry as a sculptor and model maker. but not sure whether to bother. Im also very fussy about the look so hate ugly ding repairs, pet hate, just my anal retentive nature. So if I do it I want to do it well and pretty! Know the board lady's site well, very nice work but a little over the top for some of the repairs. @Mark no I had not really intended to vacuum it, my degassing pump would implode my board in seconds it pulls down to zero in seconds! Plug in plug out.....the debate gos on!

You'd have a few hundred mls of water in it I reckon sailing it for an hour you will never get the board dry, never.
If your OCD about how a bad repair looks don't bog or araldite it up, use your skills take your time ou do a good looking job. If it was me I'd just ding stick it, you will most probably damage it again.

VENT OPEN ! Close when sailing.

There's a bigger picture than just hot cars and planes.

I will do a search of seabreeze to count and compare the amount of threads. "I left my bung in and my board delaminated" vs "I left my bung out and I got water in my board".

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Sparky said..
I will do a search of seabreeze to count and compare the amount of threads. "I left my bung in and my board delaminated" vs "I left my bung out and I got water in my board".

I did that yesterday . It was this same bung question in 2013 i think . Some feisty replies also. There was one scientific reply stating that landing from a jump there would be more pressure created instantly than if it was hot in a car gradually increasing pressure . The instant pressure gain being more damaging. Kinda make sense , but how much ? ? Personally i ve never had a problem leaving them in , my fear being that ill forget to put it back in , and it only takes once , Hell ive gotten down to the beach and forgotten my boom , what chance does a tiny screw have . Also sand and salt has to get between the O Ring. Every board i come across i re seat at an angle where the o ring seats , put a new o ring in , do it up tight and forget . So many boards i have come across the seat and the o ring are flogged out , thats from repeatedly opening and closing with sand .

A good solution for not forgetting to put the vent screw back in and not to lose it, is to stick it to the mast track with a piece of tape.

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bhc said..
A good solution for not forgetting to put the vent screw back in and not to lose it, is to stick it to the mast track with a piece of tape.

Y you only have to loosen it, not remove it completely, for the board to breath.

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musorianin said..

bhc said..
A good solution for not forgetting to put the vent screw back in and not to lose it, is to stick it to the mast track with a piece of tape.

Y you only have to loosen it, not remove it completely, for the board to breath.

You can still forget to tighten it... If it is stuck in the mast track, you can't put the mast base in without removing it from there??... And if you have the habit of leaving the mastbase on the board, then stick it there with a piece of tape.

A question for Mark and Rider (and others), how many delaminated boards have you seen or fixed? Maybe I have just been lucky? Have people said there was an obvious cause? Hot car? Black board in the sun? Could they be poorly constructed to start with? Is Geraldton heat a factor?

Yep, i became a bung victim. Like Imax1 i never undo it. Regripped my board so let it undone to bake it in the sun. Next day bit of wind showed up. So i hastily rigged n hit the water. Wasnt til i beared away with my foot near the mast track that i realized. DOH!!! The bloody bung is loose!! Swung around n tightened. Hardly a drop in there. Im with Mark Aus. Put the bung at rear of track so mast plate cant be installed without bung being tightened. Great idea!!!

I have a board made by a respected uk custom board builder, that doesn't have vents in..I asked him about it and claimed construction made the difference, he'd never had a problem with any of the boards (probably over decades) and mine is black...it's light as and if u press ur thumb down hard on the board it's solid, I pressed my falcon and that deflected

before the back lash il get in there first... yeah it's the uk and we don't get any sun

p.s I saw 2 of these boards in el medano Tenerife which was hotter than the sun itself and didn't look imploded to me so unless they sailed there they arrived on planes

put that in ur pipe and smoke it

Forgot my bung once. Noticed the bubbles as I was slogging out, and got back to shore ASAP. Probably 3 minutes?

Sucked a bit out using a hand operated wine bottle vacuum pump. Then the paper towel as per Mark's earlier post. Then a few weeks in a closed room with the A/C running non-stop to make the air in the room really dry, while warming and cooling the board each day and night by placing it in the sun near a window so that the dry air would go in and out, with a few sessions on the hand vacuum pump each day to also bring the dry air in and out.

Yeah, all a bit OCD, but I did seem to get maybe maybe one or two teaspoons out, hopefully before it migrated too far in. Also, note that evaporating water is lighter than air (by about a third), so once you get any actual liquid out, you should leave the board with the bung facing upward while doing all this to encourage water vapour to leave.

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eastcoast said..
I have a board made by a respected uk custom board builder, that doesn't have vents in..I asked him about it and claimed construction made the difference, he'd never had a problem with any of the boards (probably over decades) and mine is black...it's light as and if u press ur thumb down hard on the board it's solid, I pressed my falcon and that deflected

before the back lash il get in there first... yeah it's the uk and we don't get any sun

p.s I saw 2 of these boards in el medano Tenerife which was hotter than the sun itself and didn't look imploded to me so unless they sailed there they arrived on planes

put that in ur pipe and smoke it

Used to build boards in the old day's without vents traveling to Maui with no delamination.
When I got real job and mate was importing boards that had vents - never used them. No delays but be sensible and not leave in sun.

My windsup had it out on car roof and cranking hot day, I unscrewed vent but checked the o ring and cleaned the bottom of vent hole.
I like the idea of the gauze vents if you can clean out salt once in a while.

My point is your board builder may make a good board but nothing extra special.
"Put that in your pipe..."

I know almost zero in board building so fair play, agree I wouldn't leave it in the sun or hot van if I can avoid it,

Luderitz was also on the list that's pretty warm and definitely requires a plane or 2
do love a pipe mind

All good east coast.
I have heard of drilling through the foot strap plug for planes then reseal at location.
What's the board? Photos.
Enjoy the pipe dude

To be fair I'm not saying he knows better or anything, and it's always going to be a controversial one, me personally I know I don't seem to worry about it at all but have spent plenty of time stressing over my carbon arts and mistrals and other boards and agree with a previous comment on they probably cause more problems than they fix so enjoying not having one on that particular board, for the others there as tight as I can get them and they stay that way

the boards are moo custom
http://www.moocustom.co.uk/boards/

i take it out and put it in mast base plate

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Sparky said..
A question for Mark and Rider (and others), how many delaminated boards have you seen or fixed? Maybe I have just been lucky? Have people said there was an obvious cause? Hot car? Black board in the sun? Could they be poorly constructed to start with? Is Geraldton heat a factor?

Tons. I could not count....

Even if the vent is only for airline travel, I still think that once a board has some minor damage due to jumping or heel pressure it is exacerbated greatly by expansion and contraction. That then definitely makes one think about construction also as customs do seem to last longer. However if you can remove air pressure caused by heat as a factor, then why not do it just to be safe? In the sun a dark board will hit the temp that some epoxies will almost start to soften slightly. That is 'some' and 'almost' and 'slightly' ........ but its getting close, so I'd rather just be kind to the board.

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Sparky said..
I will do a search of seabreeze to count and compare the amount of threads. "I left my bung in and my board delaminated" vs "I left my bung out and I got water in my board".

Tassie weather not to hot at times, but boards stored in the car can reach very hot temps, boards on roof racks, in board bags ,ect.
Have seen many a board blow up delam including 2 of my own.
I remove my bung every time after use.
They cost to much.
As joe ,chinook mast plate takes the bung perfectly, and u cant plug the extension in ,without seeing the bung, better put my bung in.
Easy no problem.
Now sup boards ,same sort of construction and alot with no bung.?
Keep em out of the sun.
Then we go to ,no bung in,wet board bag, ozmozes
Yew .

I don't think most boards are 100 % airtight . Otherwise it would be fine to store wet in a zipped up board bag. We know we shouldn't do that .
I think its more than just having smelly straps and pads.

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Imax1 said..
I don't think most boards are 100 % airtight . Otherwise it would be fine to store wet in a zipped up board bag. We know we shouldn't do that .
I think its more than just having smelly straps and pads.

If they're airtight they will hiss when you release the bung. Only ever had one airtight board. A fanatic. Left it a bit too long under a tarp in the ute once. Went off like a volcano when I loosened the bung. Survived without delaminating but must have been close. I have listened carefully undoing bungs on all the rest when they get a bit warm. Nothing.