Hey!
I dinged my skybrid board the other day - does anyone know if the water that sips in spreads in the core or does it have "cells" which doesnt allow water to penetrate deeper? ??

Hi!
EPS Core. It sucks water!

to avoid EPS to suck water, there is the 3mm PVC layer sandwiched between carbon layers above it - so it depends on the depth of your ding, which layer(s) got hurt. As soon as only the outer layers above the PVC got damaged, nothing will have happened.

In the image above, the PVC layer is only on the deck and the upper part of the rails. On the Duotone web site, they seem to describe that SLS boards like the Skybrid have PVC all the way around - although the graph lacks any labels. It also seems to show double PVC layers on the top, which could mean that the single layers are quite thin. If so, putting a hole through them if the ding is deeper would be easy. I'd repair the ding.

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boardsurfr said..
In the image above, the PVC layer is only on the deck and the upper part of the rails. On the Duotone web site, they seem to describe that SLS boards like the Skybrid have PVC all the way around - although the graph lacks any labels. It also seems to show double PVC layers on the top, which could mean that the single layers are quite thin. If so, putting a hole through them if the ding is deeper would be easy. I'd repair the ding.

Its on the front left side rail pointing up. Ding isnt huge but when i used a fan on it some drops came out.. Will let it dry out for a few more days before i start repairing it. when I opened up the plug some drops came out there too. but feels odd to me that water should have been able to travel all that way so I Wonder if the vent is leaking too. Anyways thanks for the reply :)

Here are some photos of the accident.

be careful with removing and re-installing the gore tex vent... a lot of people crank on those things and break the vent without knowing it and end up with bigger problems.

the SLS boards have full PVC sandwich wrapping the rails (brown stuff in the picture above). you can usually suck on the crack/ding and tell the difference b/w a surface hit and a deeper one, but for longer cracks its harder to test the whole area.

Stick a tissue in hole to wick water out and act as a fan to dry it out. Putting in sun helps too.

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patronus said..
Stick a tissue in hole to wick water out and act as a fan to dry it out. Putting in sun helps too.

This ^^^^

also, you can pop the top cap off the goretex vent plug, rather than remove it. be careful to not lose the membrane.

Just put your mouth over the crack and suck, if you get air the damage is through to the EPS core so don't use the board until repaired.
Typical carbon board, fragile and subject to cracks

Especially on rub backs where there can be some almosssst sand thru so it's often egg shell

I would just solarez over that for safety

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sunsetsailboards said..
be careful with removing and re-installing the gore tex vent... a lot of people crank on those things and break the vent without knowing it and end up with bigger problems.

the SLS boards have full PVC sandwich wrapping the rails (brown stuff in the picture above). you can usually suck on the crack/ding and tell the difference b/w a surface hit and a deeper one, but for longer cracks its harder to test the whole area.

To late .. i used to tool that came with the board and it was easily detachable! Hopefully no worries. There are no drops coming out anymore but ill let it dry for a few more days:)

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Mark _australia said..
Especially on rub backs where there can be some almosssst sand thru so it's often egg shell

What are rub backs?

On the few boards I have built, I overlap the glass on the rails, and never had problems there. But on two wing boards I purchased, that does not seem to be the case. The worst thing I saw was a non-sandwich construction (just glass over EPS) where the glass had been sanded through completely on the rail. That dinged on the slightest touch. Years ago, I've also seen an original Fanatic wing board built a similar way where someone had put a knee through the nose in a crash. Seems Fanatic/Duotone at least leaned that they have to build something more robust.

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happysam said..
Here are some photos of the accident.

Does not look too bad, but since the cracks are long, it's probably deceiving. I'm curious about how this happened?

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boardsurfr said..

happysam said..
Here are some photos of the accident.

Does not look too bad, but since the cracks are long, it's probably deceiving. I'm curious about how this happened?

I dont even know, its brand new and treated with care. It happened while using an Armstrong wing too, which have semisoft handels. I assume there must have been an impact from the wing. But I didnt notice it happening, just later while taking a **** chat with another surfer i noticed the crack/s.

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boardsurfr said..

happysam said..
Here are some photos of the accident.

Does not look too bad, but since the cracks are long, it's probably deceiving. I'm curious about how this happened?

I dont even know, its brand new and treated with care. It happened while using an Armstrong wing too, which have semisoft handels. I assume there must have been an impact from the wing. But I didnt notice it happening, just later while taking a **** chat with another surfer i noticed the crack/s.

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happysam said..
I dont even know, its brand new and treated with care. It happened while using an Armstrong wing too, which have semisoft handels. I assume there must have been an impact from the wing. But I didnt notice it happening, just later while taking a **** chat with another surfer i noticed the crack/s.

That would worry me, since it could be an indication of a production issue, like sanding too deep. I had one board that got a ding I noticed right away, and knew the impact should have never caused a ding. When I repaired that, there was no glass at all in the affected area.

I'm using Units with hard handles. I crash a lot, but never had the wing damage the board. In total, I had problems with wing boards 4 times. Twice is was my fault (dropping the board on a stone, or putting it down on it's side on a stone or shell). The other two times were caused by different manufacturing issues.

If this was my board, I'd add a layer of glass on top to be safe, or even sand the affected area down to see what exactly is going on there before repairing it properly.

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boardsurfr said..

Mark _australia said..
Especially on rub backs where there can be some almosssst sand thru so it's often egg shell

What are rub backs?

On the few boards I have built, I overlap the glass on the rails, and never had problems there. But on two wing boards I purchased, that does not seem to be the case. The worst thing I saw was a non-sandwich construction (just glass over EPS) where the glass had been sanded through completely on the rail. That dinged on the slightest touch. Years ago, I've also seen an original Fanatic wing board built a similar way where someone had put a knee through the nose in a crash. Seems Fanatic/Duotone at least leaned that they have to build something more robust.

By rub back I mean the sanded effect where paint is rubbed back so it exposes carbon in some areas. All well and good but in mass production it means some bits are too much .. Taking away fibre which is barely sufficient to begin with. Then we get very weak corners on many places

If in WA and want it fixed right and invisible

MOzCustoms
South Freo

If in WA and want it fixed right and invisible

MOzCustoms
South Freo

My sky style TE (replaced by SLS) had some issue with a salt around the handle. Scales showed it had risen by about 100g and I could shake the board and hear water sloshing around. Never thought to open the valve as I didn't have the tool. Got warrantied eventually but overall not impressed with the process with duotone here in australia WA.. involved dishing out more money for a forced upgrade to this year's SLS model because I got the sky style TE slightly below retail.

In my past holidays, I found my previous like new board, having a major crack in an area, it could not have been me the day I detected it. Since then, I do not leave my board laying on the beach without its daybag - at least covered therewith. If windsurfers are around, carrying their heavy stuff over the beach, - a short gust, a short touch down whilest passing your board and it's done. There are two serious scratches to be seen below the crack though - this shows contact with something sharp alongside, but for sure not with your wing !?

^^^ not necessarily
hard hit downwards on the upper rail often causes the rail apex to bulge outwards and crack. could be either

Its not a scratch, its 2 cracks.. i really dont know How this is possible. The Armstrong handles are not very "dabgerous" for a board, but for the impact to be so strong that is causes 2 cracks that far off from the original impact concerns me.

You sure it didn't get closed in boot of car or something? looks like the type of ding from delivery or flying but could be caused by car door or something closing on it

Common issue with lightweight carbon boards, any impacts they crack, especially along edges. I've moved away from carbon boards due to this, my current 74lts board is glass/inegra. It's light too, 5kgs, into its 3rd season, lots of dings but no cracks.

I did this to my Skyfree nonSLS by breaching and then falling forward and (sadly) my knee went into the nose. According to the graphics on the Duotone site there is no difference between the SLS and non in this area. There was a thin carbon layer and a thin wood layer, but it wasn't enough.

As I said above - and I do this full time - a hard hit from knee etc on upper rail very often causes cracking down toward the apex as the board tries to bulge laterally when force is applied vertically. It's a no brainer.
Carbon is not magic, it has a downside of being brittle.
sometimes the damage surprises you.. But sanded thru an apex then paint over it doesn't surprise me at all. get a custom.

Definetely duotone has quality problems.
Same happened to me on my sky wing.
Every session a new ding and no explanation. Water ( droplets) coming out from them more often than not.
Changed brand.

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BullroarerTook said..
I did this to my Skyfree nonSLS by breaching and then falling forward and (sadly) my knee went into the nose. According to the graphics on the Duotone site there is no difference between the SLS and non in this area. There was a thin carbon layer and a thin wood layer, but it wasn't enough.

It's standard practice to make bottoms and noses as light as reasonable. They are the two zones, the human body should not make impacts with. If any manufacturer made the bottom and nose as heavy duty, as the zones made for body impacts, the boards would be so bloody heavy nobody would buy them. Keep body slams to the deck pad zone.

A heavy duty nose lamination absolutely kills performance.