I kept making the hole bigger until all the delamination was removed. Obviously what appeared to be just a little bubble was hiding a serious delamination problem. The delaminated area coincided with an oval area on the board's core which was circled and marked with a "-3". Very interesting that. I am thinking just maybe a factory inspector made that mark to indicate an error someone needed to fix. This board was made in some Western European country with a low-wage structure. The foam was quite wet inside, so there was a obviously a hole somewhere. I didn't find it, but I am sure it is gone now.

The next step is EXTREMELY important. The board must be thoroughly dried out. This may take a week or more. If we skip this step, we are wasting our time on the entire repair process. So... the board goes up on the wall racks with the open cuts facing down to allow water to drip out, and a small fan blowing on the open cuts.

I laminated a layer of 6 oz glass over the foam and then using a mix of resin and microballoons for glue, replaced the removed strips of sheet foam. Pour foam could have been used if the sheet foam had been too badly damaged. Since it was in good shape, wax paper and bricks held it down quite well until the glue set. The small holes that remained were filled with a resin/microballoon mix. You can see this as white area in the brown foam. I then glass the patches with two layers of 6 oz cloth and epoxy resin. Since the back buckle was not diagonal across the board, I didn't use a diamond pattern on the glass to save weighed. This will probably prove to be a major mistake down the road since the center of the board gets a lot of stress. Time will tell.

Here they are, ready to surf. The 9'6" on the left came out about 3/4 lb lighter than the 9'0" on the right (which was repaired three times). Both boards feel extremely light in the water.

I don't recommend that you attempt major repairs like you will see on these pages unless you are very patient, good with tools, and experienced with less drastic board repairs. Also, if you break or buckle a Boardworks, Surftech, or other thermally laminated board such as these, and wish to have it professionally repaired, I highly recommend that you have a serious conversation about repair techniques with the folks you chose to fix your board. Epoxy boards like these are already quite rigid. If extensive damage to one of these types of boards is repaired using the methods that have been used for polyester surfboards since the 1960's, there is a significant probability you will not be happy with what you get back. A large quantity of resin/microballoon filler is going to add too much weight and too much rigidity. The 16.5 pound board featured in this article weighed less than 17 pounds when completed. It is now my favorite longboard (and I have a bunch of them). By limiting cloth overlap and not wrapping the board with bands of cloth as is usually done, I am taking a chance that the board will break again. However, that is the trade off. I just don't care for rigid heavy boards.

One month later I broke it again just in front of the top deck patch. A tapered diamond shaped patch may have prevented this.

And here it is, one more time. It has now been broken in half four times and the mid-deck is a continuous patch except for about 6 inches between the the mid and forward patches. If it breaks again, this will be the place. I used diamond shaped patches this time. I won't fix this board again. It now weighs 17.5 to 18 lbs and still has lots of flex. For a big board like this that isn't bad. I think the board sat for too long with water in it and the main deck has separated from the core foam. It feels spongy.

For the type of waves we get here in Central Florida most of the time, this board is perfect for my 200 lb body weight. If it breaks again, I am going to get a NEW one. It's a Boardworks Bruce Jones model 9'6". The blue nose is misted spray paint with clear coat to seal it. It was just too boring being all white. They now put internal stringers in these boards, and I am told this has significantly increased the strength.

Here it is (above) all nice and shiny new, except for four breaks. With fins, it weighs 17.5 lbs. For a 9'6" board that is 3" thick, that is not bad at all. There is still a 6" section that has not been patched. In the next pic below, you can see break number 5 ran right slam through the middle of that unpatched section.

Jan 20, 2005 - Break Number 5. That's it! It is now a solid patch from about 24 inches down from the nose to about 24 inches up from the tail. I haven't weighed it yet, but my guess is that I added less than a pound for this patch. So now it weighs about the same as a new polyester board this same size. It still feels good, but I won't know if it will still ride well until I try it. If it breaks again, I am going to buy a new one just like it. Oh, is that what I said after the third break? The day it broke was the day that about 20 boards got eaten at 2nd Light. It was a real nice day, but that new sand bar is a real board killer.