I've got my flat water freeride summer lake blasting board cracking under the heel. It's a great board but I'm not keen on investing in a proper repair. What's a DIY job I can do to at least keep the water out. I imagine excavating and bogging with something then glass repair over would be the go or. going really dodgey. could you simply cover the whole cracking area with sika flex or some kind of marine silicone?
any advice appreciated for a home diy job
Ta
I'm guessing here, that that's where the bottom overlap finishes, so the rail is stiff, but the deck is flexing, creating that crack.
the foam underneath may or may not be damaged. If it's not damaged, you just need to spread the load on that flex point.
No superficial fix will work for more than about 5 minutes, there's a lot of movement on that fine line. you have to kill that movement first.
The pad will need to be rolled back, the damaged area sanded back to the underlying foam and then be restored, stronger than the original.
Otherwise it will just keep cracking.
Agree with Decrepit’s post. Minimum would be removal of whole pad, inject proper 2 part expanding foam and lots of glass over (incl around rail after sanding the laminate down to the pvc foam.). That’s a big one for first timers.
Still might only give you a season.
proper repair would be router out whole area, replace sandwich layer and reglass.
Not bring rude I hope, but this is the kind of DIY you go after a few nose jobs and little holes - it’s a lot.
just sealing it will do nothing. The bottom is now taking 90% of the load when it should be the rail doing that. This board will crease or snap of just sealed up then used.
Darn 😞 ! Well might have to dig into this one. If you put a piece of paper towel shoved in the cracks, does it suck water out of it?
If you place it in the sun does anything bubble out of it?
Does the board weigh more than it used to?
First try would be to dry it out the best you can.
Then peel pad back until you've reached firm grounds!
How soft is it? You could inject pu glue and use pressure (the more the better) spread out evenly around the area until it sets.
Trim excess, and clean up the crack and glass over. Who knows it may last long enough! Maybe double pad the area plus it'll be more comfy 😁
I don’t think any of those questions are relevant man. Soft under heel then progressing to rail crack is major structural and needs major repair. If water got in, board just sits longer between steps
Thats the advantage to proper repair by removing sandwich over say a 20-30cm area. It’s gonna dry right with that much core exposed - or u find it’s not wet. Yay
I have seen too many fails with single pack PU like gorilla glue. It needs moisture to cure so in a big hole there is often uncured PU. As soon as a crack lets moisture in or the board gets hot, the uncured liquid starts to foam and you blow the board.
So I say do it right. Or, if the board is so crappy then a dodgy repair is called for- only in small areas and use 2 part PU
