I have been a lurker around these threads for a few years now and have decide reshape a board with a friend which he snapped it during the last run of big swell when using it as a step up (somehow he can ride it) it was his dads 7’2 elf shoe rockered board shaped for j bay, the half with the fins measures 4’1, and we plan on reshaping a nose and glassing the front half. I totally understand that the board is not going to be easy to ride, but is going to be a fun challenge, and give the board a new life. (My friend who will be riding the board most, is a competent surfer and can ride bodyboards standing up, and we are both light weight and nimble which should help) I understand some shaping/board design basics but am a complete newbie to the process particularly the glassing. I am thinking about glassing the front in epoxy (being less toxic) if possible, and leaving the back as is, any tips on the prepping/glass stripping process, will post images below,
I hate to break it to you but you’re wasting your time with this one. The donor board wasn’t a good candidate for a reshape to begin with. If you had the other half you could have put it back together but you already cut the rear half so now its too late to do that. .
Here’s why it’s a waste of time. At the 41" mark of a 7-2 funboard the rocker is going to be dead flat relative to the tail. The centerpoint of the half you have is now 20" from the tail so you still have a rocker but at the current balance point it’s going to be too flat to surf. And there’s not enough volume left to float you. If you hadn’t cut the rear half you might have been able to seal it off at the break, take the fins off and use that half as a body board by using the tail as the nose but you can’t do that now.
You can use this remnant as a test mule to try out some glassing and you can salvage the fins and maybe save the foam for use in repairs of other boards but in terms of surfing this remnant I think you’re out of luck. Sorry.
Completely agree with gdaddy. Fixing busted boards isn’t all that hard, given time and taking some care with the process. Given that this board has family history, presumably some sentimental value and such, it’d be a good candidate for repair.
But you had to go and get out what I assume is a saw. Though it looks like the job was done with a blunt axe The absolute best you are gonna do now is waste materials. What you have is potentially a really bad coffee table and that’s about it.
NEXT time, ask questions early on, please. .
doc…
Funnily enough I’ve done both a re shape and a snapped board repair in the last few months.
The re-shape:
a mate snapped his board nearly 2 ft down from the nose on a larger swell we were surfing. I took it and re shaped a little 4’5" for my kids. If you’re going to do this you’ve really got to peel and strip all the glass so you can re shape it. It’s not a matter of cutting the nose as you have. You’ll have to shape new rocker and concave in to it. You’re also going to lose some thickness as when you peel the glass you’ll likely rip some foam away with it and you’ll have to knock the stringer down and sand it back. If it’s not too much of a chunk you can add resin with a filler (such as qcel) to patch and fill some areas, but it’s ugly! The aim is to not add too much weight.
if you know you’re not going to really get a good end product and you just want to practice then go for your life. I’d strip it all back though and re shape it.
I say go for it, with low expectations. If you do get it done, it sure looks like it’s going to turn all over the place.
An exercise in working with foam and fiberglass. I suppose there is some redeeming value in that.