I recently ordered a new board (5’9 fish) from a local shaper and am loving it so far. It’s glossed with a double 6 oz on the top and a single 6oz on the bottom, and has a polished gloss coat. I’ve only had it just over a month and I’m a bit concerned. New cracks underneath the gloss coat which you can’t feel (stress fractures?) are appearing after almost every session. I’ve attached some photos below. Is this normal that this is happening so often and should I be worried?
Those are not stress cracks. They are all on the deck. Those are probably from you bumping it with your knees, elbows, etc.
Stress cracks typically happen on the bottom and are perpendicular to the stringer. Usually near the middle of the board and spanning rail to rail. They happen when the board bends.
What you have are cracks from impacts.
So I’m going to hijack this thread real quick. I just got a board with the above mentioned perpendicular cracks on the bottom of the board. I don’t think they are getting through the lam at all but there’s a a good 5-10 of them in different spots. What would be the best course of action? I’m leaning towards leaving them alone for now.
Ah I see. Thank you for the clarification. Is it normal for these impact cracks to occur easily? I have been doing my best to minimalize my knees and elbows abruptly hitting the deck, but they still keep occurring. I’m still just confused, as one of these reasons I went with the glassing schedule of double 6 oz on the deck was to make it more durable. Do I need to be concerned about these cracks?
If we said ‘yes be concerned!’, What are you going to do?
Go back to local shaper and stamp your foot?
Sand each depression and cover with more glass and gloss then polish, only to find more after you surf it again?
Deck depressions are completely normal. A high degree of them can possibly mean an overshaped blank, and/ or a poor lamination that was not pulled tightly over an overshaped blank.
I always went with the triple 6 glass jobs and the decks still got mushed in. Lots of guys like the footwells. Some guys even want them shaped into the deck to make a nightmare for laminator and sander.
I worked in one glass shop where the order form spec’d triple 6 and the customer wanted it ‘heavy’. Ran out of 6oz cloth, owner could not affort a new bolt there and then,and did triple 4 with 2 gloss coats and owner decided a third would be needed to make it ‘heavy’. I was disgusted.
I bet that board had impact shatters all over it quickly too.
Often the gloss coat, will be quite thick and shatter as there is no fiber reinforcement in it.
I’d only be concerned if you could catch the crack with a fingernail or push on it and water squeezes out.
Just surf it, its not going to last forever anyway.
Double six, plus lightweight foam, you’re gonna get those. The industry has been peddling light weight for a long time.
Back when I had hair, and none of it was gray, the industry had a New Hot Shape every year. Sort-of-guns, the first twin fins, egg/pigs ( G&S and Weber respectively, I know there are other shapes called by those names) , the year of sideslipping…eventually even surfers realised they were being had, being suckered every year into buying shapes de jour that didn’t work. .
But…they want to sell boards. Can’t sucker you into a new shape? Okay, sell boards that will die young. Make them super super light, make foolish claims about how wonderful that is. Hey, the pros use them…the pros throw their boards away regularly, they don’t care about longevity. Surfers are sheep, they will fall for it. And they have.
Look, a board that won’t hold up to your normal use, elbows and knees be damned. it is too light and too weak.
Double six plus a deck patch, not a bad idea. Heavier blank, good plan. Stomp pads, deck pads, real good, and you can retrofit those. Clean off the wax, and do it real well, and have at it.
And on your next board…
hope that’s of use
doc…
I agree. Those cracks are in the hotcot and the gloss, which are less tolerant of tension stress and prolly a little more brittle than the lamination. Well, yeah, they would be, wouldn’t they, no cloth in 'em. . And unless you want to sand off and redo said gloss and hotcoat, maybe add another layer of glass too ( and good luck not grinding away a significant amount of the bottom glass while you’re doing that, I never managed it) there really isn’t a whole lot you can do.
Now, unless you see brown streaks or water beading along where those stress cracks are indeed leaking through the lamination, you’re more or less okay. The glass/lamination isn’t compromised, the strength is pretty much still there. Hotcoat and gloss don’t really contribute anything to that. . If you do see something along those lines, time to order another board, maybe glassed heavier.
Sorry I don’t have an easy fix for ya. As Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “So it goes”
doc…
Was just hangin at my shop with a shaper from Santa Cruz yesterday. Made me think of all those 6–7’6" Thrusters I rode at Sewer Peak and 1st peak in the 80’s and 90’s. I never got sanded finish back then. Always gloss. Doug Haut and John Mel. It took no time at all to get those little fractures like you have on any of my new boards. All it takes is a knee or elbow. A simple wash across the rocks leaving or entering the water. My personal opinion is that a gloss finish is more susceptible to those types of fractures due to the fact that Gloss resin is more brittle.
If that kind of cracking bothers you then it’s time for you to move to epoxy over PU. Problem solved.
IMO, even going to PU/VE (Vinylester) will be a more balanced match between e-glass vs resin.
Impact “absorbing” surfaces.
Cork skins are looking better to me all of the time (over and/or under FG).
Correct thickness will be important.
A couple of additional things to add in here. First off, double 4 oz is stronger than double 6. Glass to resin ratio is better. Proven over and over, and here on Sway’s a few years back. Second, most of the glass shops I know here in SoCal sand the board once before doing a gloss, unlike a sanded finish, which is done with various grits, bla bla blah… That resin is what’s cracking, not the glass. Also, why get (and pay extra for) a gloss coat on a clear board? And then cover it with wax? If you want it pretty, get a sanded finish with a speed coat. Anyway, back in the day all my boards of soft Clark foam that I made for myself and others got those impact fractures if there was too much resin on the deck. Just my 2c…
