Basics of Surfboard Maintenance

"BRIAN FIELDS: Hey, how's it going? I'm Brian Fields here at the Aussie Island in Wilmington, North Carolina. We're here on behalf of Expert Village. I'm here to talk to you about picking out a surfboard and what you can do to help take care of it in the meantime. And now, we're going to talk about ding repair and maintenance of your surfboard. Pretty much, no matter what kind of surfer you are, whether you're a fresh beginner or the most experienced, pro-surfer in the world, one thing you have to deal with is dings to your surfboard. Like I say, any time you fall, knock your board, good chance you're going to cause either a pressure ding, which is no big deal, or you might crack your board. Like I said, these boards are made out of fiberglass and a soft glass coating on the outside so they crack very easy. If you crack your board such as you can see right here in this, just a little crack there not a big deal but something you do want to seal up. We have things like Sun Cure. It's a resin that you simply put it on your board over that crack and in a matter of minutes, the sun will cure it, keeping the water out. You don't want water to get in your board because it's going to weigh it down, and like we were talking about earlier, dry rot with the sun. It's going to rot it out inside. So, the key is anytime you have any kind of crack in your board whatsoever, you want to seal it up. A common fix is a lot of people if they don't have Sun Cure or something like that, they'll actually throw duck tape over it, for the time being. Like I say, you want to do everything you can to keep water out. If you do get a crack where water gets in there, once you get out of the water you're going to want to let you board dry out in a place where you can get the water out and where the sun is not necessarily cooking your board. Cause that's the number one in taking care of your surfboard is making sure all cracks are sealed once they happen and you can also have more major injuries to your surfboard, you might break the nose off, tear a fin out, anything like that. Most of the surf shops in your area have a ding repair, if it's something you can't do yourself. And if--a good ding repair specialist can usually make your board look almost like new, with the things they have to work with today."