Paddleboard Maintenance Tips

Series Summary

Paddle surfing is gaining popularity as a new water sport though it is not new at all. The recent resurgence of this incredible sport has prompted many would-be surfers to skip the short board and grab an 11-6 and paddle. Paddleboards are much longer than surf boards and in many respects tougher. The unique aspect of paddle surfing is of course the use of a paddle. A paddle surfer uses the paddle to not only maneuver to catch a wave, but also for traveling longer distances. Get beginner paddle surfing tips for standing up on a paddleboard, paddling a paddleboard, and repairing a paddleboard in this free video series featuring waterman Matt Sexton. Sexton teaches beginner paddle surfing tips such as how to repair a paddleboard, how to pick up a paddleboard, how to get up on your knees on a paddleboard, and how to paddle a paddle board.

Video Transcript

"In this clip, we're going to go over standard maintenance with a stand up paddle board. These things are pretty tough and I've actually had some conversations with the manufacturers, where he said "You can pretty much beat this thing, you know, the living daylights out of it, until the point where it can fall off your truck on the highway and just sustain a couple of dings." But, if you take it out on a windy day, you know, it's very possible that you're going to get any sort of cosmetic scratches, which you can easily cover up with anything from like a nail polish to a light paint. But, you want to make sure that if you get a real ding, something that you can actually see the inside with here, if water seeps into that, it can actually loosen up the fibers inside and really cause damage, even water log the entire board. When you have an eleven, six board that can really be a problem. So, you want to get some sort of epoxy, you can either get it at your local surf shop, or any sort of marine supply center, and you want to make sure that you get enough epoxy or some sort of a water sealant in there, that anything that's in there is either going to dry out, or get pulled out and nothing else will be able to penetrate that. Then you want to really make sure you get an ample coverage with this, and then you can smooth it out, and it comes with you know, an applicator stick, a nice little cellophane thing, so you can make sure that you get it on flush. And, then we have this nice, little car paint left over, that we can wash over it with. So, what I'm going to do here, this is Sun Cure, so it's reactant only in sun, so I'm in the shade right here, I'm going to repair it and make sure it gets on nice, really stuff it in there, and then get it flush and then, we're going to turn the board around and have it sit in the sun, so it'll dry out really fast."