Lay an old towel over the area, soak with turps, cover with plastic and leave overnight. Just scrape away the softened adhesive in the morning.

Acetone can also work, do small areas at a time because it evaporates so quickly, also soak in a rag and place on the surface for a minute or two rather than just wiping the acetone over the surface. Awful job to do either way

Mark _australia said..
I would not use acetone, if the paint is quality u will be OK but you find out real fast if it isn't, even some thinners will eat it too.
Play safe with turps

Fair call, though it depends if this board is painted white over the surface, or epoxy with a white tint inside the resin. Most surfboards have the later, but as a kite-surfboard it might have the paint on the outside as you say

So I did the turps in a towel trick to remove the glue and it was really effective at getting the glue off, though a bit of elbow grease was still required.

However since I've noticed a number of small bubbles appearing under the first coating on the board where the grip was. I don't know if this came up because of the turps or me rubbing the glue away with a rag and dish scourer or both. In some cases the small bubbles have been broken open by me cleaning and lightly sanding the board in preparation for sticking the new deck grip on.

So my question is, is this something I should be concerned about? Is it just cosmetic or should I cover these bubbles / popped bubbles with some coating before sticking the grip on? Or not worry about it, noting the vast majority will be covered by the new deck grip? I don't really care how it looks just don't want the watertightness of the board to be compromised.

bramber said..
Any consensus here... is this a problem or just ignore and stick the grip?

Depends if they are just bubbles in the paint or whether the hole reaches the foam. if the latter then it may have saved the board from becoming a balloon seeing as it looks like your grip glue was baked on.

Put some deteregent on it and leave in the sun to check, then once it stops bubbling water seal it off with epoxy, super glue or epoxy solarez whatever to stop water getting back in, grip won't stop that.

I have a SUP with the same problem, found bubbling coming from a pinhole, caused some paint around it to delaminate, but cannot seal the hole properly ever because of the paint so am living with it.

You must have got a bargain board.

Yep it's called "Numpty's" board repair epoxy paint, you can buy at most Bunnings after you vax and collect.