I recently purchased a Lahui Kai 12'6'' race board and am new to the SUP world. I noticed the deck grip was pulling up from the board and underneath is a small ding perhaps 1cm across that is no doubt sucking in any water that goes under the deck grip. What is the best way to fix this?
I have repaired lots of surfboards in the past so my approach would be to dry it out thoroughly first (I'm worried this may have been sucking in water for a long time before I bought the board) so I'll leave it in the sun ding side up for a few hours, and then move it to ding side down once the sun has got to it.
Then I was thinking as it is small I could use some UV curing epoxy resin e.g. Solarez (same as what I would use on a surfboard ding). Is this suitable? On the Lahui Kai website I can see they are made of EPS foam and carbon - so I am assuming epoxy would be okay?
To then stick the deck grip down I have heard flooring glue is good? I'll just need to clean off the residue glue first and give it a bit of a sand.
Would love some advice on whether the approach above is okay, or if you have any other suggestions please do share?
I built a system where I can put 1-2psi of air pressure in the board through the vent plug. This continuously pushes air through the board and out the ding until it is what it is... Couple of days, and it's probably pretty dry, or as dry as it's going to get. Then prep, epoxy resin and cloth, Epoxy Solorez, or whatever your flavor of ding repair is, just so it's compatible with the foam. I use Bond G17 spray adhesive. Clean off all the old sticky stuff from the pad, etc., and the pad is never coming up in that spot again.
Not sure how I feel about using the sun to push water out. It will pour out until the temperature/pressure stabilizes, but not all of it comes out. When the board cools, what's still in there goes in deeper. You could tape over the ding, and pull the vent plug before letting the board cool, then repeat.
Thanks Oki.
I managed to drain a fair bit of water out of the board, including setting up a vacuum suction to draw some water out. I spoke with a friend and he recommended leaving the board with the ding facing down with the air vent open and just leave it for a week and see how it is then.
I'm also going to weigh the board as I know the weight when it was new just so I can figure out how much water is actually in there. As I just bought the board there's a chance the previous owner had it like this and didn't realise for months.
I wondered if there was anything I could strap to the ding to help draw water out, similar to the concept of having a moisture absorber in your house to protect from mould - ever heard of any chemicals / compounds like this being used?
Thanks for heads up on the adhesive - that's super helpful!
Update - I weighed the board and think it is 0.8kg heavier than it should be from the advertised weight online, but noting that the board is 5 years old and has quite significant repairs on the nose and tail which will no doubt be contributing some of that weight. I'll leave it draining ding side down for a few days and re-weigh and then start the repair.
Pressurising boards can be dangerous, make sure it is very very little. Great pics here of one that exploded badly
I've never found a board that can't be dried out by a paper towel jammed in the styro to wick it out, combined with sun and damaged side down. Its just time
Opening the vent is silly - you want the warmth from being in the sun to push water vapour out the damaged bit. Opening a vent slows that process. With goretex vents I remove and block the hole for this process.
Of course all this is much easier in warm summer with some breeze...
Thanks for the advice Mark, that's helpful. I'll give the paper towel trick a go, and will seal the vent back up. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
