Got to love customs officials. When my daughter was born I had a friend from Canada send over some Cuban cigars and steak seasoning. Guess which one got confiscated and guess which one came with a little note from customs saying it contained unknown substances?
I saw this on the Zone they used a chisel on the deck and drilled about 20 holes in the bottom of the board ,it was only going from the USA to Canada.... farrrk I would be so pissed. Customs pay for nothing.
My only guess is the lay up of the board showed up something on the X-Ray....??? A batch of Coreban boards had the board covers sliced with a knife too lazy to unzip them.
Mate the US customs can dismantle your car at the Mexican border and you have to put it back together....no sh!t .They only need a suspicion to destroy your gear and take no responsibility for repair.
There are some horror stories of yachties having 100k damage done to their boats by customs acting on a dud tip off.
I am surprised that the US Customs are not accountable for anything they destroy.
I know that if Australian Customs damage anything valuable (that turns out out to be negative), they explain how it was damaged and offer to replace/repair it.
Second trip to Maui years ago and got searched by US customs at Honolulu. Made me open everything including roll all sails out, remove battens, get X-rayed. Had to take straps off boards and pull apart. They wanted to rip out the wood strengthening strips on mast and fin boxes. Started to unpick the stitching on my harness but got bored. Walked away after telling me to put it all back together and hurry it up. Missed my connecting flight to Maui. Cant say or do a bloody thing. Id hate to see what they could do to a carbon paddle etc.