Why is it, that every time I get some fancy new windsurfing equipment, I manage to damage it almost straight away by not knowing how to handle it properly.

Went sailing on my first ever composite board in 20+knots today. I'd noticed some small snail trail like indentations in the base of the board, and was wondering what could have caused them.

Well I stacked it, flipped the board and found myself on the wrong side, so I just scrambled over the board DRAGGING MY HARNESS BAR ACROSS THE BOARD! Now I know where those snail trail indentations came from. I now have heaps more of them.

Any suggestions what I can use to fill them in. I have no experience with board repair at all.

I can piture what you mean. It is basically a whole bunch of half moon shaped cracks in a line about 5-8mm wide and a few cm long yes?

If so the damage is cosmetic only and hardly worth fixing due to effort required.

You need to sand out just the damaged area down to the glass, so the size of the exposed glass (removed paint) will be about 10mm x length of the 'snail trail'.
Then paint HEAVILY with two or 3 coats of a pressure pack of spray putty (also called high build primer). (used in amateur car repair, try a specialist paint shop and buy K&H brand if possible). Make sure it cures well, coupla days at 25C.
Sand back so that there is no spray putty on the original paint.... what you have done is removed the damaged paint and then filled the bit you removed with spray putty makes sense I hope?). You should sand (rough guide) about 240 - 260 - 600 - 800 grades of wet n dry (used wet).

Then paint, preferably with an epoxy based pressure pack like Kilrust or White Knight epoxy paint, they're a lot more durable than normal cheapo spray cans.

It will be well nigh impossible to blend the paint unless you have a compressor and know what you are doing, so you'll still see the repair a little.

THAT is partly why I say don't bother. When you come to sell your board, if I was looking at it this is what I'd think:

(1) the damage you describe: I would see it and think "the guy dragged his harness hook across it so I know the board is still good, only cosmetic damage"
(2) if you do the repair I describe: I see a patch repainted about 2" x 10". I think "maybe it is just minor cosmetic damage repainted. MAYBE it was smashed bad, water got in, the guy repaired it with wood filler or the wrong resin etc and it is buggered." Thus I don't buy it cos I dunno what si under the repainted area!

course your an idiot you windsurf buy a kite do something rite

quote:

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Originally posted by kite boy

course your an idiot you windsurf buy a kite do something rite

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I don't understand, can someone who speaks kiter translate

Hes got ADD and dribbles a lot when he trys to talk.
I think he needs a psychiatrist, or a catholic priest....and an English teacher.

You're not an idiot. Nebbian is an idiot.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Think I'm just going to leave it as it is. The indentations are probably less than 0.1 mm deep and it hasnt cracked the surface, so I'm just going to leave it as a lesson learnt.

Thankfully it wasnt a brand new board. Then I'd really be kicking myself.

So do any of us windsurfers hang out in the kitsurfing forums making stupid comments, or do we just keep them in here.

"Nebbian is an idiot..."

Not too Swift, Brucie. After all, you're widely known on yahoo as "idiot swift" for reasons that even an idiot would understand. Apparently your mother calls you that.