I've seen it happen before, saves the shipping cost of sending the old board back to the manufacturer for destruction. Kite manufacturers do similar requiring the tips to be cut off making the kite unrepairable.

Normally the shop will handle the destruction, after handing you the replacement.


At least you know your getting the board replaced.

I did this with a board once and glued and re-lamed it back together with extra reinforcement and kept riding it - flipped the replacement to a buddy.

I had a minor warranty issue once with a Starboard (over 15 years ago) and they were OK with having a local board repair fix the board and pay for the repair. It was an ecologically sound decision and while the board was only 99% good as new visually, it was functionally 100% good after it was repaired.

I can understand destroying the board if it has build quality issues that are more than just superficial. If it's just issues like the pads coming off or a bit of topcoat chipping off, a partial refund would be a good solution. However, I also realize you have to be careful with partial refunds as there are people in the world who might take advantage of that and fabricate a situation just to get some money back.

What would you do? In this case, we're mid-season, so destroying the board to get a refund would leave Naranek without a board (having to buy a new one and wait for a refund from the shop). The board works fine, but it's missing a bit here and there. It was heavily discounted to start with, so even a full refund wouldn't cover the cost of a new board bought locally.

Personally, I would probably keep the board as is and remember the situation when buying my next board.

I had same issue with Quatro board.
After I voiced the concerns about the environment, they worked out a deal with the reseller to repair and resell rather than destroy
Kudos to Quatro.

I?m just running through a similar process with Fanatic (very quick as my board type being stocked fortrunately) and they immediately shipped a replacement in exchange for the old board (to be given to the shop) or the mentioned chainsaw massacre proof. I guess that it?s all based on the agreement with the manufacturer, who has very little costs per piece, so that any repairs in wealthy countries would not pay off FROM A PURE COMMERCIAL point of view AND cause administrative burdens nobody wants to carry. Marketing of course also prefers not to have to many boards with major repair signs on the beaches. Or in social media .

Dspace said..
My related story is with a hand wing. Duotone made me cut a 4m Slick in half and send them the picture before they would send me a warranty replacement. The irony is that the warranty replacement wing had the same warranty issue, so I made a DIY fix and just moved on. Only time I've ever had any wing gear warranty issue

Last years 4mtr Slick needs a longer boom than standard, was this the issue?

Dspace said..

airsail said..

Dspace said..
My related story is with a hand wing. Duotone made me cut a 4m Slick in half and send them the picture before they would send me a warranty replacement. The irony is that the warranty replacement wing had the same warranty issue, so I made a DIY fix and just moved on. Only time I've ever had any wing gear warranty issue

Last years 4mtr Slick needs a longer boom than standard, was this the issue?

Yep, that was the exact issue. The replacement 4m Slick I got had the exact same issue so I just made a boom extension and called it a day. My 5m and 6m Slicks didn't have this issue at all.

Back on topic; I understand the need to avoid having a customer sell a defective wing by requiring evidence of destroying it, but I just sold that replacement 4m Slick this week (I upgraded to SLS's) with full disclosure of the issue and my boom extension fix to go with it

3 x 4mtr Slicks at our local, all the same issue. Duotone seems to have mucked up designing that size.