How To: Fix A Surfboard Ding

By Nick McGregor

Whether you’re a salt-encrusted veteran or a shaky newbie, one thing will inevitably happen during your surfing career: you will ding your board. But not every crack in the fiberglass has to be devastating. With a little time, patience, and effort, anyone — experienced or green — can conquer a ding. Get your hands on the right materials, follow the steps listed below, and you’ll be back in the water in no time.

1. Take a minute to survey the damage. Determine whether you simply have an area of cracked fiberglass, or whether the foam has been crushed and needs to be replaced.

2. Make sure the area around the ding is clean: remove any wax, check to ensure the ding is dry, and trim any jagged fiberglass edges away with a knife.

3. Sand the area around the ding with heavy sandpaper (50 grit), creating a low spot where a protective layer of fiberglass and resin can lie.

4. Tape your low spot off with masking tape. This creates a boundary that prevents resin from dripping out of the ding.

5. If your foam is damaged, mix up a small batch of resin, catalyst, and filler (make sure you put gloves and a facemask on before handling resin). Consult the directions for proper dosages. If you don’t need filler, skip ahead to Step 6. Apply the mixture to the hole, overfilling it a bit. Sand the extra filler down even with your original low spot.

6. Prepare a piece of fiberglass cloth that will overlap the tape surrounding the ding. Try to cut off any fringes of cloth.

7. Mix a batch of laminating resin and catalyst together, checking the recommended dosages on their respective containers. Too much catalyst and the resin will harden before it can be properly applied; too little catalyst and the gooey mess will never set.

8. Quickly spread a layer of resin over the exposed ding. Lay your trimmed piece of fiberglass cloth into the ding, spreading more resin evenly over the cloth until it’s saturated. Do your best to keep the resin off of your clothes and skin.

9. Allow the resin to set for 10-20 minutes, then use a razor blade to trim along the tape lines, removing excess resin and saving yourself some sanding.

10. Depending on weather and the amount of catalyst used, the full drying time can take anywhere from a few hours in warm weather to overnight in cold or damp weather.

11. Using several different grades of sandpaper, going from 50 for rough sanding to 400 for fine sanding, sand the ding down without taking away too much of the repair job. The ultimate goal is to make the ding flush with the rest of the board, so once the dust starts flying, move up to finer sandpaper. Sand too much and you will have to start all over again; sand too little and the sharp edges of the repair can cut your legs and hands.

12. If you’re concerned with aesthetics, a final gloss coat or polish can be applied. In the long-term, how your ding looks matters little compared to the strength of its repair.

13. Clean everything up! The quicker you douse your tools and containers in acetone, the less time you’ll spend battling cement-like resin in the future. If everything turned out well, congratulate yourself. You’ve just accomplished one of the toughest maneuvers in surfing. If your ding still looks like a mangled mess, have no fear. A local surf shop can repair it professionally for a small price, or you can follow the old trial-and-error method of education until you get it right. Either way, another ding will come along one day.

DING REPAIR MATERIALS:

You can piece these together yourself, or purchase a kit from any local surf shop that includes all the necessary components.

• Sanding block or sandpaper square Sandpaper (50 grit up to 400 grit)
• Mixing containers (plastic tubs, measuring cups) Applicators (popsicle sticks, squee-gees, plastic spreaders, brushes)
• Cutters (scissors, X-ACTO knives, razor blades)
• Gloves
• Facemask
• Rags
• Laminating Resin
• Catalyst
• Q-cell Filler
• Fiberglass cloth (four and six-ounce)
• Acetone
• Masking Tape
• Old Clothes