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We have had some really solid swell here on the west coast in Calirfornia this year. My friend Ben took out his step up 6'6" rounded pin shaped by Rusty Preisendorfer to Blacks beach. We had a solid 10-foot swell pumping from the NW/W at a solid 17 second period. Waves were heavy, slabby, fast and hollow. On a big wave Ben climbed up on the face and tried to shoot a hollow section, just to get smacked on the head by the powerful lip of the wave. The lip slammed his jaw into his board! A sore jaw and a gnarly rail ding close to a side fin was the result.

I decided to use recycled shaping foam to repair this because it is it is lighter and resembles the original board more. I cut the foam a little bigger than the hole in the board so that it would compress and stay in place.

After inserting the piece I mixed some resin with filler and glassfibers and filled the remaining open parts. After letting the resin cure I sanded both sides of the board and the rail. Then I rapped a layer of 4oz fiberglass cloth arond the rail covering the ding on both sides. Glassed with laminating resin. Then surfaced coated with surfacing resin. Sanded to the original shape again. Polished with finer grit sand paper up to 600. If you have any questions of this type of repair or need any scrap foam sent to you, please send me an email at david@diplomatsurfboards.com.