Suppose your out catching a few waves. It’s semi crowded, but the waves are pumping. We are talking long 10+ second rides. You take off on a wave, make the steep drop, carve out a deep bottom turn to make it back onto the face of the wave, but while making that bottom turn and while trying to avoid a 1000+ pound lip from crushing you into the sandbar, your board collides with a surfers floating board at the bottom of the wave. You finish riding the wave and decide you need to check your board for damage. You hop off your board and inspect it for damage. It turns out the collision cracked your rail completely to the foam. Now this is a common occurrence at just about any highly populated surfers beach in any part of the world. There are things that can be done to avoid collisions, such as be cognizant of your surroundings, be aware of the people who are are more risk prone than others, and if you can and if the waves suit it, find a portion of the beach less crowded (reefs of course are examples of when this isn’t possible) . Of course things like currents, rips, and winds should also be considered. So you’ve done everything you could to avoid this surfer’s board, but the collision occurred, as it inevitably does. You only brought one board and your miles from home, surfing a new and exciting wave. What should you do?
There are a couple quick fixes well known to surfers. These can be used in this quick fix scenario. There is the duct tape fix and the surf wax fix. Let’s quickly go over the two types of fixes, then discuss which one is better.
Having a roll of duct tape can be handy for when the waves are pumping and you need a quick fix. The duct tape fix is simple. Remove the desired length piece of tape. Trim to the desired shape. Then apply the tape to the damaged rail. Over time the tape will break down, so a more permanent fix may be required.
The alternative is the surf wax fix. Surf wax designed for the water temperatures your surfing in can repair a damaged board quickly and efficiently. Simply remove a suitable size piece of wax, ample wax to fill the entire damaged area and then some. This repair will last only a few hours on a highly used portion of a board, and may need reapplication over long periods of surfing. Like the duct tape repair, this is only a quick fix, and as such, a more permanent fix may be required.
A quick comparison is required for these two repairs. Duck tape is useful and will last an entire session, but removal at a later date will likely require some sort of glue removing solvent. Duct tape is somewhat more problematic mainly for that reason. It is easy to put off removing duct tape only to find the duct tape and the glue delaminating. Water will then be accessible to the foam. It can also be a chore to carry the duct tape around. One of the main benefits of duct tape is, if the damage is substantial enough it can prevent shards of fiberglass from rubbing against the skin.
The surf wax is probably your best bet if your have enough to last a couple sessions. It is something that you can easily find. If you didn’t bring a bar, you can usually find someone that will loan you some. In in a desperate situation you can scrape existing wax from your board to repair the damage. It is easily removed with a hair drier, acetone, or any kind of glue remover. Your also sure that with the right amount the hole will be filled and will not interfere with your surfing experience.
You can see from the comparison section more reasons to use surf wax than duct tape. But, you may need to try both to determine which one works best for you. These are the two main quick fixes surfers rely on to keep water out of their boards.
