Got my new Dominator, couple questions

[majorissuez99]

Hey all,

Just got my new 5'10" Dominator FST last week, took it out for 4 days this weekend(In Tofino, Canada...Cold place).

Its really awesome I'm glad I got one.

Noticed this after the first day, not sure if it was there before or not though.

I know its just the fibreglass cloth showing a bit, but is it something i should be concerned about/ be dealing with in some way?

Its not rough in this spot though, still smooth. Theres a couple other smaller spots like this too but hardly noticable.

The attached photo is about a 2x2 inch area.

Any feedback would be great. I plan on looking after this board the best i can!

Any other tips/advice to keep it in good shape would be great too(besides not riding it, I mean to help keep it from delaminating and such which is my biggest fear).

Thanks!


920

[Slowman]

Some more photos might be helpful. If it is smooth then it looks like the finish coat just got sanded back a little bit too much but then sometimes the glass cloth is a little high in the laminate layer (on a PU board at least) and this can happen. Over the years I've noticed this on plenty of my PU boards in the odd spot here or there and it never made a difference and never led to delamination. Actually I have never had a board delaminate but I always kept them out of the sun and in a cover.

[iggy]

At first glance looks like an over sanding. If you could post another pic a little zoom out.But at first glance does not look like something to be worried about
The best advice to extend the life of the board is to keep it away from high temperatures (leaving it inside a car on a hot sunny day etc). If ever you sustain a ding take the board out of the water and let it dry thoroughly before attempting to repair. When repairing ALWAYS use EPOXY resin!!!

[FW - Fan]

Def over sanding. Its primarily cosmetic and should have no structural impact. I have the same thing on some of my FW's. It a QC issue and something I hope FW continues to improve on because ultimately it can be avoided.

[majorissuez99]

Thanks for the replies/tips guys, I looked at a couple other firewire boards in a shop today... The Taj, Potato, and some other one... They all had some degree of this on them.

Heres a couple other pics just for reference:

These are two different spots, ones the original photo but less zoom, the other is up by the vent...

921922923

[iggy]

Nothing to worry about there

[majorissuez99]

Nothing to worry about there

Should i put a little epoxy resin on a spot if i can feel the fibreglass cloth with my finger?

[Slowman]

I guess you're worried it might be an avenue for water to be absorbed? I seriously don't think so because the strand of fibre glass will be impregnated with epoxy resin anyway and indeed these "skins" have a few layers to them which would prevent any water getting to the core. So even if any water was absorbed into the glass strand it would just sit there in the outer layer.

Nevertheless, you can quickly test whether there is any "void" by putting a droplet of water over the top of this apparently exposed fibre glass. If it is absorbed then there is a void and maybe a drop of resin will fill it (but wait for the drop of water to dry out) it might be a bit tricky getting the resin to absorb. Some NanoTune might also do the trick - if you are really worried, but I don't think there is any need to.

[majorissuez99]

I guess you're worried it might be an avenue for water to be absorbed? I seriously don't think so because the strand of fibre glass will be impregnated with epoxy resin anyway and indeed these "skins" have a few layers to them which would prevent any water getting to the core. So even if any water was absorbed into the glass strand it would just sit there in the outer layer.

Nevertheless, you can quickly test whether there is any "void" by putting a droplet of water over the top of this apparently exposed fibre glass. If it is absorbed then there is a void and maybe a drop of resin will fill it (but wait for the drop of water to dry out) it might be a bit tricky getting the resin to absorb. Some NanoTune might also do the trick - if you are really worried, but I don't think there is any need to.

Thanks, yeah im just really paranoid about such things as imperfections. >.>

[iggy]

Thanks, yeah im just really paranoid about such things as imperfections. >.>

I hear ya, I'm pretty much the same. As son as a board gets a dent on the bottom I go bananas!!!!

[prjwebb]

I hear ya, I'm pretty much the same. As son as a board gets a dent on the bottom I go bananas!!!!

Man, I hate that. Thankfully the FST bottoms take a lot to dent.

[benny81]

Surfing my Pnator the other day and my leash broke and my board gets sent to the shore break and gets rolled around on the stones in the high tide shore break! Resulting in two dings, a few rail cracks and a few scratches under the nose! Gutted as only a month old. Professional repair job under yay for that board.

[prjwebb]

That's heart breaking. A similar thing happened with my Spitfire when it was new although the fastest swim of my life managed to save the board before it got to the rocks.

[FW - Fan]

Surfing the mentawais this year and I take my custom FW 6 channel perfect wave board..not a true to label FW but made by someone heavily involved in building the prototypes in the early days of FW so exactly the same construction...I climb, crawl, get rag dolled over razor sharp reef and get stung about a dozen times by fire coral...the board is tantalizingly close but..in a shallow lagoon and at this point untouched by the reef...I literally body surf over a coral head put the tips of my fingers on it and the wave I body surfed peters out so that I stop but...my board gets bounced 20 meters over dry reef in front of me...resulting in a dozen gouges and a nasty hole....gutted...I feel your pain.

[iggy]

Surfing my Pnator the other day and my leash broke and my board gets sent to the shore break and gets rolled around on the stones in the high tide shore break! Resulting in two dings, a few rail cracks and a few scratches under the nose! Gutted as only a month old. Professional repair job under yay for that board.
Bummer!!!hopefully she'll be up and running soon!

[prjwebb]

One of Josh's boards FW Fan?