tiniest little scratch looking crack + a little rant (maybe im just in a bad mood)

Hey I have a 5'8" Lost Stealth FST and it is my baby. I noticed a 1" wide crack-like scratch and another similar on the right rail side of the board. I must have just bumped something and it must of cracked a little bit. There is no holes and I tried to suck out and see if air/water was able to get in or out which it seems sealed. I feel like nothing will happen, but I kind of want someone else's opinion.

My rant (read at own risk): I don't know I think im just really anal or I have OCD on perfection or both, but since these are pop-outs(mine was manufactured in Thailand) I noticed little tiny(booger size) dings on the rails and some parts on the board itself. It looks as if they just glassed or whatever they sealed the board up with and just let it go. Not that it matters in surfing or anything, but I paid $700+ so I would expect the best. Maybe it's my fault for not inspecting the board thoroughly before purchasing or im just over thinking it but anyways it ticked me off a little. Neverthe less, I still LOVE this board and wouldn't trade it for any other surfboard.

THANKS. GO LEFT!

Firstly, I wouldn't say they are popouts. Popouts tend to be moulded boards like surftech, NSP, BIC etc. Firewires are machine shaped with cutting edge equipment and hand laminated boards. The manufacturing process is far more complicated than most other surfboards so they certainly don't pop out of anything. Just machine shaped like 99% of the other surfboards you see in your local surf shops.

As for the imperfections I'm not 100% sure what you are referring to. I'm thinking it's small holes in the high density foam or little areas in the grain of the balsa that have been filled with resin in the glassing process? Or are the imperfections in the actually glasswork?

Hey all,
Prj is correct here. There is not a single component built by Firewire that comes from a mold. People need to understand what the term POP-OUT refers to. It means that the materials of something are injected into a mold, pressed and the final product is removed from the mold or press, essentially in one step. To assume that everything made in Thailand is a pop-out is kind of unfair to the people of that country, to others reading this and to yourself, because in the end, it just shows you haven't really looked into how the boards are made.

There is an incredibly long and complicated process involving human hands and complex robotics and to generalize this whole production pipeline with the term "pop-out" is not the way to go.

That being said, because our boards are hand laminated, there certainly can be imperfections and we definitely look into blemishes as they arise on a case by case basis. Definitely take a deep breath and send some images my way (email below) and we'll get to the bottom of it.

Cheers!

Chris, I was just in Thailand and it occurred to me only at the last minute maybe I could have picked up a board factory direct. Too late now, but can that be done?

Hey Buzzy we don't do much of that in order to stay compliant with taxes and coding. In Thailand they are just very strict about how businesses manage their goods...