Garage Works - 8/9/2025

These projects were completed yesterday.

This first one is Prayot's PPC M1 wing repair.  The strut bladder gave way.  These higher pressure, exotic material wings need to have thicker bladders - any high stitch or small piece of debris can be a seed for a bladder blow out.

I patch three spots and also armored them with extra layers of Tear Aid.

This is Marlon's Dominator Pro all patched up.  He took it out to Hau Bush this morning and got some good rides.

And this is Mark's wing board now converted to support Foil Drive.  I put windows on the top deck -

And the bottom deck.

And fixed a few dings that looked like they were water infiltration points.

All done!

Next up are Duke's paddle and Marlon's prone foil board.

Garage Works - 8/8/2025

And this evening I sanded the fill on the ding on Marlon's new board.  Then I colored in the rails.  And finally I placed the 2 ounce cap sheet.

He can use this tomorrow during the big swell - then after I'll sand it and fair every thing in.  But come morning - everything should be water tight and rideable.

And I also sanded the fill on the ding on Mark's board.  And while I had epoxy mixed and available, I placed a small patch over the sanded ding.

I'll do a light sanding on the windows and the ding repair tomorrow, spray some clear coat and this should be good to go.

Garage Works - 8/6/2025

There are a couple of boards in the garage for repairs.

This is Marlon's brand new Firewire Dominator Pro.  First time out and he duck dives right into a shallow spot at Kewalo's

Easy fix - but it'll take a couple of days.  Here I've already sanded the break down and filled it with milled fibers.

I'll sand, color the rail, and place a fiberglass patch over this area (there are some light superficial scratches at the nose).

And this is Mark's board that Maile is using for a Foil Drive board.

I got asked to put signal windows in place.

And there was a rail ding (that I feel compelled to fix). 

Here is the bottom deck window.

And the top deck window.

I should be done with both of these by Friday.

Garage Works - 7/1/2025

I went ahead and repaired the crack in No.41 yesterday evening.

You can just see the crack here -

Not sure why I added this picture - kinda the same thing as the first.

And this is the peel ply over the 2 ounce patch placed on with epoxy.

I already pulled the peel ply this morning, sanded the repair and sprayed replacement clear coat.  I'll post more pictures of the completed repair shortly (since the wind is in that "in between" level - I figured I should rest up today after yesterday - that way when the wind comes up tomorrow, I'm better prepared - I'm not doing anything else... might as well oogle over the board and stick some more stickers on). 

Garage Works - 6/17/2025

And after the foiling session, cooking dinner and cleaning up a bit, I got a bit of time in the garage.

First up was an emergency ding repair for Rick.  This board fell out of its spot in his board rack.

Here's the nose ding all sanded and opened - ready for fill.

And I sanded the entire surface of No.41.

Here's the bottom.

Here's the top.

Here's the rear.

I found two spots that needed fill and a patch - so I took care of those this evening.  Fill on the right corner... and I didn't take a picture, but there is a patch towards the nose on the top deck.

And here is the nose job fill on Rick's board.

More sanding and filling in the immediate future for me.

Garage Works - 6/2/2025

I spent an hour in the garage after dinner.

I removed all the peel ply and tape from the 6 patch applications I had set yesterday.

I also got the big ding on Stu's board all patched up.  Two layers of 4.8 ounce carbon.

To prevent any gas build up, I went ahead and dropped these weights on top to keep the carbon where I had put it.

Tomorrow I'll sand everything, then place a pigmented fill coat over the parts that need it.  I'll let that harden and sand everything flush on Wednesday.

Then it'll be on to the hard parts of No.41

I also got in a 15cm cable today for the Foil Drive Max.  I swapped out the 20cm cable I had been using, and got the motor pod all situated.

Garage Works - 5/16/2025

I was going to parawing this afternoon - but I figured I should get some yard work done first (which would give me an excuse to "rinse off").

I got the yard work completed (and actually a bunch of it) - but then it started to rain hard.  The wind was also gusty and shifting - I figured I should stay back today, get some more rest in and get some progress on the projects I have in the garage.

First up was inspecting the wing I got Brenda to fix.  You can see the dacron patch on the leading edge.  This is where the rear stabilizer brushed up against the wing yesterday. 

I also spent some time filling and sanding said stabilizer - it's better than new now.  I am going to give the SK8 750 another shot when the wind comes back next week.  I think I need to bring it back in the tracks a 1/4" and then it might be dialed in and I can really do a comparison against the AFS foils.

I sanded all 5 areas on Bill's board.  I also trimmed the carbon patch for the underside ding.

I got more fill on the repair, and then laminated the carbon patch under peelply.

Then I went ahead and got another fill slurry on the top deck dings.  I'll sand these tomorrow and get the carbon patches on.

I may also be able to get the pigmented fill coat on tomorrow as well.

And lastly - this came in the mail today.... the Team sticker for 2025!

Fun times!!!

Garage Works - 5/14/2025

Two things going on in the garage today.

First was the sanding of Bill's Amos Trench board.  Jesse drove his tow boogie on to this board.  No one got hurt, except Jesse's ego.

I also put the vacuum on it for some time to help get the water out.  This should be ready for filling tomorrow.

And Duke asked if I could get a stripped screw out of his Lift HA120.

Done and already back to him.

Garage Works - 4/14/2025

Duke got a new to him downwind SUP foil board yesterday.

He turned around and took it out (and was able to get up on foil with the Lift 170).

He looked the board over and found 2 chips.  Then he spun the board into something and made a third chip.  He texted on his way home and asked if he could drop off the board.

I got a bunch of stuff done around the house (as we have a contractor coming over tomorrow to prep to paint the exterior) - but did also manage to get epoxy into the chips.

This is the small one.

This is the big one.

And this one is on the tail.

Tomorrow when I get home, I'll sand these down and check for air bubbles.

Garage Works - 12/7/2024

I got the repair on Roland's mid-length surfboard done this morning.  He stopped by and picked it up (so I have more room in the garage again).

And I got to do the bulk sanding on No.39

I hate sanding....

But it is a necessary evil and this is where a board is made or broken as far as looks are concerned.

After sanding, I cleaned the areas where the logos needed to be placed - and I let them sit for a bit while we went out for errands today.

If you don't let these hang out for a bit, the adhesive sometimes doesn't stick well (and the cut vinyl pieces can float when the epoxy goes on).

And in the evening, I went ahead and put the final fill coat on the bottom deck.  This layer fills any low spots left after sanding, and it also covers the logos so they can be sanded over without damage. 

This is 7.5 + 3 ounces of Pro-Link epoxy.  I think the purple tint will look cool over the International Orange.

Pretty darn nice if you ask me -

Tomorrow will be a light sand on the rail and anywhere the top deck epoxy is expected to overlap.  Then I'll place the top deck fill coat epoxy.

I may start sanding again, so I can get the vent and leash cup installed.

I'll still need to rout out the track slots - then comes outfitting with the deck pads and any other add ons (like reflective stickers application).

Garage Works - 12/4/2024

And when I got home, I had enough time to get some pigmented, thickened epoxy on to this repair as filler.

Tomorrow I'll sand this down slightly below finish grade, and add some fiberglass patches and epoxy those into place.

I should be finished with this repair by Friday.

Garage Works - 12/2/2024

And in between cooking dinner, hanging Christmas lights and consolidating laundry, I managed to get the fill coat on the top deck of No.39

First step was sanding down all the gross high points.  I went ahead and scarified the top deck surface to give the fill coat a surface to develop a mechanical bond.

And here it is with about 20 ounces of pigmented epoxy placed as the top deck fill coat

And I sanded the ding on Roland's board.  When I mix up another clear batch of epoxy, I'll use some to fill this ding.

Garage Works - 11/23/2024

I started the repairs on Roland's boards this afternoon.

First up was the foil board.

I used the carbide wheel and grinded out the area he had circled with a marker to show where the leak was emerging.

The clear filled circle was the original repair I did where the leak was originally coming from.  After grinding around the track box, these holes were exposed and the slits right by the top of the track.

Here is the entirety of the area I dug out.

I placed some straight epoxy on the dug out area to let it run into the holes (and finally plug them).

Next I moved onto prepping Roland's 7'0" surfboard.  This thing has gotten beat up in the back of his van.  I sanded depressions where he had punctures, and lightly sanded the dings that did not break the fiberglass.

There were 20 of these areas.

This was one of the worse ones

Even on the tail

I cut patches of fiberglass and placed epoxy over all the spots I need to repair.

I made two batches - and the end of the second one I mixed in milled fibers and filled the remainder of the dug out area by the track box.

And I also filled the drain hole that I asked him to make (the board was drying at his house since I've been working on No.39 and Harris's repair)

Tomorrow I'll sand these areas, fill where I was short, and place a fiberglass patch over the drain hole area.

On the foil board, I'm also going to fill all of the footstrap insert holes with epoxy.  This is why I don't jump...