Surfboard Restoration
Role
Surfer, resin/fiberglass work
Problem
Found my first surfboard in the garbage in Pacifica, it was delaminating and falling apart at the seams.
Solution
I had to cut out the cancerous regions that had pulled away and crumbled from the foam core. Fiberglass and resin work to fill in the bad area, and cover any other holes in the solid sun-cured resin.
The Pearson Arrow Surfboard Restoration
It all started with a surfboard I found in a trash pile in Pacifica, CA. It looked old... but definitely had some life left. I did not have much experience with surfboards, so figured this would be a great place to start!
Upon inspection when I got home with it
The top fiberglass/resin was delaminating from the foam core - additionally these rose up and created bubbles. It was not a simple manner of "gluing them down" - it needed a tear down and rebuild. But I did find out Bob Pearson himself shaped this board:
Restore process
I visited a local surfshop and picked up the follow parts needed:
- Surfboard resin (Sun cure type)
- Fiberglass cloth
- Q-cell
- Old yogurt container to mix in
- Organic vapor 3m mask (I really dislike the resin smell...)
Ripping out the diseased fiberglass, the filling with Q-cell filler. After all this has cured, I layered fiberglass on top. Although not the most aesthetically pleasing, it gets a lot of compliments for bringing back a classic Bob Pearson to the shore.
using it
Getting out to Linda mar
Calvin and I use the hell out of this board as many evenings as possible... (yes, Calvin learned to surf on this board too)
