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Windsurfing, do it yourself: board repairing Many of you may have needed to carry out a small repair on your windsurf board. In this case, there are two options: contact a professional repairer, or, given the modest extent of the damage, rely on do-it-yourself. Let's see how to proceed in this second case. A similar situation happened to me recently. In one of the last sessions, returning to the shore I hit a small submerged rock with the board, getting a minor damage to the hull (see photo). So I decided to fix the board on my own (it's not the first time). In this article, I describe how I did the repair, sharing my experience, which will come in handy for many. The phases of the processing were four: 1) First sanding 2) Grouting 3) Second sanding 4) Painting.   Let's see them in detail.   First sanding Having to cover the damaged surface with components (putty, paint), which must have good grip, the surface must be adequately sanded and cleaned. This first sanding can be done by hand, with a sanding pad or with sandpaper, with decreasing grain. The first pass can be done with 100-200 grit sandpaper, the second with a 500-600. Two quick passes are sufficient, taking care not to exert too much pressure, and also trying to limit the sanded area to the portion of surface strictly affected by the damage. Any fragments of material (e.g. fiberglass fragments), which have remained weakly attached to the surface, must also be removed before sanding.   Grouting At this point, we proceed with the grouting, which serves to reconstruct the damaged surface. It is clear that grouting alone is eonough only if the damage is minor, and has not affected the layers of carbon, resin, wood or polystyrene underlying the surface covering layer. For some time, I have been using a fiberglass grout for this operation, which can be easily purchased in paint shops, hardware stores, and DIY stores. See the photo below, for two samples of this product.  It is an easy product to use, and that gives me excellent final results. The product is almost ready, and has a good consistency. It is neither too liquid (like liquid resin, which must be applied in several stages - and combined with glass fiber - to fill lesions of a few centimeters), nor too dense. It is a resin-based putty mixed with fiberglass powder dispersed in the resin. For use, a catalyst, supplied with the filler, must be added in the doses recommended by the manufacturer. I recommend carrying out this work, and also the final painting in a room, where the temperature is not lower than 10 ° C (preferably above 15 ° C), to achieve perfect drying / hardening of the products, in a reasonable time ( 1 day for the putty; a few hours for the final paint). It can therefore be spread very well on the damaged part, having 5-10 minutes, from the addition of the catalyst, before it partially starts to solidify, making it more difficult to be worked. You must therefore proceed quickly, possibly preparing more doses of product, as you work on the damage, but you still have a reasonable time to spread the grout. I spread the putty with a normal metal spatula, preferable to a plastic spatula, which is generally not enough stiff. I try to spread the minimum necessary product (not to have to sand too much, then), already reconstructing a surface as similar as possible to the final one with the spatula, always with the aim of sanding as little as possible. Second sanding I hate sanding .... I must point out, however, that the final result of our work will greatly depend, in aesthetic terms, from the correct execution of this phase (while, for the effectiveness of the repair, even a more approximate sanding may be sufficient). In this phase, do not sand with hand sandpaper, as an irregular pressure, exerted with the fingers, could lead to uneven sanding. I use a pad, especially for rounded surfaces, or a sander, for flat surfaces (being careful not to scale too much, so as not to sand excessively). Also in this case, obviously, I proceed with different grains, starting with a 100-200, to then move on to an intermediate grain of about 500-600, and sometimes even a third pass, with a fine grain of 1000, with water, to get a really smooth surface. I must say that, lately, since I proceed to a finish with a spray paint, which allows to obtain a very smooth final surface, I do not waste too much time, with this last pass. The important thing is that no relief, or protrusion, remains on the sanded surface, due to the presence of excess filler on it. During this phase it would be advisable to wear a mask, so as not to breathe the dust resulting from the operation.   Painting This is perhaps the most delicate phase, especially in relation to obtaining a satisfactory final result. I immediately say that the ideal is to have the color code (RAL, or Pantone) of the surface to be finished, provided by the board manufacturer. It would be desirable that all manufacturers put these codes on their websites or catalogs, to simplify this phase, both for professional repairers and for windsurfers who proceed autonomously. Fanatic has been providing such codes for some time (see photo below), and it would be an example to imitate.  Tabou does not do the same (and even contacting the distributors is not easy to retrieve the information). So, in my case under consideration, I had to independently identify the paint color code to use. I discovered that there are some smartphone applications (eg Color Grab) to obtain the color code by "photographing" the surface with the smartphone. My experience leads me to say that the reliability of these systems is relative, because it is heavily influenced by the lighting conditions of the framed surface. If you really want to try this path, detect the color with the application, making sure that the surface is subject to good diffused lighting, and not direct light (e.g. not exposed directly to sunlight, or to an artificial light source). However, this may be a first approach to identifying a range of possible codes. I believe it is advisable to obtain the color code by comparing the surface with the Color Bridge Guide (a printed one, if possible) of the color codes (RAL, or Pantone). Printed Color Bridge Guide, especially Pantone ones, have high costs (over 100 euros/dollars). So, either you have a friend who makes it available to you, or you can at least get one in digital format (from the Pantone website, or from the online paint retailer site). All in all, the comparison of the surface even with the digital Color Bridge Guide displayed on the smartphone (approached to the surface), gives good results, taking into account that the smartphone tends to display darker and duller colors than real paint, and therefore you should choose a tint a little darker than what seems correct, which will in reality correspond to a paint with a lighter shade. With this approach, I obtained a rather satisfactory final result, except for the black shades of the original finish (see repainted hull photo), which I have not reproduced. I recommend not to be in a hurry, and to apply the paint in several passes (generally, the product dries in about an hour, respecting the temperatures recommended above). This is to avoid lumps, and drippings, which would affect the result from an aesthetic point of view. It is very important to properly mask the parts that do not need to be painted. I use newspaper, applied with scotch paper. I do not recommend other types of scotch tape (e.g. packaging tape), which are difficult to remove, or, in the worst case, can leave residues that are impossible to detach, forcing you to redo the job. If you have to paint, near points where the hull changes color, I recommend that you mask the surface of the color that you do not need to repaint, applying the paper tape well along the border between the two colors, and exerting a good pressure, to make it adhere as well as possible, and prevent paint from getting underneath it. Getting the right colors (that is, avoiding buying more spray cans than necessary), for such a repair the cost is about 50 euros/dollars, therefore comparable with that of a professional repairer (at least, these are costs that we get in Italy). Apart from any advantages on the timing (in my case, in a couple of days, the board was repaired, and ready to be used again), clearly there will be some products left over that you can reuse on another occasion on the same board (or other boards, in the case of grout), also if you always hope not to do too much damage to your boards. Post any comments or suggestions below, if you want. Good job. Fabio