I've just been out for my first decent sail on my new board (new for me!) and come home having snapped it across about a foot from the nose. Is this sort of thing fixable or is it best to say good bye forever? It is a mistral flow and I paid $170 for it so I would rather try and do a home patch job rather than paying more for repairs than the board cost me to buy.
Nebbian is around, so he'll probably answer this soon. I'm not sure how much of his nose he lost, doubt it was a whole foot. But he's pleased with the result. there's a photo of it somewhere on here.
No board is indestructible!!!
you should be able to fix it yourself, either Neb's method of judicious shortening, or restoring or to original. How about a picture, then you can get more accurate advice.
The Industry survives by selling boards. Pure economics : to make profits/survive by selling new boards (or sails or whatever) there must be one or a combination of:
1) rapid innovation/design progression (hence why each years boards are ALWAYS better than the last - though is the case with innovation) (similiar to 3 below - obsolescence),
2) growing demand base for new and old (2nd hand) (unfortunately Windsurfing has been dying for many years with a recent resurgence to some extent from what I can tell), and
3) built in obsolescence/short term life failure (a short life means people must replace boards within so many years on average) (think of white goods and why they have a shorter expected lifespan today than they did 20 years ago, and cars etc etc).
They certainly can build boards stronger (but maybe at the cost of slightly more expensive or heavier, though IMO there seems to be too much promotional emphasis placed on the shedding of a 1/2 kg of board weight compared to what the actual performance effect probably is - primarily generated by the brands and sponsored riders of course). There are a number fo niche equipment makers that build stronger equipment.
But remember one thing - if board makers don't survive we won't have many new boards being built and a large reduction in choice and innovation - so we must pay for that - that's why healthy competition is always good.
My 2c worth (yet again 
).
Geez you must have had a decent catapult to snap it... I had some BIG ones and all they did was split the nose a bit.
Anyway for all the lowdown check this out:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28287
Here's a teaser picture:
Thanks for the tips. Maybe mine isn't as bad as I first thought, especially after looking at some of the photos's of nebbians. The nose has a big crease through the under side of the board but the rails aren't as mangled as in some of the photos you posted. I have a mate that makes surfboards so he may be able to give me a hand. Otherwise I'm back to looking through the buy/sell section.
cheers
If the bottom is creased, then you need to do some elective surgery.
It isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it's a bummer that it happened to your new board 
Since it was (only) $170 if it was me I'd sand back all around the crease, top and bottom, then give it a bandage of fibreglass and epoxy. Quick and easy. Get your board builder mate to help you, but make sure that he understands that you MUST use epoxy (1:1 ratio) rather than polyester (1:50 or higher ratio). Polyester will eat the inside of your board away.
If you don't fix it, then next catapult you may break the nose clean off and then you've got a real job on your hands to fix it.
Thanks for the tips. Can you put any rods or the like through to help strengthen it?
Nope, you can't add any rods, if you did then the board would break at the end of the rod. The strength in a board lies in the sandwich construction -- the outer skin.
Before you do much else, spend an hour checking out this site:
boardlady.com/
I think I need help! I've started repairing my board. All the damage is underneath with the plastic cracking and the nose with a crease through it. I tried using sikaflex marine sealer and bond. I let it dry for 24 hours and went to sand it and it all came away in rubber chunks as it didn't harden and didn't bond to the board. Any suggestions for other products? I have a tube of selley's plasti bond, would this be appropriate to use? It is a plastic putty and says on the tube resin contains 160g/kg styrene
I'd appreciate any advice
cheers
I've used motor body filler ("bogg") in the past.
If the nose is still connected by the bottom skin, use sikaflex FC11 (or 11FC?) to bond the sandwich together and to get the nose straightish. Leave for a few hours (goes off real quick) & then fill the gaps with the bogg.
(Try and keep it as neat as possible so not sanding heaps of bogg off to get the shape.) Start with ruff wet & dry, working down to the finer paper for a smooth finish - look at it like therapy, coz getting impatient here will give you a finish you will regret...
Prime & paint the next day with closest colour to suit (blue?)
Just to reinforce what Nebs has said.
The only safe resin/glue you can use with styro foam is epoxy/araldite!!!!!!
Other wise that nice light white stuff inside your board will just dissolve away before your eyes, and leave you with a big mess!!!!!
If you are 100% sure you have a perfect seal then it's possible to use off the shelf body filler/bog, but that's not recommended either, as there can be a reaction between epoxy and polyester if the one underneath isn't fully cured (2 weeks at 20degC) this will stop the bog setting and you won't be able to sand it.
and futher... not to be rude but please please stop right now, and read boardlady.com (all the little bits of it), and listen to the guys here.
The mention of sikaflex and plastibond has me scared.
board repair is easy but it is nothing like surfboards and most things with "marine" written on them are probably for gluing 5ply to aluminium on boats.
PM decrep or Juice who build boards, or ask me (not that I'm the guru like those two are). Sorry but I won't type it here I'm tired of typing the whole 3 page run down on board repair 
yours sounds pretty easy, at a guess it needs a section of the bottom divinycell removed and another bonded on followed by 2 layers of glass. Post pics?
the flow rhinoplasty master
