As a surfer, you’re going to ding and dent your surfboards. It’s unavoidable. For minor surfboard dings, you’re better off fixing these at home. It’s a waste of time, effort and money to take a minor surfboard ding to a shaper or to a board shop for repair.

Here’s a 5-step tutorial on how to fix a surfboard ding. Let’s jump into it.

Get real surfboard reviews from a weekend warrior. Independent. Objective. For you.

What you need:

A surfboard repair kit, which includes most of the below…or the below

• Sandpaper – 3 types: coarse, medium-coarse, foam block (least coarse)
• Sun curing resin – epoxy or non-epoxy. Ask your local surfboard shop which one you’ll need for your board
• Something to apply the resin to your board. Surf repair kits usually include a wooden applicator or you can use an ice cream stick!
• Clear plastic. Again, usually included but if not, paper portfolio holders can be sacrificed for this important task
• Sun! Lots of it!

Steps:

1. Sand down the dingStarting with the medium-coarse sandpaper, lightly rub the ding down just to get the rough edges off. Sand it down to make it nice and smooth. Give it a little touch-up using the foam block sandpaper to make it a little bit smoother. I like using these little foam blocks, especially on rails because you can rub it in and it hugs the rail. It gives it a little bit more shape.

2. Resin applicationApply a fair amount of resin that will harden in direct sunlight on the ding using the wooden applicator. There’s a lot of alternatives for resin out there. There are epoxy versions and non-epoxy versions of the resin. When you buy at your local store, ask which one is best for your situation. You would need a specific type depending on your board – epoxy or non-epoxy but some may crossover and some don’t. Be generous on applying the resin to fill the ding up. You don’t want to come back and do it again.

3. Flatten the ResinUse a clear plastic sheet (usually comes with a surfboard ding repair kit). This is used because you can hold this flush against the ding, hold it on the bottom or tape it down to flatten the resin. Flattening the resin makes it easier to sand and it makes the overall repair look a bit better.

4. Bring on the SunNow it’s time to take the board out in the sun so the resin will cure or harden. Hold the plastic sheet against the rail while the board sits and cures in the sun.  Not all sun is created equal. Bright shiny sun in the middle of the day is the most powerful and will cure the resin the quickest. If you do your repair is the early morning, late afternoon or on a cloudy day, it’s going to have to sit outside for a little bit longer. If there’s more resin, it might take much longer to cure all the way through.The best way to tell if the resin is hardening is to let the plastic sheet come off. You will literally hear it pop off nice and smoothly. It’s advisable to leave the resin to cure a little bit longer just in case it hasn’t hardened all the way through. You can’t see or feel what’s happening underneath the hardened surface so just leave it to cure a little bit longer than you probably need to, especially if it’s a deeper ding with lots of resin used.

Get real surfboard reviews from a weekend warrior. Independent. Objective. For you.

5. Smoothen it upStarting with a more coarse sandpaper and moving to a finer sandpaper, sand the hardened resin you applied back until it’s completely smooth and you can’t feel the ding anymore. You shouldn’t be able to feel the ridges on either side of the newly applied resin patch. After it’s nice and smooth, use the foam or spongy, very fine sandpaper block and just hug the rail with it and run it over to make it extra smooth.

Finished

There you go, nice and smooth. You can’t even feel the ding anymore and it’s not going to take in water. That’s it for your home board repair for a nick little ding. Hopefully, you have learned how to fix a surfboard ding and you can take matters into your own hands and fix it at home. This saves you time, effort and money!

Get real surfboard reviews from a weekend warrior. Independent. Objective. For you.