Caring for your board
A new board fresh out of the plastic is one of the best things money can buy...and you want to keep it that way!! Here's a few helpful hints to help you preserve your board in mint condition and give it the best possible chance of a long and healthy life.
Care suggestions:
- Bodyboard deck and rail skins are finished in manufacturing with a protective film on them which preserves their foam cells and this film becomes quite slippery once it becomes wet. Before your first surf, we recommend that you take a hot shower with your board and cover the entire deck, rails and tail with soap. Then wash all the soap completely off with hot water and dry the entire area thoroughly with a crispy dry towel. This will remove the protective film on your board and ensure that your board will have a nice grip from the very first surf.
- If you are planning to sticker up your board we recommend you put your stickers on your slick at least 24hours before you go surfing to give them the best chance of staying on.
- Always do your best to store your board in a cool place and avoid it from overheating. If you have to leave it out in the sun, make sure you put in a boardbag or cover it with a towel and worst case scenario, cover it with sand.
- Rinse off your board with cool fresh water after every use.
- Don't use your board to sand slide, skim board or tow behind a boat or jet-ski.
- Don't flex your board excessively to test it's strength. The best way to test a board's strength is to stand it vertically on flat ground and put one hand on the nose and the other hand on the centre of the deck with the tail of the board locked to the ground by your foot. Now lean the board away from you while locking the board in place with your hand at the nose and press your other hand into the board to feel the extent of your board's flex. This is a great way to test the different flex properties of your board when trying different stringers of different flex in an ISS board.
- Try to store your board flat when it's not in use. Storing it on the nose or tail can put excessive pressure and cause damage to the those areas of the board.
- If you're going to lend your board to somebody, make sure the person who is going to use it knows how precious this magic craft of yours really is!!