Top Tips For Buying A Second-Hand Surfboard

• Buying second-hand over the internet can be a risky business; if possible, try and see the board in the flesh before coming to an agreement.
• “If you have a chance to inspect the board,” says Harry, “make sure all dings have been professionally repaired. Also, gently squeeze the board — if you can feel the board compress around your fingers from not much pressure, this is a sign of either poor glassing or that water has got into the board.”
• Running your hands along the rails, check for dings that haven’t been repaired — not only will they need repairing, they may have already let in significant amounts of water.
• Discolouration may simply be the result of sun damage, which isn’t disastrous but looks ugly and means the outer layer will be weaker than it once was. Alternatively, especially if the discolouration’s limited to one particular area, there may be a leakage nearby.
• “Look out for painted horizontal stripes across the middle or the nose of the board,” warns Harry. “This is a sign that they have been creased or snapped and the repair has been hidden under a bit of paint or posca pen.” Paint jobs over the glass will feel courser than normal paint jobs, which are applied to the foam blank before glassing and are thus left with the same smooth finish as the rest of the board.

• Advanced surfers often complain that traditional PU surfboards (polyurethane foam, polyester resin) gradually lose their spark and responsiveness as they age. (Beginners and intermediates are unlikely to notice this subtle deterioration.) Besides being generally sturdier, surfboards that combine EPS (expandable polystyrene) foam with epoxy resin and a carbon or balsa frame tend to retain that lively feel for much longer. Such surfboards (Firewires, Slater Designs, Haydenshapes, many of the newer Lost boards) usually make solid second-hand purchases, although naturally they retain their value along with their flex.
• Check for pressure dings too, ie. impressions in the board’s surface where the glass job hasn’t been punctured. In themselves they’re usually not too big a deal, but large quantities suggest a delicate glass job and thus a surfboard that’s easily damaged/snapped. Inspect the back half of the deck: are the stringer and the foam still flush, or has the foam been stamped down by the previous owners feet, leaving a central ridge running along the stringer?
• Look for long, thin pressure dings that run perpendicular to the stringer. If you find one it may be a crease, and this is a big deal: a structural weak point that suggests the board’s not too far from snapping.
• If a board still has copious amounts wax on it, ask yourself if a battered deck covered in pressure dings is hiding beneath.
• Haggle aggressively.