Duct tape has many uses. If you’d like to see some of them try doing a Google search on duct tape and see what you find, or just go here. But, the one thing you shouldn’t use it for is covering dings on your surfboard.

The reason… water will penetrate the tape and enter the dinged area of your board. As well, the water that gets inside will not vacate or dry out because the duct tape will keep air from drying out the foam or letting the ding drain. Duct tape has a fabric type layer of material in it and the tape itself will get damp keeping unwanted moisture around a ding.

Moisture is not friendly to the foam core of a surfboard. Depending on the type of foam a surfboard is made from it will absorb water through small cracks in the fiberglass and the longer the board is in the water the foam could act like a sponge and continue to take on more and more water. So you don’t want to have a damaged board in the water very long, if at all.

The best thing to do when you get a ding is fix it or have it fixed right away. It’s a good idea to have a tube of solar rez and sand paper to do a quick fix at the beach… if you’re handy at any rate.

The other quick fix is with clear packaging tape that’s about 2” wide… not the light weight stuff but the one that is a bit more heavy duty. The stuff has good long lasting adhesives and the material the tape is made of is water proof, so water will not penetrate it. Just make sure the dinged area is dry and apply the tape well with no bubbles or wrinkles around the edges with the dinged area completely covered.

Examples:

Unless you have your 10 ½ fin box capped or you have the O'Fish'l glassed in box most likely you’ll see the front side of your fin box cracked. Rarely do people repair this problem that will continue to take on water and eventually begin to deteriorate the tail area of a surfboard.

This is an easy fix at the front of a fin box with regular scotch tape that you wrap Christmas presents with.

I put my thumb through the rail of my board when I got drilled in some shore pound. Believe me, I got hit really hard. Here is the rail fixed with packing tape that has lasted probably a good two years.

This board doesn’t get surfed to much anymore but the ding is still water tight.

D.R.