SEXY SURFBOARDS, Off the Rack: scope em out

Most surf shops carry a wide variety of brand new surfboards. The here, the now, the happening the retro, longboards, guns, fishies, eggs, mid-range, concept boards, soft ones and epoxy ones, etc. Oh my, which one to choose. My advice back when there was less to pick from was, the one you just gotta have. That Channin / Diffenderfer semi-gun standing there in the corner with that Corvette red tint on the bottom and rails I can't live without. If you love it's looks, generally you'll love the way it rides. It might have been a bit tricky to surf on when the waves were tiny but that was still my take on purchasing a board off the rack. Now days I tend to look a bit closer. Think about what I really long for, for longer. When I'm finally ready to make that board mine I will require that it goes through an extensive nose to tail physical before making that final commitment. Here's how we do it, most shops have a set of well padded floor racks to set the board gently on. Hopefully placed under good lighting where you can see the elongated bulbs reflecting on the boards surfaces. Have the sales person secure the fins into the boxes. Check around the boxes for excessive air and for voids in the paste like filler that borders them. View the tail area looking for air bubbles and shatters. Put a bit more scrutiny into tails with wings and channels. Are they the same shape in the same spot on each rail? Keeping the board bottom up go to the nose and sight down the stringer, is the center fin in line with the stringer and standing at a true 90degrees? Are the side fins mirroring each other? Visually are they tilting the same amount out towards the rails? If they look at all funny to you, question it. Check the tip of nose for air. Take your hand and feel down each rail for remaining resin beads, just a difference in the feel could mean there was a factory oversight. Tilt your head from side to side glancing at the elongated lights reflection in the boards bottom. How true the reflecting light is, equals how true the work on the bottom is. Small defections are common its the bigger dips and lumps we need to be weary of. Search the board for slight color changes they could be results of massive air or silvering, meaning fibre glass that was subject to some kind of stress or contamination before being applied to the board. Small areas of this kind of blemish should not be cause for alarm its the obvious were looking for. One big advantage of buying an off the rack board is cure time, the longer the boards been sitting in that shop the more dent resistant its resin shell will be. Ask how long its been in the shop to be safe. Flip it over and give its deck the eagle eye scope out much like we did the bottom. Check for voids around the leash cup and heavy defections. Feel the crown of each rail if its overly lumpy you may want to find another sexy stick to feel out. Do me a favor when your searching out a new stick, remember that the production of a surfboard is not even close to rocket science rather it is a very soulful fragile handmade product, an art form if you will. Most of our fragile egos only need to be massaged with only the tiny est amount of respect. If your the type that over scrutinizes or wants their money back if that yellow was not the precise exact yellow ordered. Please do something else for fun we don't want your money or your ass in the water anyhow.