New Jersey Surf and New York Surf Information - Surfing NY NJ! - NYNJSurf.com

by Crackie Onassis, Originally published in 2005.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that a large area delamination on the deck of my CooperFish NoseDevil had developed in between the pinline & stringer. The origin of “the delam” is still a mystery, but it was bad. Justin(Onefin) said that the Coop didn’t like heat, and a few days after an early June heat wave, there was a 3 foot long bubble as loose as a drum head on the deck. It was shaped like the mirror image of the Puma sneaker logo only two feet from the trademark and expanded towards the right rail. Needless to say, I was bummed and thought about how it happened, if I could surf it, and how I would get it fixed.

Even so, there was a wave breaking off the B90th Street jetty that Alex K would later describe as “Mini-Indo.” So what harm could one more session do? I started out on the rocks and even with the delam I was able to see why Gene Cooper’s boards are such coveted items. I had only ridden the board a few times, but this morning I was getting it dialed in. After an hour or so, I drifted down a bit as the tide went out. I must have seen a good one peel off the rocks, cuz the next thing I knew I was back out at the main peak scratching for another chest high peeler. I was right off the rocks at dead low tide when I felt that familiar tug of a nose going under. It wasn’t much of a wave, but the pearling 10 foot, leashless Nose Devil got away from me, and porpoised towards and into the rocky area known as “the Jacuzzi.” Later, Frrok would describe it as watching Apollo Creed take his fatal blow from hand of Ivan Drago. Like Apollo’s trainer, all Frrok could say was “nnnnnnooooooo!” in slow motion.

Gene Cooper’s boards are glassed by a fellow named Clyde Beatty Jr, and my board is proof that that fellow knows his craft. There aren’t too many boards out there that can be flung into the big jetty rocks at B90th and come away with a slight chip in the tail and and a quarter-sized chunk in the fin. It must have looked bad from the beach. Jake saw the whole thing. I showed the results of the jetty episode, his reply was “that’s nothing.” Then I showed him the delam, and he almost cried. I showed it to Cologero (hoping he had the magic solution) and his response was “take it to Bunger right away.” Not wanting to be without a longboard for the summer (which was likely) I was in full on consultation mode. I contacted OneFin, Cologero, McFloater, my Florida friends, my Jersey guys, Happy, Veggie, my brothers, my Dad and my Priest; everyone except NYHC who was MIA in Brooklyn.

Living across the street from the Bodega certainly had its strengths and drawbacks (ie: Connelly’s beatings of wasteoid tenants like Whisky Dick, Upstairs Crackie, Downstairs Crackie and Tighty Whitey) but aside from BBQs and beer and bull sessions on the patio, it has been a great learning experience to watch NYHC work on surfboards. The first repair that made me sit up and take notice was when I saw what he did with Craig from Boarders Merrick Semi Gun. It was a long dent in the bottom that needed to be evened out. At first look, it didn’t look like much, but the amount of detail that was put into the repair was my first indication that something major was going down.

NYHC certainly passed his first test with Boarders with flying colors. Still, my initial plan was to drive out to Bunger, or see who OneFin would suggest, as he knows the board, the shaper and probably has had similar work done and his first name thrown at me was NYHC. So, a few days later following the strike of disaster, I approached NYHC to get his thoughts. At first we were like, maybe this guy, maybe that guy. But when he actually saw it, I was reassured when he said “we can do this” with that deadpan matter of fact bravado that is often reserved for the BBQ grilling of shish kebobs and fish tacos. Then he added, “We just have to figure out how” and with that, the madcap laughed.

It took about two or three weeks to research and plan. Every online resource had been utilized. We must have poured through every page of Swaylocks using every permutation of the words “delamination,” “CooperFish” and “repair.” Eventually, we had three game plans to choose from, with two constants being a syringe and a cool batch of laminating resin that would be weighed down by cement bags and straps. The issue was how to apply?

In retrospect, each plan would have worked but we chose the one with the lowest X-Factor. The first idea was to drill little holes and apply the resin that way, and work our way up the board, one section at a time. That plan was nixed as the deck would be rife with little holes, and the unbonded delam sections would work against the repaired sections. Next was the idea of cutting on the pinlines & along the stringer and spreading that way, but we didn’t want to compromise the stringer area.

Then, in an “inspired” moment, after a few bevies in the Bodega one of us said “y’know, the deck is white and will have wax on it.” Regardless, it was agreed that the way to go was right up the center of the bubble, and spread resin on both sides. Like Bhudda, we would take the Middle Way. NYHC then placed his order Laminating Resin from Boarders. It arrived a week later.

Although we were good to go, for some reason aside from the busy nature of the Bodega, it was taking some time for me to get my board into the ding horse. I was dragging my feet looking for other options. I continued to do research; I emailed Gene Cooper and formulated alternative methods as is my methodical wont. Gene had suggested a full removal of the delammed area, but that approach was not a consideration for us as neither thought it to be necessary. I guess I was just looking for confirmation from the master shaper that we were doing the right thing. OneFin echoed the previous double-cut technique, but when we settled the 10ft board into the crux of the horse we knew that our plan was best; The Middle Way!

I arrived home from work the next evening and saw NYCH coming out of the 91^st Street Deli. He immediately said, “I just called you, let’s get to work.” In my hesitation to cut into my sweetass surfboard, I said, “Give me 20 minutes.” I went upstairs, changed into a long sleeved shirt, downed a shot of Maker’s Mark for Dutch courage, grabbed some Rockaway-style big Budweisers, and took my 10ft CooperFish NoseDevil with the Rootbeer Swirl bottom down from its perch on my wall, down the stairs, out the door, and across the street into the Bodega.

I settled the board into the dinghorse, nose foreward and looked at it some more and prepped for the surgery. “Sandbags?”-Check. “Big Plywood Boards?”- check (but first we cut the plywood down to create some room with a jig saw; who knew?). “Ratchet Straps?”- Hmm, how do these things work? It took some doing but we figured it out.

NYCH immediately handed me the Dremel “you get the first cut!” My hand was shaking, but I made that first cut. I had been fond of the old adage that any surfboard becomes yours when you put your first ding into it. Believe me, that feeling is magnified tenfold when you first take a Dremel with a diamond wheel attachment to it. I have a bit of a shaky hand when it comes to power tools, so I made the initial incision and passed it off to the chief surgeon.

From there came the creation of wooden stents from Bamboo chopsticks to hold open the incision as NYHC would be injecting laminating resin into the cut-open deck with a syringe. From here on in, my board was in NYHC’s hands, and I ran back to my apartment to get my camera and document the procedure for posterity. He mixed a cool batch of laminating resin and injected the goop intermittently into either side of the incision, and then spread it with the use of a hacksaw blade. Once spread we removed the stents, got the planks, sandbags and straps into place and weighed down the repaired area.

Somewhere around this time, DubStar came by with a sick SurfBoards Hawaii single fin for NYHC to work on in one hand and a bag of beer in the other. So, after some Sam Adams beers, we retired up to the beach to get a look at the ocean and the concept of perhaps even surfing was not far from anyone’s mind until we saw the onshore crummy crumbling occurring at the break.

Back at the Bodega, the resin on the CooperFish cured and next came the great unveiling. Success! The resin had hardened and the deck was adhered! I was so psyched and happy to be a surfer who was standing on the verge of getting his board back in the water. From under his respirator, I could see that NYHC was equally psyched. I’ve seen his expression in taking pride in a solid repair, but in this the mission was getting accomplished, and when the mission is finally done, and the workshop is swept clean we get to go surfing.

We let the lam resin sit overnight, and a day or two later NYHC broke out his grinder. The next step would be to cover the incision with a patch of glass, but if it were to sit flush, we would have to grind away some of the original glass. It took a while, but once the cloth was set, we were 90 percent finished. From there it was like finishing any other ding; sand, gloss coat, sand and finish. The next day we went surfing. It took a while to get the Cooperfish fixed, but it was time well spent. If we had rushed, or cut corners in any way, I am sure that the end result would have been failure. If I learned anything about ding repair from NYHC it is the importance of patience, preparation and sanding, sanding and more sanding until the job is done.

NYHC, thanks for your help. Like your 16 year old friend who will never forget his drop in episode when he looks at the nose of his repaired Town & Country, that li’l piece of bamboo stent that’s lodged in the deck will be an ever-present reminder of a joyful process.

Postscript:

Fast forward to July 2006 and some beginner surfing leashless runs the nose of his board into the deck mine. At first, I think my CooperFish to be invincible, but then notice that this board is an equally formidable Robert August Wingnut board. Aw shit, there’s a 3 inch ding on the deck and up the nose. NYHC is around and says “that’s nothing.” I took $40 bucks off the guy (you should always pay up when you eff up) and ended up fixing my board in about an hour (using SunCure).

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