The blistering of your board is a result of water underneath the paint
as far as I know. This can happen because of a leaking board, or from
storing a wet board inside a board bag for a long time. I have no idea
why the board bag would make an otherwise sound hull become wet under
the paint, but it seems to be related to water vapor that penetrates
the board somehow (perhaps directly through the paint?) when the bag
becomes warm or hot. I think this should not happen, but perhaps the
paint jobs on some boards aren't as top notch as found on other objects
like many cars.
My 2 cents is that the problem with the board is more likely due to
water inside the hull -perhaps from a punctured footstrap plug or crack
under a foot pad- and the heat generated when inside the bag pushes the
water out toward the board's perimeter where is shows up as blisters in
the paint. Having had this occur on a number of boards, I find that
once you start to sand, the problem gets worse and worse. Find the
leak, repair and repaint to cover the primer which itself is not great
at stopping water.
As for the mast, the Tidal Wave is a very durable mast, and quite good
at taking abuse because has a lower carbon content than most other
carbon masts. Something like 35%. Can you describe the break? Does
it have a fairly clean line where it snapped or is it a messy, sloppy
break? If the latter, it is entirely likely that the mast was damaged
by impact or point loading. I suspect damage is the factor because a
poor lamination (as indicated by the former description) tends to show
up almost immediately -certainly in the first few hours of normal use.
That it lasted 25 sessions suggests it is not a manufacturing problem.
That said, you may never be able to pinpont the root cause of the
failure.
-Dan
Quote:
> My 430 Tidal Wave mast (non RDM) broke on the weekend. The mast only
> had about 25 sessions on it. No damage anywhere. It broke half way
> between the base and boom.
> Although I hear this is not uncommon, it got me thinking. I keep my
> gear in the loft of my shed. It gets pretty hot up there in the summer.
> Maybe as high as 120F, I imagine. Sometimes my gear is a bit wet when I
> put it away as well..
> I noticed one day, to my surprise, that I could feel a bumpy fibreglass
> pattern on the bottom of my board. Also, some very small paint blisters
> started to appear. I think this must have had something to do with the
> heat and humidity in my board bag, since when I brought the board
> inside to dry, the bumps got much smaller and could be lightly sanded
> away.
> Could this also have something to do with my mast breaking? Anyone else
> had this experience?
> Endo
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