Back in November of 2001, I received my new custom Poly Vac
from Victoria. It was great, custom artwork, with the 
Sandskater name and
web address placed on the deck of the board, it was my pride and joy. I had
only used it a couple of times at our local beach and down at Bantham, when myself and Ben Richards decided to
head down to Tolcarne beach in Newquay to try and attempt to ride the
sider (sidewash) at high tide.
Conditions weren't great.
The surf was big enough, but the wind wasn't so great and it was raining.
We got to the beach at about mid-tide, on the push, and started to skim.
This was not one of my best skim sessions, because the wind was making it
difficult to run fast down the beach and there was a rock measuring about
3ft long, by 2ft wide and about 2ft tall, right where you wanted to run.
For over 2 hours we tried and failed to make the connection onto the sider
from the beach. It was a case of getting the timing exactly right, if you
were to make it on the sidewash.
I was starting to think it
wasn't possible, when I managed to make the connection to the wash. I slid
down the face of the 1 and half foot sider and started to pump my board
along the sidewash in an attempt to make the connection with the primary
wave. Well, I never made it, I ran out of steam and the board sunk. But I
was so stoked that I was actually riding a sider for the first time in my
life, I had to try and do it again. I was on such a high!
With
my new found enthusiasm I tried again, but with no luck, Again and again I
tried, but with no results. All of a sudden, it set up in front of me, I
sprinted down the beach, got on the board and skimmed onto the sidewash. I
was riding it again!
But my joy turned to despair, when I realised that the rock that had
prevented us from connecting to the sidewash earlier on, was now under the
water because the tide had come in. I looked down whilst on the sidewash,
to see the rock just below the water, and before I could do anything about
it, I had slid straight over the top of it, and it had stopped the board
dead, and I fell into the water.
At this time Ben was on
the beach shouting, 'did you hit it, did you hit it?'. I swam over
to my board, turned it over to view the damage, and this is what I
saw:...............................>>
This was my worst ding, (if you can call it a ding, its more of a rip)
that I had ever had. My despair now turned to anger, how could I have been
so stupid, I knew that rock was there, I was stood next to it at mid tide,
for Pete's sake! But for a split second I forgot all about it. It could
have been a lot worse, if I had wiped out, I could have cracked my head on
that rock as I fell into the water. I had now learned a lesson - always
check the water for submerged objects before you start skimming and be
aware of your surroundings at all times. Skimming can be dangerous, to you
and for other people around you!
3 months on, January 2002,
I still hadn't repaired the board. I went back to using my Slotstik board
instead. I just couldn't find the time to repair it. Last week (beginning
of Feb 2002) I finally got round to repairing it. One of our skim buddies,
Paul A'hern from Exeter, had given me his board to repair, so I thought I
might as well do both of them at the same time.
I sanded
the surrounding area, and inside the rip. Mixed up some fibreglass resin
and stuffed 6oz fibreglass matting in the rip. I filled up the hole with
the resin, making sure the matting was fully saturated, then cut another
square piece of matting and placed it over the entire damaged area. I then
let it cure for 24 hours and then sanded it back the following day. The
pic on the left is the end result of my hard work: 1 repaired Vic with a nice battle scar!
For further advice on repairing your board check out the
skim tips section or give us a call
