The Solarez Incident

It all started about 2 weeks ago. My longboard got wrecked... severely, and I had to take it in to Moura's Board Repair. They do great work, & are highly regarded. In the meantime, I used one of my other boards. Specifically, my 8'0" Pato, Pseudo-shortboard. I had picked this one up off of Craigslist a couple of month's ago for 2 bills. A great board. I really love it, but when I bought it, there were a few breaches in its armor that I knew would need professional attention sooner than later. Sure enough, I took it out last Friday and had a great session on it. Only problem is, that when I got out of the water, the board seem a bit more squishy than when I had got into the water. Big problem. I seriously felt lucky to get out of the water with it in one piece... 2 boards down. My third option, at this point, is Ted's old Ellington shortboard. I had scooped it up from him during my search for the perfect shortboard for another 2 bills, but unbeknownst to me, had a significant breach of its own... A gapping ding in the tail bead, straight to the foam, but it's really the only flaw it has. Otherwise, it's virtually in mint condition. Another job for Moura? and I'm almost out of boards. (I do have a 4th, but that's another story, and it's the least ridable of the quartet). After some chats with my neighbor Scott, an avid surfer himself, he convinced me that in this instance for board 3, Solarez could do the job. With $85 in the hole for the LB repair, and looking at at least another bill (or 2) to rehab my new love, The Pato, an $11 tube of Solarez was looking pretty attractive. Yes I was hesitant, but I did my research, and wasn't going to screw this DIY adventure up! I hit the Solarez webite tutorial. I even went to Youtube (I love Youtube btw, you can find anything for visual learners like myself), and watched a six minute video... and with all that, "The Solarez Incident" begins...

Day 1 (Monday at lunch): with all the advice in hand, I thoroughly examined the tail breach, prodding & poking, and assessed whether I was going to really be able to pull this off without F-ing it up. That evening, an Ace hardware run is made to purchase sand paper 50/200 grit.

Day 2 (Tuesday at lunch): Nerves are taking over. It is unclear whether I should walk down this road and not be able to turn back, my lunch time evaporates into an hour of standing and staring. Maybe tomorrow I'll have the cajones.

Day 3 (Wednesday at lunch): It's go time. I bite the bullet, and with trepidation and a razor blade in hand, I begin some sanding, afterwards making incisions around the wound. I'm surprised. This is pretty easy. The 50 grit works quite well, turning the glass resin into dust (goggles and a face mask would be handy, even with limited sanding)... an amazing amount of dust. After the dust settled, the wound was clean, I thought so anyway. It really looked pretty good. the cracked resin had been sanded away with the foam openly exposed. A little Goo-gone to anesthetize the area, and the prep is complete. Now all in, I made the trip to the local surf shop to buy the Solarez. This was going to have to work. With confidence that tomorrow was the day, I opened up to Crystal, and revealed my lunch goings earlier in the week, and my plan for a successful DIY repair the following day. She says, "Just don't get that Sh*t everywhere and make a mess."... an omen for sure, but I didn't see it.

Day 4 (Thursday at lunch): On the drive from TSRI to my mom's place, I attempt to re-visualize the Youtube lesson, as well as any other applicable skills I had downloaded in the last 3-4 days. I was going to work quickly, not letting doubt set in for a second, if it arose. If something went wrong... I'd fix it. Simple. In the garage, with all my supplies laid out on the work bench, I begin to "knead" the tube of Solarez (as per the YT video...right?). The tube felt warm. It had been in my car all morning, and it was a pretty sunny day from the get go at the coast. I should have been leery. There just didn't seem to be enough resistance from the tube. Something wasn'.....dooohhh! SH***T! And I'm not wearing gloves!

The Fire drill: The tube just opened right up at the bottom. A huge glob of resin flew out. Most went right by me and on to the garage floor. Some on the work bench. Some on my hand, both hands! (how do you get this crap off skin?!) I sort of began to panic a bit. This stuff cures hard in the sun in ~ 3 min. Is that all the time I have to get this stuff off me... and it stinks to high heaven. I holding my breath intermittently, I run inside, past our housekeeper who was there finishing up. "Oh... uhh, hi Josepha... you good? uhh... gotta run, take care." Soap and water just doesn't get it done. Keep in mind, I didn't have a ton of this stuff on me. Just little spews here and there, mainly on one hand. But... I'm hairy. My arms are hairy, trust me when I say... It was a mess. This stuff isn't coming off (how nasty is this stuff?). To the computer, Solarez.com, contact info, call #. No answer, right to Vmail, of course. Any other #'s? emergency hotline? It's like the only other #. F it, call. The guy answers. He almost seems confused, super laid back. "Is this the # for Solarez?" The guy says back, "Uhh... Oh yeah, I work with the stuff." I proceed to inquire how might one remove a small amount from one's skin, trying not to reveal my hand completely. Acetone works, ie. nail polish remover,... ok, makes sense. I'm sure mom has some upstairs. "But oh, by the way, acetone can disolve the stuff into your pores, if your not careful.... or. You can stick the affected areas in the sun for,... 30-54 secs., and partially cure the resin, then peal it off. But don't cure it completely, or you might take some skin with that resin... haha hehe. Wonderful. Plan B it was, the partial cure & peal. It sorta worked.

I'm now sweating like a F-ing pig. Agitated, with only 30 mins. left of my lunch. Unbelievable. The DIY was supposed to be a quick surgical strike, say 15 min... now I'm going to be late getting back to work for sure... but I'll be damned if I'm not gonna finish this thing, especially now.

The Repair: Using my Vespa as board horse, I laid the ellington on the seat, balanced, and laid a SH*Tload of newspaper under the potential drip zone. Ahh... I'm learning. I put on some larex gloves... key, and were needed. FYI for the next repair. I cordoned off the resin zone with masking tape, and with a putty knife, scooped some solarez out of the back! of the tube, and proceeded to fill & cover the wound I had so meticulously prepared the day before. It's going well. Not to hard to work with the solarez. The tricky part, laying a piece of saran wrap over the affected area. If your piece is too big, it sort of flops everywhere, and if you get any rogue rez on your fingers, the saran wrap becomes even harder to work with. Really though, you just sort of flatten it out by pulling at the edges, removing wrinkes, and smooth out bubbles if any... there were a couple. Take the board outside the garage in the sun, and literally 3 mins. later... resins hard. peel off the saran, easy. Don't remove the masking tape just yet, for sanding. The tail is a bit tricky, and a glob of resin had settled towards the bottom, but the masking tape stopped it and kept the integrity of the flat bottom of the board. A razor easily removed the unsightly glob, and the 50 grit sanded the excess right down to the tape. After removing the masking tape, the fine grit sanding sponge that comes with the solarez worked like a charm for polishing up the repaired area.

DONE! Wow! After all that hoopla, the stuff worked like a charm. I did use the whole lunch hour, and my shirt would have gave you the impression that I had just finished a 5 setter against Nadal. But,... there's a silver lining.

Bonus: I took the Vespa to go back to the origin of purchase, and successfully exchanged the bunk tube with a new one... and, aired out my wet shirt on the Vespa in the process. Life can be sweet! (especially when your boss is out of town and a 1hr 30min lunch goes unnoticed)