Board getting ready to break in half?

beaglebuddy · Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 1120

Got an email from Patrice, the owner of Exocet;

Sorry for this late answer, after looking at the pictures and different comments on the forum, i can state that the issue is not due to juncture with PVC

We did have such issues on several short boards with similar crease and in most cases it is due to a hard stress, it does not really matter how many time you have sailed with the board but to me it seems that you "may" have sailed it pretty hard one day in side shore and steep choppy water or took off on a even small jump and got some stress on the board

Such crease can be easily repaired in any shop, but i can't see miss manufacturing from our side

If the whole bottom of the board would been soft then you would have had many more waves and in that case it would have been a clear production problem

Let me know if you have further feedback to give me and will answer you straight away

Best regards

Looks like I'm on my own with this. Sad

LUCARO · Joined: 07 Dec 1997 Posts: 661

I am feeling your pain.

Can't say i am too happy with exocet's response, and it isn't even my board.

You shell out a bunch of cash for a new board with the expectation that it can handle normal conditions. It fails and they tell you it was because you sailed it too hard.

I have a kona 11.5 that came off the roof of someones car while driving down the road. Sure it had considerable surface damage needing repair but no deep structural failure. It is heavy, especially as the initial repairs were pretty average and it took on water, but it is a strong board.

Perhaps the windsup is of lighter construction, but if it is sold as a wave board it should be able to handle reasonable conditions. At least that would be the assumption I would make especially if i see promo shots of people riding it in the surf, and it costs over 1200 bones.

boardsurfr · Joined: 23 Aug 2001 Posts: 1266

Sorry about your board. My Exocet WindSUP 10 buckled the second time I took it out in waves. I thought the damage was way out of proportion to the size of the waves. Exocet did not see this as a warranty case, either.

It's interesting to see a statement by a company owner that "a even small jump" can cause enough stress on a board to cause major damage, and that their general attitude is to blame "hard stress" and deny warranty claims.

Here is a list of things you should not do on Exocet boards:

wynsurfer · Joined: 24 Aug 2007 Posts: 940

" Even a small jump can cause this type of damage"???????? I have jumped old polyester wave boards 15 feet high and landed them flat, and so hard i thought I would put my foot through the deck. Never a problem. Could this be a major design flaw? If this happened to me I'd be livid!

Since you are on your own here, my deepest sympathies by the way, and if you can't find a local shop to fix it, you might try fixing it yourself. If the damage is only on the bottom of the board it should not be too difficult.

Is the deck ok, or is there damage there too? Perhaps it is impossible to see if the deck has eva foam oposite the damaged area.

Stuff like this should not happen. Pathetic.

Check out www.boardlady.com for lots of info on how to repair stuff. Good luck, hope you can fix it on the cheap.

jamieinnyc · Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 108

Some years ago I crazily tried to take my Mistral Pacifico (original 11'4" version) through pre-hurricane surf, light straight-onshore wind, Fire Island. Made it a couple of hundred feet from shore, big wave took the board from me, and in the white water I couldn't catch up with it. Waves carried it all the way back to shore, and then shore break threw it up on the sand. Top batten of the sail was broken, and tore the batten pocket, but NO damage to the board. Will not try that again (though it was pretty exciting). But I routinely take the board through shore break into smallish surf with no issues. And though I don't try to jump it, outgoing through surf there is often plenty of air.

It seems to me that the likely point of damage for a convertible SUP is the mast track. Unless you have a heavy wave breaking directly on the board, you should not see that kind of damage. Interesting that we now have reports of similar issues with the 10 - which obviously is subjected to less stress by virtue of its size. I feel badly for Exocet, but they seem to have a problem.

beaglebuddy · Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 1120

Well since I'm shite out of luck and on my own with this I suppose I should start thinking about getting it repaired now sooner than later before the problem becomes worse.
Is it possible that the Styrofoam has not cracked yet and the damage is only on the skin?

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

wynsurfer · Joined: 24 Aug 2007 Posts: 940

Maybe Exocet is about to go belly up? If this is how they treat their customers they certainly deserve to.

w8n4wind · Joined: 12 Nov 2008 Posts: 278 Location: canada

d0uglass · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:56 pm Post subject:

I have a WindSUP 11'8". I think the design is great, but from what I'm hearing there may be some problems in the construction or the quality control at the factory.

The evidence so far:

1. The crease in beaglebuddy's 11'8"
2. The buckling of boardsurfr's 10'0"
3. My own 11'8" has held together, knock on AST, but the daggerboard gasket was fitted very poorly, with a big gap in the back and the lips sticking up in the front. I had to gorilla tape them down.

With such a long, wide nose I definitely feel a "thud" vibrating through the board when going over chop, which I'm sure puts a strain on it. Maybe in the next model year they will put additional longitudinal reinforcements in the front end, or give it a deeper vee or pointier nose. The board is quite heavy, but the materials might not be optimally distributed for the right kind of strength.