professional ding repair

My friend Ramin, eager to expand his surfing repertoire, recently decided to get started doing a little of his own ding repair on one of his boards. Being such an 'expert' in the field myself, he came to me for some pointers, I gave him some advice, he researched a bunch on the internet, bought a hodgepodge of supplies, and set out on his own to discover the wild and wonderful world of DIY surfboard ding repair. Here's a synopsis of our IM chat detailing his discoveries:

Ramin: ding repair, what a scene

nic: haha, down and dirty

Ramin: i wish we could have that on video. synopsis:

1) Mixed microspheres and q-cell to roughly yogurt consistency - poured into ding

2) didn't cover with cloth immediately

3) noticed little air bubbles rising

4) little air bubbles turned into massive air bubbles

5) tried to pop air bubbles with graphite from mechanical pencil

6) when we though it was done releasing air, we covered it with cloth and poured on a bunch of resin

7) turns out air was still releasing from the geyser of the ding

8) frantically tried to make a small hole with pencil through the cloth in hopes of releasing the bubbling air

9) sort of worked, just ended up pouring a shitload of resin on top and hoping for the best

Ramin: what a scene!!'
Nic: that's great -- professional ding repair!

Ramin: haha oh wow it was such a disaster

i think we used too much catalyst, right? would that cause air bubbles?

Our discussion continued further from this point, but I'll spare you the details...basically, further expert advice and analysis from me (such as graphite pencil lead is probably not the first supply found in most professional ding repair kits, etc etc)...but end result is he set out to do it and that's what he did. The real work gets started now, how much labor are you willing to put into sanding that whole mess down...but hopefully in the end it'll come out functional...not pretty...but functional. Gotta start somewhere!

And serves as a good illustration for what backyard ding repair endeavors often end up like: running around frantically trying to find something to get something done all covered in resin and junk and no idea what is going on. But in the end, it's amazing, usually things can turn out better than expected.

Moral of the story: if any of you out there have any dings you need repaired...I know a guy who's real good! :)