Hey, I might be purchasing a used surfboard tonight or tomorrow. It's a 6'10" Seven-S board. I'm gonna look it over before I make the purchase, of course, but what should I look for? I haven't bought a used board before so I don't know what to look out for. I'm only paying $150 for it, so I dont expect it to be in perfect condition, but what should I look for to make sure I'm not getting ripped off. Thanks!
Look for any cracks/dings....yellowish color....delam. Lots of people cover up dings with wax or stickers. Make sure to remove the wax and stickers before you check the board out. Also check out the fin system. make sure screws are not stripped out. hope that helps good luck
Thanks. One of the boards I was looking at has a bit of yellowish color and one unsealed crack, along with a couple sealed ones. What does the yellowish color indicate?
In some cases it might mean some water got in an made the foam damp. You would normally see the ding, even if its been fixed. A faint yellow spread out over a large area with no dings is probably UV deterioration to the glass or foam - old sunburnt boards are common, and back in "the day" a lot of cheaper boat resin was used to glass boards. its fine just ugly. squeeze these areas and see if the glass is still bonded to the foam, if it flexes up and down easily, the board is delaminated and wont last much longer under normal use. Remember, your paying a buck fifty for a surfboard, if you like the way it rides and get another year or two out of it, you did fine. Bonus - the board is already sufficiently crappy that you can learn ding repairs on it.
