How to Repair an SST

medium8080 · Faceplant Joined: 27 Aug 2009 Posts: 9

As many of you already know, the 08 SST wakeskates break. I love the way my 08 Reed SST rides, but Liquid Force really screwed a lot of people with this board. They knew they had a design problem with it, which is why the wood deck only had a 90 day warranty, but the top deck had a 1 year warranty. And of course LF refused to sell replacement bottom decks... OK, enough ranting.

I don't typically do write ups like this, but I was pretty stoked how this turned out, so I thought I'd share.

The main problem was that Liquid Force did a HORRIBLE job at sealing the bottom wood deck, causing it to break down. On a wake to wake jump, I shot the board into the water which created too much pressure between the top and bottom deck to withstand. So the washers basically ripped through my wood deck.

The first step was to clean up all the ripped layers of wood. I did this by using a rotary tool and a small saw. Once i did that I got some 2 part Gorilla Glue gobbed it in there and clamped it all up using a bunch of C clamps and some pieces of flat steel.

Once that was done, I got some fiber glass materials and went to town. I first glassed the top and over the edges. After that I glassed two 2" strips over the original washers, in place, to reinforce them into the board, and then I glassed over the entire bottom and over the edges.

I had a lot of high and low spots from my resin, so I had to break out the sander and get the bottom as smooth as possible. Once everything was cleaned up and my rails looked good, I used a 2 part UV stable epoxy material, on the bottom and sides, that dries super flat and shiny. For hardware I got some longer stainless screws and larger washers to help sandwich the bottom wood deck to the top deck. I wasn't stoked on having my hardware stick out, but this was the strongest way I could figure out how to do it, and I don't think it will drastically change the way water flows under the board.

In the end it cost me almost $100 in materials and I added 1.5 lbs of weight to it. Hopefully it doesn't ride too differently. I will find out tomorrow.
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SwissArmyKnife · Pop Shuvit Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 152 City: PawPaw

wouldn't a 42" flat deck and a drill work? but you gotta love rebuilding something that was once broken at the same time.

sparrow.2 · Posted: Aug 27, 2009 5:27 pm Post subject:

http://www.wakeskating.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27019&highlight=fiberglass

We think alike Very Happy

Solid as a tank now! I used a dremel to sink the washers and it has held up well!

It didn't really add that much weight to mine considering it was always water-logged anyway Laughing

medium8080 · Faceplant Joined: 27 Aug 2009 Posts: 9

Just bolting up another wood deck to the bottom wasn't really an option. I wanted to keep the same shape and rocker, otherwise the board would ride totally different.

medium8080 · Faceplant Joined: 27 Aug 2009 Posts: 9

yeah, I saw that sparrow. Very nice work.

I figured out how I was going to fix my deck and then came across your thread and was like, damn that guy already did what I want to do, except he was smart enough to do it before the board broke.

The fiberglass and resin didn't add very much noticeable weight. It was the 2 part epoxy coat on the bottom that really weighed it down. I figure if it rides like crap, then I will sand it down to try and thin it out and cut weight.