Salsa Reviews the Sharp Eye Infernal 72

[ehiunno]

Yeah it's nuts. I'm fairly certain it happened on a duck dive where I felt my fins drag in the sand. I kept surfing and didn't notice until I got home and went to take my fins out and noticed half the box had separated from the glass and the fin was bent outward. It's funny because I was having kind of a bad session but I just figured I was having an off day lol

Not sure whether to chalk it up to bad luck or a bad glass job. I've had this happen to me on other fcs2 boards but never futures, always in the same shallow beachies

 

[ehiunno]

Well, I finished the finbox repair on my I72

One thing I had noticed early on with this board was that if I sanded any part of it it seemed impossible to blend it back in with the surrounding area just by sanding. Even after thorough 400grit wet sanding, the rest of the board was just way too shiny. Then I realized, duh, the board must have been sprayed with a clear coat of some kind after being glassed. It makes sense, it's black board and the black doesn't really "pop" after a 400grit wetsand, but it looks gorgeous under the clear coat.

On the other hand, the clear coat is going to cover up any sand throughs. So while trying to blend the fin box back into the bottom of the board I said fuck it and gave the whole bottom a quick sand with 320grit to remove the clear coat and you will probably not be surprised to learn what I found (this is not the repaired box)


That's just one example... it seems like the clear coat hid a bunch of sand throughs on this board. I'm guessing this glass job has always had the integrity of a pro-glassed 90s CI elf shoe

Yesterday I was at the beach and from a distance I noticed another duu with a black PU/PE I72... it had a full width buckle repair right around the mid point. At first I was willing to chalk my troubles up to bad luck. But there was the other person on here that also broke the nose off off theirs, then this dudes buckle, and I'm starting to notice a trend.

Someone on here said something like "I went from seeing no sharpeyes locally to every shop having racks of them overnight after SITD came out and I'm guessing QC is going to suffer" and it seems they pretty much nailed it. I know black boards are harder to sand, but this is unacceptable. I really wanted to like this board. I love how it has such a wide range I don't have to think so much about what board to bring to the beach. But now I feel like it's just a ticking time bomb of ding repairs and I should probably move on from it before I lose any more of my free time to fixing it. I'm half tempted to try to order another one from XTR, but this whole experience has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I'm not very keen on supporting Sharpeye after this.

 

[Mr J]

Well, I finished the finbox repair on my I72

One thing I had noticed early on with this board was that if I sanded any part of it it seemed impossible to blend it back in with the surrounding area just by sanding. Even after thorough 400grit wet sanding, the rest of the board was just way too shiny. Then I realized, duh, the board must have been sprayed with a clear coat of some kind after being glassed. It makes sense, it's black board and the black doesn't really "pop" after a 400grit wetsand, but it looks gorgeous under the clear coat.

On the other hand, the clear coat is going to cover up any sand throughs. So while trying to blend the fin box back into the bottom of the board I said fook it and gave the whole bottom a quick sand with 320grit to remove the clear coat and you will probably not be surprised to learn what I found (this is not the repaired box)
View attachment 117187

That's just one example... it seems like the clear coat hid a bunch of sand throughs on this board. I'm guessing this glass job has always had the integrity of a pro-glassed 90s CI elf shoe

Yesterday I was at the beach and from a distance I noticed another duu with a black PU/PE I72... it had a full width buckle repair right around the mid point. At first I was willing to chalk my troubles up to bad luck. But there was the other person on here that also broke the nose off off theirs, then this dudes buckle, and I'm starting to notice a trend.

Someone on here said something like "I went from seeing no sharpeyes locally to every shop having racks of them overnight after SITD came out and I'm guessing QC is going to suffer" and it seems they pretty much nailed it. I know black boards are harder to sand, but this is unacceptable. I really wanted to like this board. I love how it has such a wide range I don't have to think so much about what board to bring to the beach. But now I feel like it's just a ticking time bomb of ding repairs and I should probably move on from it before I lose any more of my free time to fixing it. I'm half tempted to try to order another one from XTR, but this whole experience has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I'm not very keen on supporting Sharpeye after this.

That's probably a "burn through". This is the mishap terminology that has been explained to me by an industry pro:

1. "Sand through" - sander gone straight thru the filler coat, straight thru the glass lam and into the foam. This requires a repair with a patch of glass, then more filler coat and then a touch up sand. If the disc didn't bite too deep into the foam, properly patched up the board will leave the factory with barely a blemish and the new owner will not notice. This is not uncommon.

I suppose there is another type of sand through - gone straight through one layer of glass and just touching the next layer on a multi layer region such as lap or fin patch. It does not look like that has happened in the photograph. Who knows what was going on with the box that got ripped out.

2. "Burn through" - sander gone through the filler coat and just touching or partially through the glass lam. As you noted acrylic clear coat covers these up. If the sander has just touched the glass on say a lap or a fin patch - most likely the situation in your case, then it will be fine. (fin boxes go in with an extra patch).

On the other hand if it has gone most of the way through say a single layer of glass then gets covered up with clear coat then it is worse than a repaired sand through.

3. "Rub through" - only applicable to glossed boards. Polisher has gone through the gloss coat and into the filler coat.

You could carefully press the burn through with you thumb, if it feels reasonably solid then its almost certainly ok. One problem with burn throughs is that if it exposes tiny holes in a dry lam then the board will take on small amounts of water and yellow if PU. In the double layer of a fin patch that's probably not going to happen. Fin boxes need a fair bit of attention when glassing to get out the air bubbles so it has probably been decently wetted with resin.

There are a number of boards leaving factories with no sand throughs, no burn throughs but have pinholes. If the acrylic coat didn't fill them then foam will also yellow.

 

[GromsDad]

There has been an Inferno 72 in our house for a couple of weeks now. The board isn't a dog but my son doesn't care for it and is grabbing other boards to ride when he goes for a surf. Other models like the #77, SB1 and HT2 have worked far better for him.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Well, I finished the finbox repair on my I72

bunch of NY and EC buddies been riding sharpeyes since the early 00s, they may have only appeared on the racks and ridden by the masses in your area but they've been around for quite some time out that way.

 

[000]

is it ok to watch noels videos without first grabbing your favorite drink?

 

[ehiunno]

@Mr J thanks for the insight. I did indeed mean "burn through" in your language rather than "sand through". My understanding which has mostly been gathered from others' experience is that burn throughs were a sign of a poor glass job, but I am not in the industry.

@LifeOnMars I was quoting another poster. For sure sharpeye have been around a long time, but it's hard to deny they exploded in popularity and availability rather quickly in the last year.

 

[Waterlogged05]

Speaking of sharpeye, saw Jack Robinson killing it on one recently, then saw him on a lost killing it. I kinda like having a pro without a consistent board maker for more than 15 minutes.

 

[JonnyAvenues]

is it ok to watch noels videos without first grabbing your favorite drink?

Typically need my favorite drink to deal with the music

 

[smithgrind]

Yeah it's nuts. I'm fairly certain it happened on a duck dive where I felt my fins drag in the sand. I kept surfing and didn't notice until I got home and went to take my fins out and noticed half the box had separated from the glass and the fin was bent outward. It's funny because I was having kind of a bad session but I just figured I was having an off day lol

Not sure whether to chalk it up to bad luck or a bad glass job. I've had this happen to me on other fcs2 boards but never futures, always in the same shallow beachies

I got bounced off the bottom on a duck dive last weekend. Paddled back out to the
line up and thought a check in with the board was due. Fin and box were at a 45 degree
angle to the bottom. Session was over in 30 minutes and I paddled back in. By the time I
negotiated my way through the shore pound and stood up in waist high water the fin and box were gone. Almost all of my boards are FCS, not sure it would’ve made a difference in
this case.

 

[GromsDad]

bunch of NY and EC buddies been riding sharpeyes since the early 00s, they may have only appeared on the racks and ridden by the masses in your area but they've been around for quite some time out that way.

Yep. Guys around here have been riding Sharpeye boards for at least 20 years. Dean Randazzo was riding them on the world tour in the late 90s or early 2000s.

 

[casa_mugrienta]

I’ve had a lot of SharpEyes and the glasswork has always been some of the best in the biz.

 

[Waterlogged05]

is it ok to watch noels videos without first grabbing your favorite drink?

the worst part is I did go grab a drink. I needed a cold one to make it through the wicked jams.

 

[Waterlogged05]

Can confirm I have a sharpeye that is beat to hell but it really only has pressures, no cracks or holes.
I wonder if the black coat w the sanding messed them up, along with an unexpected stab in the dark win on top of an already popping board market.

 

[Aruka]

Black paint underneath makes the weave stand out more than it would on a white or light colored board.

My recently acquired #77 in PU seems to be finely built but I've only ridden it a couple times and I had them do 4+4x4+4 layup.

 

[ehiunno]

I got bounced off the bottom on a duck dive last weekend. Paddled back out to the
line up and thought a check in with the board was due. Fin and box were at a 45 degree
angle to the bottom. Session was over in 30 minutes and I paddled back in. By the time I
negotiated my way through the shore pound and stood up in waist high water the fin and box were gone. Almost all of my boards are FCS, not sure it would’ve made a difference in
this case.

I should probably clarify that my only other FCS boards are backyard shapes from a local friend with pretty sus glass jobs lol

In general, those are the only other boards I have that ding as easily as this particular sharpeye

I'm not trying to say sharpeye is not a good or important shaper, I'm just saying there seems to be evidence accumulating that this particular batch of boards might have some structural issues and I think it's easy to understand why

 

[Waterlogged05]

 

[tedshred]

I should probably clarify that my only other FCS boards are backyard shapes from a local friend with pretty sus glass jobs lol

In general, those are the only other boards I have that ding as easily as this particular sharpeye

I'm not trying to say sharpeye is not a good or important shaper, I'm just saying there seems to be evidence accumulating that this particular batch of boards might have some structural issues and I think it's easy to understand why

Mine is not black and pretty sure nose could have snapped on any board given a 5' double up in 2' of water landed on it

 

[Mr J]

@Mr J thanks for the insight. I did indeed mean "burn through" in your language rather than "sand through". My understanding which has mostly been gathered from others' experience is that burn throughs were a sign of a poor glass job, but I am not in the industry.

...

@Mr J thanks for the insight. I did indeed mean "burn through" in your language rather than "sand through". My understanding which has mostly been gathered from others' experience is that burn throughs were a sign of a poor glass job, but I am not in the industry.
... .

No worries, you said there were a number of burn throughs, were they all in the lap area or were there some in other places? Yes burn throughs on the underneath can be avoided. The process I have been shown is after the deck glass goes on paint a little filler resin on the lap edges and fin patches. This procedure sometimes called "basting".

Then with the sander flatten down the edge of the lap and fin patches - technically this will burn through the baste coat just on the edges of the laps/patches, but with them flattened when the full filler coat goes on it means there will be nothing sticking up to get burnt through in the final sand. The baste coat also adds a little extra thickness of filler coat which makes server burn throughs/sand throughs less likely on the final sand.

I think acrylic clear coat is the best practical finish. Its light in weight and at least it gives incentive for the glasser and sander to do a good job with minimal burn throughs because it won't be capable of covering up the more severe mishaps.

Sanded gloss is more likely to cover up severe burn throughs and it is heavier. On a light burn through it can add just a touch of strength because it puts the fibres that are on the surface into the "matrix".

Years ago when polished gloss was standard, it was common to not do the lap and glass on fin baste. Instead stick the filler coat straight on. Sand it with burn throughs, then cover up with the gloss coat.

Even with the modern no gloss approach there is more than one way of doing things - eg. put fin patches underneath the hull glass and no baste.

 

[ehiunno]

No worries, you said there were a number of burn throughs, were they all in the lap area or were there some in other places? Yes burn throughs on the underneath can be avoided. The process I have been shown is after the deck glass goes on paint a little filler resin on the lap edges and fin patches. This procedure sometimes called "basting".

Then with the sander flatten down the edge of the lap and fin patches - technically this will burn through the baste coat just on the edges of the laps/patches, but with them flattened when the full filler coat goes on it means there will be nothing sticking up to get burnt through in the final sand. The baste coat also adds a little extra thickness of filler coat which makes server burn throughs/sand throughs less likely on the final sand.

I think acrylic clear coat is the best practical finish. Its light in weight and at least it gives incentive for the glasser and sander to do a good job with minimal burn throughs because it won't be capable of covering up the more severe mishaps.

Sanded gloss is more likely to cover up severe burn throughs and it is heavier. On a light burn through it can add just a touch of strength because it puts the fibres that are on the surface into the "matrix".

Years ago when polished gloss was standard, it was common to not do the lap and glass on fin baste. Instead stick the filler coat straight on. Sand it with burn throughs, then cover up with the gloss coat.

Even with the modern no gloss approach there is more than one way of doing things - eg. put fin patches underneath the hull glass and no baste.

Thanks again for the insight Mr J. They are kind of scattered, eg on the double concave hump on the bottom, on the deck near the nose.

It is certainly possible these have nothing to do with my issues and I have just been unlucky. As a psuedo-statistician I should know that n=3 is not a sufficient sample size to draw a conclusion from, but it has been a frustrating experience no doubt. I'm happy that most other people have not had any issues with Sharpeye's glass work!

Interesting comment about "basting". I do something like this on ding repairs where the new and old glass overlaps to try to get the transition as flat as possible, but I haven't seen people do it in online tutorials