Guides
Everything worth knowing before you hand a stranger four hundred dollars for a board. Written for someone standing on a footpath in Canggu with ten minutes and no idea what they are looking at.
How to check a used surfboard before you buy it
A 10-minute inspection that finds the problems worth walking away from: water in the foam, delamination, buckles, and repairs that were done badly.
How much volume do you actually need
Litres per kilogram by ability, why the number changes with the shape, and how to use volume to filter a used-board search instead of guessing at lengths.
Your first board: longboard, shortboard, or neither
The question is usually asked as a choice between two boards, and the honest answer is normally a third one. What actually separates them, and which used boards are worth looking at first.
What a used board costs in Bali
The bands a second hand board actually sells in here, what moves a price inside a band, and when buying new is the cheaper answer after all.
How a used board sale goes wrong
Deposits before a meeting, photographs that belong to somebody else, a volume nobody read off the board, and boards that were not the seller's to sell. The patterns, and the one habit that defeats all of them.
Spotting delamination on a used board
Delamination is the fibreglass separating from the foam underneath. Here is how to find it with your thumb, how bad each kind is, and what it should cost you.
FCS, FCS II and Futures: which fins fit which board
The three fin systems you will meet on a used board in Bali, how to tell them apart at a glance, and which of your existing fins will fit.
Looking after a board in the tropics
Heat does more damage to a surfboard here than surfing does. What the sun, the salt and a hot car actually do to a board, and the small habits that decide what it is worth in three months.
What a repaired ding does to resale price
How much repairs actually take off a used surfboard in Bali, which ones buyers forgive, and which ones halve the price.
Selling a used board so it actually sells
The four things that decide whether a listing gets answered: the volume, the photographs, an honest account of the damage, and a price you worked out rather than hoped for.
Flying home with a board you bought in Bali
Airline board fees out of Denpasar, what a board bag has to survive, and when selling the board is cheaper than flying it.
There is also a volume calculator, which answers the one question everyone asks first.