is my board damaged?

[hunter]

I was pulling my burton ultra prime out of summer storage, and I noticed two hairline cracks in the top sheet. They don't appear to go deeper than the glossy top layer. As far as I can tell, they were caused by one of the screws on my binding that pushed on the topsheet. Is this damage going to affect the board in any serious way, or is it just cosmetic damage?

[Chris Houghton]

Hard to say at this remote location without a picture, but fix the problem that caused the screw to hit the topsheet (grind some off of the length) and then just keep an eye on the crack. Worst case? Water gets in the crack, freezes and splits the crack open even wider. Maybe a bit of epoxy to seal the crack from possible water entry would not be a bad idea. Maybe clear nail polish even. Just keep an eye on it.

[Matt D]

Burtons, especially of the 00-02 vintage were wll known to have an easily cracking top coat on them. The damage is purely cosmetic.

[Randy S.]

I had a Factory Prime from the late 90's that had tons of hairline cracks in the clearcoat near the nose. It didn't seem to affect the ride of the board. My O-Sin 4807 has some similar cracks (these go longituninally, not laterally). Of note: I've never put a crack in any of my Donek boards. And the new topsheet material on the Doneks is nice.

[ARCrider]

Cracks in my ultra-prime after first year. Complained to shop. Response from Burton "just cosmetic". I still ride it occasionally and lend it out. Still works great.

[Todd Stewart]

Trust me, it's not cosmetic. Burton will say it is, but its not. The same thing happened to my ultra prime couple years back, it started out just on the top sheet then went all the way into the core. The board is now just a glossy piece of firewood. My advice is to dump it as soon as possible and get a new ride.

[cmc]

might as well put garbage where garbage belongs...in the dumpster..:D

[hunter]

Thanks for all your help. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.