For people staying more than 2 weeks, buying a second hand surfboard can be considered as you have enough time to look for the perfect gem, but also you have time to sell it back before the end of your trip.
Where ?
In Kuta, between Poppies and Benesari, plenty of small shops selling second hands, where you can find good bargains. However keep in mind the guy in front of you is often better than you at bargaining 😊
Few options as well in Canggu Berawa and on the Bukit, on jl Labuan Sait.
Price ?
Depending on what you are looking for you will get a local board for 150 USD, probably around 200 USD for a famous brand in decent condition.
What do you get ?
Even if it getting better nowadays, there are few things you need to know about Bali boards.
- Wages are lower than Australia, Europe or USA, so of course local brands are cheaper and repair costs as well.
BUT
- The quality of foam has the reputation to be less good than in the main
- Same comment comes back also for glassing quality
- Shaping is not necessarily a passion but just a way to make a living, therefore some shapers will not put the same passion and enthusiasm as your local shaper
- The notion of quality is not really following the Western standards
- The repair shops are very clever to hide damages, be careful
Tips
- Repair shops are really good at fixing broken, buckled and even snapped board. An innocent eye would not notice the board has been snapped. The expert would question the recent spray. A Channel islands, a Js, a Pyzel… with spray on it ? be careful. Most of the time it’s just for hiding.
See below a typical exemple of broken board scam :
A broken board sold on facebook,
2 days after the same board sold by another person with a nice spray, smartly positioned to hide the buckled stringer.
And when you ask the seller if the board has been snapped, the answer is “no”.
At rentasurfboard.com, we do not rent out broken boards, if a board is broken, we take it out immediately from the quiver.
