Grind Base - warranty voided
 

So after riding my Liquid Force PS3 Grind at the cable park for the 5th time I noticed one of my fins was "crushed" when I was packing up to head home. Then realized this morning that hitting features, even with a grind base, voids your warranty. Pretty disappointing given that it's not like I ran into the side of the jump or something and snapped my board, but rather the base failed under normal cable park use. So much for "grind base"...here's a pic.

Get some epoxy, easy fix.

My Motives hold up better than that.

Ya dude, fix it and move on. If you cared what the bottom of your board looked like, you wouldn't hit sliders...

Tape, epoxy, and sandpaper ought to fix 'er.

The warranty of any product is to guarantee the manufacturing process or quality of the product. In the case of a wakeboard they are saying that they guarantee the product will hold up under normal lake use. As soon as your board hits a rail/kicker it is impossible to say that a manufacturing defect was the cause of the problem. That's why sliding anything voids the warranty.

It's on a marketed GRIND base board.. He definitely has an argument and a point, but unfortunately in the wake industry it's okay to market things as being specific for use in a certain manner, but not have to back it up. I get it from a manufacturers standpoint, but they don't have to market things or even name features like a GRIND base, which misleads many customers. I'd be pretty upset if my grind base had worn down after 5 uses. The manufacturer needs to do a better job at managing customer expectations. Something about this year or boards as of lately from LF, been seeing GRIND base and park specific boards falling apart early and often.

They would have to charge a fortune for boards knowing everyone would want replacements. Then everyone would gripe that they were too pricey. Its a no win but I guess they expect the customer to think about things like that.

So LF can market models with a Grind Base(implying you can grind) ,yet when you grind with the board they are essentially saying the board isn't meant for grinding by voiding the warranty. Where's the logic in that? Like a mountain bike manufacturer selling "mountain bikes" and then voiding the warranty if you go off-road.

Maybe if the grind base failed, he would have a case, but it looks like the board took a blunt force shot... The base didn't give way, the core/dinky molded in fin did...

Ok...then don't market it as a GRIND board if its so out of reach....simple solution

Unfortunately there is no way for the board makers to guarantee the quality of what you are hitting. I've been riding numerous Motives at OWC for years. It seems like the quality of the obstacles has improved and my boards are holding up better, and lasting longer. My CTRL RX being the exception. The non-grind base on it wore through in almost no time.

What should they call it then?

agreed

#church

A normal board

I understand why they cant warranty them, but it does seem a bit dirty when you watch the product videos and they almost always have the pro or the reviewer say something about how with the grind base you don't have to worry and can hit anything out there and it will be fine.

For instance on the LF website for the Ps3 grind the first thing the man in the video on their web page says is "If you're looking for a great board thats going to hold up at cable parks,..." So they are directly acknowledging that is what this board is intended to do.
But then I can understand when its said, well, they dont know the quality of the obstacles and what you're hitting. True but the item description on the same web page says
"It takes a licking and keeps on ticking! This board has seen it all, and it keeps coming back for more. Our exclusive Grind base is our ace in the hole, as it protects the board from sliders, kickers, rocks, cement, docks, etc..."

Rocks?! Cement?!
it goes ahead and says it protects sliders, kickers, rocks, cement, docks, and etc. which coming from rocks who the hell even knows what etc is trees or something i guess.

There are lots of products sold for a specific purpose that do not carry warranties for that purpose: racing engines, crash helmets, brake rotors, impact sockets, parachutes, bullets, etc. All are out of controlled conditions and rely almost entirely on the environment and the user. Hitting obstacles is similar.

The up ramps are at your park for insurance reasons. If this is one of your back fins then it looks like ur destroying them by not ollieing on. Now go buy a slingshot and never worry about this again.

I would agree that a Slingshot would hold up better because it doesn't have molded fins that will get ground off very quickly. But I saw a Slingshot snapped in half at the cable this week (actually the 2nd I've seen), and their warranty is also voided by obstacles.