Without launching the boat to be sure that the board is going up and down smoothly, there's no way to tell whether the board is moving freely or not. I jammed my board in the trunk once by grounding on mud and shells. It stayed good and stuck and I had to abandon a sailing trip. Determined that it would never happen again, I drilled a hole in the trunk in the cabin and installed a $3.00 waterproof drainplug. If the board ever jammed again, I could remove the drainplug, drive the board down with a piece of aluminum rod, and screw the plug back in. John