Deck pad

[pafoil]

For a sup board or light wind a recommend the RSpro hexatraction. The board feels a lot lighter as it’s not taking water. You are in direct contact with the board, as there is no padding. Some people like the last part other not so much.

[jondrums]

Board came out great, first morning on it today.  The RSPro cork feels amazing, I love it.  But it already started peeling up - I cleaned the board with alcohol before applying, weird huh?

[PonoBill]

Looks beautiful. Let it dry and put a little weight on it. the RSPRO glue seems to kind of heal itself. I had one tile that lifted in a corner. I let it air dry and put a 20 pound hand weight on it with the board in the sun. All better.

[Califoilia]

Great looking board! But what's up with that paddle blade?

[PonoBill]

Great looking board! But what's up with that paddle blade?

Looks like foil munches.

[jondrums]

yes, I keep nailing the leading edge of the foil while paddle-pumping.  Starts with cracking and eventually progresses to part of the paddle breaking off. 

Although I recently discovered that I am much more successful if I hold my paddle shaft in one hand and swing my arms like prone pumping.  Putting the paddle in the water really helps recover when I'm about to fall off foil, but with better pumping form I'm not at risk of falling off foil as much. 

[PonoBill]

You're doing well to just be taking bits of the tip off. If you dig deep with a long shaft and a wide wing the foil will take off the blade like it was on a twig.

[Vancouver_foiler]

I've got an extra paddle blade if you want me to send it down to ya Jon! Dangerous paddle blade there lol

[PonoBill]

You can certainly trim that blade, or build it back up with fiberglass and sand it smooth. That looks like a Ke Nalu blade (I'm intimately familiar with those) and the foam core doesn't start for about another half-inch, so you can feel fairly safe trimming and sanding. If you do hit foam (you won't) you can dig the foam out about half an inch deep, fill the gap with epoxy and clamp it with waxed paper around the end. I've done this a few times fixing friends' disasters.

[jondrums]

color me surprised!  the cork deck pads DID self heal.  I just pressed them back down and left them in a warm place for a day and they survived the next session, so I think I'm good.

I will say that I'm not happy with the wide flat tail.  The board wants to stick to the water badly.  Still need to experiment with mast plate shim to see if that helps, but a few sessions in I'm already thinking I need to take a saw to the tail and cut some foam away and reglass. 

[Dwight (DW)]

Too much straight is behind the mast. Tons of flat holding it down, stuck to the water. Look at all the flat tails. Tracks are way back.  You can’t pump your board. You can only slide it up to speed.

Kalama has his track way forward, but, so much area is cut way making the big V, it will still pump.

[PonoBill]

Yeah, that RSPRO adhesive is some kind of magic. I've used the same piece of RSPRO rail tape on multiple boards. In fact, most of the boards I currently have are using rail tape that was previously on something else. I think the stuff on the deck pads is the same magic adhesive.

When I've stripped it off to put it on a new board I always get fingerprints and sections that won't stay down. I don't even really need weight to get it to stick, just taping it down temporarily is enough, but weight and sun makes it happen faster.

The Bullet 17 V2 in this pic has rail tape that has been on three different boards. the Ku Nalu on the top has rail tape from a Foote board I broke in half at Kanaha. The stuff is initially expensive but it gets downright cheap when you use it for decades.  Yeah, I pay retail, generally from NSI. I know Carles Carrera from the early days of the zone, but I've never asked him for a thing--I'm too fucking lazy for that. Every board in this picture has RSPRO on it but the yellow Footie on the bottom. Even the OC1 in the background has RSPRO on it. When you find something that good, you stick with it.

[Dontsink]

I will say that I'm not happy with the wide flat tail.  The board wants to stick to the water badly.  Still need to experiment with mast plate shim to see if that helps, but a few sessions in I'm already thinking I need to take a saw to the tail and cut some foam away and reglass.

What DW said is golden advice.

When i added an EVA foam "flat tail" to my Indiana 105l SUP it became amost impossible to pump.I have cut the sides of the foam,about 1/4 of the width on each side.Much better.

If you like your mast forward to have minimum swing inertia you can do steps on the sides, a kalama V etc...whatever maintains a good release&maximum waterline but makes the tail more sinkable.
North boards have steps,Armstrong mixes a bit of rocker with reverse bevel (on top).So many options .

[pafoil]

This works for me. My only sup these days. 6,2 by 23,5

[Califoilia]

I will say that I'm not happy with the wide flat tail.  The board wants to stick to the water badly.  Still need to experiment with mast plate shim to see if that helps, but a few sessions in I'm already thinking I need to take a saw to the tail and cut some foam away and reglass.

What DW said is golden advice.

When i added an EVA foam "flat tail" to my Indiana 105l SUP it became amost impossible to pump.I have cut the sides of the foam,about 1/4 of the width on each side.Much better.

If you like your mast forward to have minimum swing inertia you can do steps on the sides, a kalama V etc...whatever maintains a good release&maximum waterline but makes the tail more sinkable.
North boards have steps,Armstrong mixes a bit of rocker with reverse bevel (on top).So many options .

Yes, I had to go from this....

...to this...


...to break the adhesion of the flat tail's bottom off the water if I wanted the mast far enough forward to surf with vs winging.