Invisible Surfboard Traction DIY

As much as I've loved my Starr super wide tail shortboard, I've decided to return back to a true funshape style, still a Starr 6'10" (hey, at my age, that counts as a shortboard). So, I traded it in at my favorite surf shop-TOTAL PLUG ALERT-Core Surf!

Every time I get a shortboard, I put this spray traction on the tail, since I tend to use my toes to pop

Monster Paint

up-a bad habit on a shortboard. But, I don't want to take the chance that my toes slip and I get hurt. By just putting it on the end tail, it won't rub me raw sitting on it. I just don't like traction pads in general anymore, since I like to pop up on the absolute end of the board, and the raised traction kind of throws me off. Many people also use this on their longboards on the nose area so they don't have to wax that part every time, which is also very smart. The stuff I used is called "Monster Paint". I was given a can of it about 3 years ago, and there's still a lot left, and I've sprayed a lot of boards. I haven't had to reapply it, since I typically wax over these areas anyway for extra insurance. Monster Paint is about the only brand of spray on surfboard traction I found out there, it's pretty hard to find except on Amazon (or if you get one as a gift! Yay!).

For this project, PLEASE use safety glasses and a filter mask. Tarps and painters' tape are also needed.
I set up where I wanted the traction to go, making sure I taped off the rails and even the leash plug, to avoid getting those areas roughed.

My safety equipment on my new board

The area is taped off, with tarps laid down underneath,

as well as over the deck of the board I did not want sprayed.

You don't need much of this stuff at all- make sure you do some test sprays on your tarp (mask and goggles on in a well ventilated area!!!) to clear out any gumminess. Shake the can WELL! I do a VERY light ghost pass to cover the area, then wait 15 minutes. I repeat the feather light pass again, and that's it. It will be plenty covered, trust me!

The Spirit of OutKast compels me to shake it

like a Polaroid picture

You can really see the sheen from the spray

Area with the tread/area without tread

This brand requires a full 24 hours to handle traffic, but states that it still continues to cure for a few days. You can see how if you had an expensive wood or fabric inlay board, this stuff could come in quite handy, as it doesn't cover the artwork.
I have another project for this board on deck....at the other end!

I made a brand new leash string for my

rough and ready buddy!

Sticky Fingers....and Toes

Just in time for a flat spell, my new funshape just got finished. It's a 7'0", and I'm looking forward to riding it for a long time and beating the hell out of it. Since I will take any opportunity to replace wax with traction, I got a traction pad for this one, and it was time to break out the application procedure....
Here's the traction pad- it's one of those jelly clear ones, and I think it's secretly manufactured by Dr. Scholl's for old surfers with problem feet:

I shall call you my Squishy.....

The down side of a lot of traction pads is, they usually only peel away as one piece, like one big sticker. I hate that. You should be able to apply something this size from the middle out towards the edges, to get a better adhesion and remove bubbles.
To remedy that, I gathered the traction pad, a cutting surface, my Exacto knife, a pair of tweezers, a sharpie pen and a straight edge and brought my board inside the A/C to work on it. I turned the pad over to the backside (the backing was also clear, but usually they're white or brown for some). I drew a straight line down the middle of the pad with the pen:

Mark on the BACKSIDE of the pad!!!

From there, I used my Exacto to lightly score through the backing of the pad, careful not to pierce deep into the traction pad. This will allow me to use the tweezers to peel back a little of each half, exposing just the middle line of the pad's adhesion:

Peeling back the backing 

I turned the pad over holding the folded back middle backing, and placing it square along the stringer, starting from the base of the pad up to the top middle, pressing firmly. Slowly, I peeled away each side of the backing, while pressing from the middle point outward. If you have a small rubber roller, like what's used in wallpapering, that helps to put even pressure while rolling from the middle to the edge.

Here's the pad applied, with the backing paper shown above it:

To ensure good adhesion, I'll keep the board in the air conditioning for at least 24 hours to let the adhesive cure properly before I take it out surfing.

I used this time to install my GoPro mount and tether mount, which ALSO require a full 24 hours at room temperature to cure properly:

Ahh... the feel of comfort orthotics. For my surfboard.

Simple SUP Traction Grip

I needed to replace my soft SUP paddle grip after months of wear, so since I had to refresh it anyway, I thought I'd try a different type of grip this time, just for fun.
I first measured around the shaft of the paddle to see what the width needed to be to have the traction wrap around the circumference.

Measuring the SUP paddle shaft

I got about 3 3/4" inches. I had a piece of scrap 3 mm Seadek traction I wanted to use for this. Knowing the measurement, and due to the thickness of the traction, I decided to cut the traction 4" wide (to allow for bending) and 10 1/2" long. The length was to give me a lot of slop on my grip so I could have my hand almost anywhere without being off. To get an idea of where you should place a grip, take a couple of strips of bright colored electrical tape on your paddle when you go out and move them around until you find your "zone".

Cutting a small traction rectangle

Afterwards, I peeled off the backing, affixed it to the paddle shaft where I wanted it by placing the shaft on the traction in the middle:

Ready to roll!

To adhere the grip, I used a careful "sushi-roll" technique on the corner of a table, where only the shaft would be in contact with the table.

Done!

Once completed, I can leave it as is, or I can put the soft grip layer back on, and now I'll have a back up grip underneath.
I've got some paddle wax that was given to me that is supposed to be used to wax up and form a grip on your paddle. Um, yeah. Don't be that guy.

DIY Surfboard Traction from Scraps

So, I've been cutting a HUGE traction pad for my 9'2" longboard from this SeaDek stuff made locally, normally used for tread on boats and other watercraft. It also works great for surfboard traction, and cuts and sands easy. I like it because I'm lazy about wax some days, especially on my longboards, and that always makes for some "Really, I meant to do that" maneuvers.
So, after cutting out my big traction pad, I had a bag o' scraps leftover that I just couldn't bear to throw away, plus some blue scraps leftover from another project. Some were pretty small, but the traction's not the cheapest, so I seem to find some use for them. On a side note, if you have flat bar roof racks, a long strip across makes a great grippy, cushiony pad.
So with lots of small, odd shaped scraps, I decided to make some more art on my 5'8" that can't seem to hold wax to save it's life. I was warned by the shaper that wax would have trouble sticking to the all over color on the epoxy, but found out that he was REALLY serious. I thought making some traction that was artsy fartsy might be fun and solve the problem.
At first, for this 3 mm traction, I tried using some extra heavy shape punches that you can find in the scrapbook section of most craft stores. Doesn't work. The Martha Stewart XL punch almost made it through, but didn't. So, I was forced with hand cutting a lot of pieces, which luckily, isn't too hard with 3 mm.
After cleaning my my board thoroughly, getting rid of any wax (which wasn't hard to do) I had my area mapped out- from the kick pad up to about the BAT logo:

The area I was putting the traction on

First, I printed out a couple of fish shapes in two sizes from my clip art on my computer, and cut them out.

Fish shapes

I traced these shapes (simplified a bit) onto some craft foam so my pencil would have some thickness to rest on when I used them as templates to trace the shapes onto the traction:

Cut out craft foam tracing templates

Traced shape ready to cut out from the traction

I cut out quite a few of these fish in the two different sizes, since I was aiming to cover that large area.
Next, I had some light blue scraps I wanted to make into bubbles around the fish. I did use a tool for some of the larger sized "bubbles". It's called a Rotary Cutter, and is used a lot by quilters to cut circles for applique, but also works well on this traction, which I was happy about. It's essentially a compass with a wheel blade on the outside edge to cut the circle. I didn't cut all the way through to the backing, just enough so I could peel the circles off like stickers.

Rotary cutter and circles cut in the traction

For small circles that were smaller that the rotary cutter could do, I used a plastic circle template (like you may have used in school!) to trace the other circles and hand cut them. I did manage to get my regular small hole punch to punch out really tiny dots too- I couldn't believe it actually worked!
So here's the finished traction that I will need to give at least 24 hours to cure before I can use it in the water:

Middle traction on the board completed

If I ever wanted to decorate a bathtub, I think I could do it now. Anyway, to those who say it's going to give me terrible rash when I surf, I always surf in a rashguard and boardshorts so I don't get charbroiled. Don't you???

How to Wax a Surfboard (Even if you Have Before)

Like a lot of surfers, I've waxed a surfboard or two. But, I have to admit I don't think I do the best job. I've slipped off a board a few times, and that's not including my regular wipeouts....
So, I thought it would be interesting to make a research project of waxing a surfboard, since I needed to wax up my new funshape. I went to several websites that came up on a Google search, like Instructables, Surf Science, Sharkbait, etc. to find out what they had to say. I wanted to go about this like I've never even heard of wax- starting from no knowledge- which isn't a stretch. From what I found, this is the method I thought captured the best of the advice given.
First, it seems obvious, but I removed any metal rings and bracelets I had on. Metal can scratch up a nice finish on a board without even knowing it. Also, I made sure I had a nice stable surface to work on, in and area where I could get a little wax on floor, so I set up 2 sawhorses with traction padding on the top edge as a non-slip support.

I started with a new board, but if I wanted to, I could strip all the wax off another one, and use a cleaner to take off the remainder. You can use acetone as a harsh wax leavin' remover, but if you're just rewaxing, I've used some degreaser which works well enough to remove the remaining residue:

To start, I tried to determine on this funshape the area I wanted to wax. I knew I wanted to wax all the way back to the tail, but I wasn't sure how far up I wanted to wax to the front. I wanted a continuous wax job all the way up, since I'm never consistent where I place my feet when I pop up, but I didn't want to wax all the way up since I won't be doing any noseriding....well, at least not on purpose. I ended up putting a mark with some wax about where I thought my shoulders would be when I am paddling and made that the stopping point:

From what I had read, I gathered the following types of wax, most of which I was given at the surf shop where I got the board, so luckily, this worked out.

The different types of wax I used

I'll go through each layer I used in order.

1. Basecoat

    Contrary to what I've always been told in the past, I read that cold water wax does not make the best basecoat. In fact, the founder of Sticky Bumps said that warm/tropical temperature water wax can be used successfully in all water temperatures, but cold water wax cannot, and should only be used in cold water conditions. I also found it interesting that I read that you needn't use the labeled "Basecoat" wax, that Tropical Temp wax will serve as a good basecoat, so I decided to use that. I used Sex Wax Tropical Temp 6x Extra Hard Blue Label as the basecoat.

Recommendations varied on how to apply the basecoat. There has always been the "tip to tail, rail to rail" method. From what I could gather, many just glossed over by saying that the wax should be applied in long vertical strokes down the board, then long horizontal strokes across the board, followed by random circling of the wax to fill in spots.

I read I different approach I decided to try out. Instead of long strokes, it claimed, use shorter strokes. This prevents smearing the wax due to heating the wax from the friction of a long stroke. The "tic-tac-toe" method recommends to make short strokes (I made mine about 3-4" long) in a tic-tac-toe pattern, or like a checkerboard. This prevented me from dragging the wax along for too long since I had to keep lifting the wax from the board:

Another thing I remembered was to use I light hand when applying the wax. This certainly made a difference, and made the bumps appear more quickly without as much smearing. This process did take a while, but I'm hoping that it will create a better basecoat. I used the edge of the round cake of wax, until it was blunt, then flipped it over to use the other side. I found pushing the wax away from me on strokes left better "bumps" than pulling it towards me, however, I had to be careful not to grind the scraping chunks that came off into the board and cause unevenness.

Using both edges of the cake of wax

Here is the first pass completed:

First pass of basecoat

Again, I used the same method for the second pass, being careful to try not to overlap areas I had already done, so I could fill in the empty spots:

Second pass of basecoat completed

I went back and did this a third time, this time spending a bit of extra time on the tail of the board for two reasons: first, the fabric panel made the wax pattern harder to see if I put enough on, and second, the tail is an area you want more wax than less.

Here is the third pass:

I did go over the rails a bit to give me a little grip if needed while paddling out, or if I needed to retrieve my board. One website said that the only people who need to worry about wax on their rails slowing down their board already have someone to wax their boards for them. Very true.

1st Diagonal pass of basecoat

I did the same thing going from top left to bottom right in short strokes along the board, making little "x"'s all over the board:

2nd Diagonal pass of basecoat

I did this two more times to build up this layer. Next, I followed the same short stroke concept when doing the circular part of the application, but I applied the wax in small motions like little apostrophe's all over the board. I made the first pass from the left side of the board, then went to the right side of the board and did this pattern again. I repeated that once more. While I was working, I noticed the wax cake had become quite soft in my hot little hand, so I ran it under some cool water to firm it up again to prevent smearing as much as possible.
Here is the completed basecoat layer:

Completed basecoat layer

2. Cold Water Wax Layer

    I thought this was a bit strange after I has read that cold water wax can only be used in cold conditions successfully, but since this layer will be sandwiched between two warm water layers, I thought I'd try it. The rationale, I think, is to give some separation to the layers, and lengthen the wear out period. Or it just may be a way to move cold water wax out of inventory, who knows. I used Sticky Bumps Cool in the blue wrapper.

I used the exact same method that I had used before, but since this wax could break in half, creating two rough sides, I had read this makes an excellent surface for building up bumps:

Breaking the wax in half to create a rough surface

I used the rough surface, and it worked beautifully. Since my wax passes would be hard to see , I decided to pick a section and do all passes over that section, then move on to the next, sort of like mowing the lawn:

Left side is completed cool wax layer, right side is to come.

Here is the completed cool/cold wax layer on top of the basecoat:

Cold Water layer on top of basecoat

3. Top Layer- Warm/Tropical Temperature Wax (Florida)

    At this point, I've finally gotten to the top layer, which I'm using warm water wax on for now, since we're in Florida. I used Sex Wax 5x Warm Water Wax orange label.

Using the same short stroke method as before, I put about 3 passes of this wax on, being sure to concentrate on the tail area especially.

Completed top layer

4. Single Pass with the Wax Comb

    As much as I hated to mess up my work, many sites recommended finishing up with a pass with a wax comb. Only plastic or rubber wax combs are recommended (do they make any other type?) to prevent scratching the glass. I did use long strokes for this working in the diagonal in one direction first, then the other direction diagonally, forming little diamond cuts into the wax all over the board:

After making diagonal passes with the wax comb

5. Super Duper Sticky Top Coat

    Okay, so this was another freebie from the surf shop that I was curious to try. It's marketed as super sticky, and meant to be used as as super light layer of topcoat over your regular topcoat. I had to laugh when it says in fine print "not for beginners". Excellent marketing. Since in my mind, I surf like Layne Beachley, I thought that would suffice. It's Sex Wax "Indecently Sticky" Cream grey label.

This stuff feels like it would make a great skin moisturizer. I certainly wouldn't take it with you to the beach or it'll liquefy in your pocket before you step on the sand.

I took the same light strokes as before, but only put one light layer where I think my front foot may end up, and on the tail area as well.

So that's it. Here's the waxed board completed:

All waxed up

Update:

I'm really happy with the wax job, I felt very secure paddling out (I always wear a rashguard, so belly rash isn't an issue). My feet felt very stuck to the board, even when flying through the air doing what I like to call the "D'OH! Aerial."

Here's my daily mantra these days:



DIY SUP Paddle Soft Grip

So it seems like Stand Up Paddleboarding has taken off everywhere. What used to be a lonely sport has now become quite popular and social.
If you've been SUPing a while, you have noticed that while the carbon and fiberglass paddles are nice and light, they sometimes aren't the most comfy on your hands. Instead of wearing gloves, I decided to try this little cheap hack to help instead.
Go to any hardware store that sells a pretty good selection of plumbing supplies and look for pipe insulation. It's probably a good idea to take your paddle with you for a fit check.
For me, I found some elastomeric self sealing foam insulation that works well. The foam is more like thick neoprene rather than that pool noodle type foam. My paddle shaft circumference worked with 7/8" inner diameter insulation that came in 1/2" wall thickness.

The self sealing pipe insulation for the project

Now, the thickness is 1/2", which may seem thick at first, but will certainly compress with use. The length of insulation costs about $6, but can make about 3 grips, so get 2 of your SUP friends to give you 2 bucks each and the 3 of you are set!
Before I went attaching this to my paddle, I cut a piece of bright electrical tape that I could move around on the shaft to see where I naturally hold the paddle.

Marking the grip placement

Turns out, when I paddled out to test it, my hand was about in the middle of the place where I hold the paddle normally. I took the tape off and proceeded to fit the insulation on the shaft after cutting the length I needed:

Cutting the insulation to length.

Insulation before sealing up.

As you can see, there are peel away covers on the insulation where it's split lengthwise. Carefully peel these away and press these together without catching the adhesive on the paddle shaft. It's tricky, and the seam may not be pin line straight, but just make sure it's sealed up as tight as possible.

Grip sealed up on the paddle shaft

Just to be extra sure, I wrapped some black electrical tape around the top and bottom to give it a little more security.

Completed grip on paddle.

This will be interesting to get used to, but I think it'll be more comfortable to use. So I'll give it a go tomorrow in the ocean and river, and I'll update if there's any issues.
Well, I'll update about issues with this project- any other issue I'll just have to get a tissue.

***Update***
Quick update- only got to go out to the river today due to time constraints, but I found that the seam came apart a little with some sun on it. To remedy this, I did a candy cane stripe with electrical tape around the grip, kind of like a tennis racket.

Securing with electrical tape.

The grip works great and is VERY comfortable!!! YAY!!