How to Stand Up Paddle Surf

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Bill’s New Paddle Edging How-to!

Posted on | January 3, 2009 |

Once again, this is from Bill at Ke Nalu, and it’s as awesome a post as yesterday’s installment from him.  This one shows a new twist on paddle edging.  I like it.  And I will do it.  As soon as I find some hockey tape.

The Blade: There are three good reasons for guarding the blade. First, people have been badly cut with unguarded blades. Second, the blade can chip up your board. And third, the blade can be damaged by hitting it’s edge on hard stuff.   

Door edging or commercial blade guard works nicely, but it’s a bit thick for my taste. Mastic tape is good, but it’s fragile, especially if you stretch it thin. What I do is put on a layer of mastic, stretched very tight to make it thin, and then cover it with hockey tape. Finally I add a layer of wax to protect the tape and rub it with a cloth to smooth it. You’d be surprised at the difference in abrasion resistance between waxed and unwaxed fabric tape. The end result is a thin protective edging that won’t mark your board, lasts a very long time, and looks great.

Prepping a Paddle | Ke Nalu

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Category: Gear

Comments

2 Responses to “Bill’s New Paddle Edging How-to!”

  1. Albertkarel
    January 16th, 2009 @ 2:18 am

    Very nice, but I don’t know what “Mastic” is. Any clarification would be appreciated. Thanks.

  2. admin
    January 16th, 2009 @ 11:39 am

    Sure: it’s a thick electrician’s tape made by 3M, among others. You can buy it at the big-box hardware stores if you live in the U.S. — it’s not in the tape section but in the electrical section. You can ask a sales guy about it but I’ve found that they often have no idea what it is or where it’s located. So if the shrug, don’t give up. To learn more, Google “mastic tape” and I think you’ll find lots more about the stuff.

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