I've just noticed that both my naish and fanatic boards have a matt finish on the bottom, and the rails and top of the fanatic is nice and polished. Any idea why this is?

Cheers
Chris

What DJ said: two reasons, one cosmetic, one performance. Little scuffs aren't as visible, and water releases faster. Think of a shiny surface versus a Matt surface - water beads on a shiny surface, I.e. It sticks to it. In reality : it's all Cosmetic! Scratches aren't as obvious. That's all.

Call me cynical but I doubt SUPs made for the masses will matt finish them on the underside for performance....will be more economic or to hide scratches etc.

So if a matt finish makes a performance difference...and I've read and seen a lot of stuff about how that's supposed to work...how come no-one puts a matt finish on paddles?

Abdillam said..

Is the paddle supposed to stay pretty much in the one spot and you move your body and board forward of that... Didn't think you would want the paddle to be too slippery....

Cheers

...granted...although I can't see it making much difference during power phases when the blade is mostly upright and perpendicular to the direction of travel...but we also want a fast release and recovery at the end of a stroke..and a slipperier blade face (when it's not feathered and coming out of the water) would help with that? Would the same go for entry and catch? Just thinking out loud really, thought I'd put it out there.

HumanCartoon said..
So if a matt finish makes a performance difference...and I've read and seen a lot of stuff about how that's supposed to work...how come no-one puts a matt finish on paddles?

Because you'll always go for the nice shiny new one that's hanging up in the shop...it would be a brave manufacturer to go with a dull, matt finish and hang their paddles up next to the shiny ones...
BTW Stu...did you pack some of that nice Qld sunshine for our downwinder tomorrow?

emw said..

In fact they do!! QB make the Magic paddle which has dimples on the inside face for this purpose. "dimples on the inside face aerates and reduces friction in and out of the water during critical phases of stroke for adding speed and reducing seconds off of your time"

www.quickbladepaddles.com/store/Kanaha-Magic-All-Carbon

Ahh well there you go. Thank you for that.

Cheers Ozzie

Basically all the reasons DJ listed.
The point with price isn't just the polishing it is an extra couple of processes and a lot more time to achieve a gloss finish.

Any dimples in a paddle blade would only be any benefit in the catch and the release phase of the stroke as during the rest of it the blade should be reasonably static in the water. I see no real benefit.

BrisKites said..
Basically all the reasons DJ listed. The point with price isn't just the polishing it is an extra couple of processes and a lot more time to achieve a gloss finish. Any dimples in a paddle blade would only be any benefit in the catch and the release phase of the stroke as during the rest of it the blade should be reasonably static in the water. I see no real benefit.

How did you arrive at this conclusion? Water either flows around an object in a laminar or turbulent fashion and this will vary whether the object itself is stationary or in a dynamic state. In simple terms the type of flow will be defined by velocity. I am not aware of the QB water test results but I would not discount any potential benefits.

Cheers Ozzie

HumanCartoon said..

So if a matt finish makes a performance difference...and I've read and seen a lot of stuff about how that's supposed to work...how come no-one puts a matt finish on paddles?

Excellent point!

Getting back to boards and a matte finish, I asked Jacko why they use matte finish like on my Fanatic Prowave and he reckons it's to prevent the water from beading which is what happens on a gloss finish creating drag.

Basically, there are two factors that induce drag in the water:
- form drag: this is why a boards moves easier to the front than to the sides
- surface friction: studies show that too smooth surfaces "cling" to the water and induce more drag than matte finishes. You can find more info there: www.boardlady.com/fast.htm www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=7044.0

Note reducing the surface friction is important for the paddles, too, otherwise you will lose energy on entry/release. This is not at play for "anchoring" the paddle, as the form drag there is so high that the paddle doesnt move a lot and friction drag is thus negligible.

I personally sand the hull & rails of my sailboards and SUPs if I see water "beading" on them. The effect is quite noticeable on sailboards, and I found that it helped in SUP when trying to gather as much speed as possible, when pumping to race sections, or on the high line. Sanding fins should help too, for a better flow around the fin and delaying spinouts.