Hi,
The surface of my 14ft board has a slightly rough texture. Not sure how much difference it'll make but there has to be something light out there that I can coat the surface in for a bit extra glide. Any ideas?
Cheers
Ben
A little bit of roughness is actually faster. Not a huge difference, but smoother is not likely to help your glide.
If you google surf board polish there's a few products around that will shine it up with the theory that if water beads off the board it reduces the friction and you go faster. But there's also a theory that rough is faster, sharks have been testing this one for about 400 million years and the yanks paint there fighter jets rough now. Maybe you could test it by leaving the port half rough and polishing the starboard half and see which way the board pulls.
For many years elite kayakers and canoeists have sanded their hulls with wet and dry to make a mat surface. The thinking is that having a surface that the water hangs onto creates way less friction. This is largely due to water moving over water creates less friction than water over wax or other water repellent surfaces. It was highlighted publicly after the Americas Cup was held in Freo many years ago when some of the boats (including the winning US boat) laid sheets of rough/scaled skins over their hulls to create more speed much like a fish or shark has textured or rough skin. I would however imagine with something like a SUP where the speeds are very low compared even to sprint/marathon kayaks that the gains or losses would be very marginal to non existent.
Drop by mate i have the 17/10 to do that's two of them , cut and polish i have the gear
