I put my board on the roof racks top facing down and the bottom facing towards the sky. I've seen the other way heaps of times. What's the go? What am I missing???

TalkToMe said..

I put my board on the roof racks top facing down and the bottom facing towards the sky. I've seen the other way heaps of times. What's the go? What am I missing???

Nothing!

roscoe1974 said..
I've always had the opinion that a SUP or surfboard etc. placed bottom-down would create more 'lift' than top-down does (ie. the rocker line creates a larger presentable surface to the airflow from forward movement). Always have mine upside down, with the fins to the front, and in 22yrs+ of various types of board on the roof, have never had an issue with boards coming off nor damage to racks, car or boards themselves

Yeah, I've always done the same with my shortboard surfboards too (bottom facing up) but with the fins at the back. I understand there is a school of thought that fins at the front would prevent the board from sliding out under the straps but have just stayed with the fins at the back. I guess it looks better too, LOL.

My style above has worked so far, touch wood. That said, back in about '93 or so my mates were doing about 80km/h (the speed limit) on our way to the beach when one of the roller roof rack brackets snapped. I'll never forget that sound nor the image when we turned around in our seats to see of all our boards in mid-flight.

Luckily there weren't any cars behind us but the carnage of the boards was brutal. Deadset, my 3 day old Byrne copped it in a bad way by landing on a paddock fence post. I hadn't even surfed it yet.

As a result of the smashed rail, I had to sit out that surf session. And to make the day even worse, the surf was bloody cranking too.

TalkToMe said..

I put my board on the roof racks top facing down and the bottom facing towards the sky. I've seen the other way heaps of times. What's the go? What am I missing???

Yeh I'm one of those few people that go against the norm and place my board deck up, tail forward. Now I know this looks a little abnormal, but I have some rational thinking behind this . By the way I usually travel this way on short distances and prefer the conventional way on longer distances with board cover. I have always been a trend setter so I expect this will take off.
Here's my reasoning (however poor this may be)
1. Straps follow curve of board and have no flutter or vibration
2. I can open back door of car (impreza hatch) as nose of board is skyward
3. I'm a trend setter

There now you all know the secret and can set about helping to create my trend

If I can go deck down, then I do. But some of my boards are not suited to that. For instance, sunken deck boards like the Ace or Sprint don't seem to be suited to resting on the thin rails.

Deck down for me bro, with fins forward for the longer highway hauls. Saves having 4 foot or so hanging over the front. Really impressed with my new rhino rack straps with the rubber encased buckle. Bullet proof.

Yep you are right, that was the first stupid question for 2015,

ET.

micksmith said...

Kami said..
As well as many good reasons exposed up here, strapping deck down which is the harder part of your board on racks do not ding pressure the fragile bottom feather glassing of your sooooo light hull.

The use of roof rack pads reduces the risk. Personally never been a problem.
I think we just have a mind set of what things should be or what others think.

Well said, that man there!

Fins down for me ... started doing it this way after my centre fin encountered a garage door that was hanging a bit low.

If i,m not putting a board inside the van i tie on deck down as usual but find that the best, safest qiuckest, cheapist and easiest to use tie downs are old push bike tubes, because they strech they hold the board without movement without having to be very tight so no board damage. Bike shops usually have a heap of them for free. A friend tied my board on his car using the crank down ties and put 2 dents in the bottom because they were too tight.

This is a very interesting take on the use of bungees. But aren't the tyres hard to untie once you get to your destination?

Bungees are useful as an addition to straps because they adjust if the load settles. Which it often does, if eg. there is movement in, or compression of, the rack pads. I often carry a stack of four or more DW boards on my rack and this can happen with extreme situations like that. I use strong bungees that have a carabiner at each end. Much safer and more secure than the ones with hooks.

tomooh said..

Area10 said..
This is a very interesting take on the use of bungees. But aren't the tyres hard to untie once you get to your destination?

Bungees are useful as an addition to straps because they adjust if the load settles. Which it often does, if eg. there is movement in, or compression of, the rack pads. I often carry a stack of four or more DW boards on my rack and this can happen with extreme situations like that. I use strong bungees that have a carabiner at each end. Much safer and more secure than the ones with hooks.

No I never tie the inner tubes, just loop it through itself at one end [choked] and the other is just hooked over the end of the bar, it can be wrapped around the bar a few times first if you want more tension. If there is nowhere on the rack to hook the free end to then I pass the end around the bar and back through itself and put a short piece of stick through the end of the loop. For safety replace the tubes if they are starting to perish but they are very strong , mountain bike tubes particularly, they also will not danage the boards as a too tight rope can.

It's a great idea in principle and I have a friend who does the same, but the tubes are designed to stretch a lot, so just be careful that even if they look tight and secure they don't have enough stretch left to give a bit if you go round a tight corner - and as tomooh said check to make sure they're not starting to perish and get a bit looser.

A friend had my board strapped on this way, and the last thing you want to get is a phone call saying you're board came off the roof and is all dinged up! I was lucky the damage wasn't too hard to fix and they were happy to cover the cost of the repair.

If anyone's concerned about straps digging into the rails of a board if they're too tight, I've found the wider straps are less likely to do this. Dakine, Neil Pryde and Ion all have good quality wide straps made for this purpose.