When I stuck my Naish camo deck grip on my new Naish 11'4" I cut it down.. I cut a big section off the tail area so I could use a tail pad with a ramp.

I also cut a large section off the front thinking I don't want to cover the nice graphics and I'm happy to stay back on the board when wave riding.. I was wrong.

There has been times when I've paddled over a wave that's just about to break and I've stepped forward to sea-saw the board over the wave and slipped on my arse.

There have also been times when I've paddled for a wave and moved forward a little too far and again slipped on my arse.. and then there's the temptation to nose ride.

Blane Chambers from Paddle Surf Hawaii recently showed how he is getting better grip by cutting his deck grip into pieces and it gave me an idea.



I was not that keen on the pointy edges of the squares and triangles so thought why not do deck-dots...So made a cookie-cutter and used up my scraps of deck.





I started with a row of black dots.



And here's how it ended up..BTW..I contacted Kialoa about getting a small blue Kialoa sticker for my car rear window and received a wopper..and being black it would not show up too well on my tinted windows so I stuck it on my board.









I've heard that C4 are now doing Deck-Dots and you can buy a packet of them.

I'm not sure how mine will go or if the gaps between them is too big.. I guess I'll find out this Saturday at Torquay.. and anyone who'd like to try it is welcome.

DJ

Piros said...

Nice job DJ , a mate did something similar with gaps that size and I found it too big and my foot would slip on the deck , but this was on the middle of the board at my front foot so might not be as bad on yours , if you do slip in between just punch out some smaller dots and fill it in. My new OMO grip has the textured squares at 45 degress instead of the standard 90 and the grip is sensational, so try rotating your dots on the next one.

Drop me a email [email protected] I have just been sent piles of photos from Ke Nalu on the battle of the paddle , I know you would love to see these.

Rob

Thanks rob I just emailed you.

I'm hoping that my huge feet will cover the gaps ok and 99% of the time I'm in the fully griped area anyway so I'll see how it goes.. Smaller dots in the gaps should work also.

BTW.. What's OMO grip?

DJ

Perhaps if they had applied a clear non skid in the first place, you would not be slipp'n.
It could be either a peel ply finish which is what I use on all of my boards, or the sailboard type of spray on.

Bet they put some type of non slip forward for 09 models and the board will come supplied with OEM deck grip, if not then they should be. Who wants melty wax all over the place.

Just check out sailboard images and see how they have incorporated their graphics into the deck grip, all the major production makers do this for their sailboards!!

Rod