I'm wondering if anyone has had success with making their own sleeve for their mast, and if so, what did you do? thanks

A piece of floating floor rubber underlay, very soft easy to stitch with a big needle and thread.
You could also use bubble wrap and tape it to the right shape, but is less user friendly

problem is mast is round, so whatever you cover the mast with, all the force of a mast impact will be applied to a 1/2" wide area on the board nose. So what soft material is not going to compress too much in that scenario, and not be too bulky on the mast when windsurfing? As long as you are on water, a nose pad will only have to absorb some of the mast impact, because the board will get pushed into the water. So you just need a nose pad that will slow down the mast impact enough so that the board has time to push into the water. That is what my two layer nose pad does, and has done many times. 1/16" stiff plastic layer spreads out the 1/2" wide mast impact, 1/2" dense EVA adsorbs part of the impact, and both give the board time to push into the water.

Carpet, cardboard, 1/8th" plywood, foam, old wetsuit.

Ohhhhhh that mast

I'd second gun socks as the proper ones are impregnated with silicone lube which can't hurt

azymuth said..

Paducah said..Doesn't protect from hard dings but if you just want to keep stuff from scratching it and you live in a gun-friendly spot, rifle socks are cheap, quite long and slip right over the mast. This comment probably puts me on a list somewhere, doesn't it...

"No fly list" to Australia

Never planned to come anyway. Too many dangerous critters. I don't want to meet my maker after an encounter with a drop bear