Here's a Surf Bent nose protector on the water.

bagel vs catapult

Exocet RF's come with three holes around the nose that can be used to attach a noodle with footstrap screws and some Velcro. After a few months a some great falls with mast hitting same area, my noodle broke. So the new noodle has a piece of clear tubing through the interior, similar idea to adding padding and some stiffness

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antonmik said..
bagel vs catapult

You are on to something!! What a great, creative idea. Where did you get that protective donut? Is that like a pool life preserver?

I bought some EVA pad and cut 20mm strips and layered them on the nose. Hopefully this will work OK. Not the neatest job, but quick and the padding only cost $13 from Bunnings.

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AUS02 said..
I bought some EVA pad and cut 20mm strips and layered them on the nose. Hopefully this will work OK. Not the neatest job, but quick and the padding only cost $13 from Bunnings.

Gday mate, how did this go? As you say it's not exactly pretty but it's simple and cheap. I'm doing a repair this weekend and need to get something on there as I work my way back through the catapult stage...

Don't be shy with the EVA foam - hard catapults call for serious protection.

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bludga said..



Don't be shy with the EVA foam - hard catapults call for serious protection.

At least it's colour coded... :). Where did you source it? Must need to be pretty solid if it's only that thick?

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MagicRide said..

There must be inserts in the board to attach it?

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delmar71 said..

bludga said..



Don't be shy with the EVA foam - hard catapults call for serious protection.

At least it's colour coded... :). Where did you source it? Must need to be pretty solid if it's only that thick?

Yeah, it's pretty dense. 1m X 1m gym mat from Clark Rubber. It's about 20 to 25mm thick.

Damaged the nose mid last year. Bought the ION mast board protector, sits on the mast below the boom, and touches the sail mast sleeve at the bottom that is padded.

No damage ever since and no ugly looking nose with noodles and other adhesives. The problem with those is that IF there is damage you cannot see it.

I prefer a clean nose and protection on the mast. Had a look at the surfbent.. but don't trust it.

Mystic has a similar product btw.

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delmar71 said..

MagicRide said..

There must be inserts in the board to attach it?

I JB welded 4 bowline knots along the edges of the front deck. Then I inserted a strip of Velcro through the bowline. Then Velcro around the noodle. Done deal! Easy and bomb
Proof. I catapulted a lot in the beginning, and have not put even a scratch in the deck or rail of the board. Very impressed how well this works!

Advanced nose protector (English subtitles available)

I can only recommend the surf bent. There have been quite some discussions about it in other forums. Finally it comes to the point of absorption. At some point everything will brake and I am pretty sure that a catapult stretching your tendon universal plus deformation of the surf bent will beat a poolnoddle as well. Obviously also a point nose of a wave board or fragile ultralight is not the best partner. Beaf up the nose as stated above or go for technique and use deflection instead of absorption. When feeling the catapult coming, hold on your boom and even try sheeting in. Feel the sensation of a spin loop and safe your board.

and I made this anti-catapult. it works. Only on the mast base the load increased

Here is my nose protector, layer of 1/2" dense eva (gym mat) covered with a layer of 1/16" thick plastic wall waterproofing sheet ($20 for a 4'x8' sheet), used loctite spray adhesive middle weight 200 on the board and between the layers Been on for almost 2 years. Used black gorilla tape to seal the beveled ends. Spray painted with black paint, but most has worn off. I thought the dense eva was still too compressible on its own, the 1/16" thick white plastic spreads the mast impact across the eva, instead of allowing the impact energy to focus in one small area. Ion also makes a mast protector that is pretty good, but would not use alone.

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MagicRide said..

delmar71 said..

MagicRide said..

There must be inserts in the board to attach it?

I JB welded 4 bowline knots along the edges of the front deck. Then I inserted a strip of Velcro through the bowline. Then Velcro around the noodle. Done deal! Easy and bomb
Proof. I catapulted a lot in the beginning, and have not put even a scratch in the deck or rail of the board. Very impressed how well this works!

Can you take some pictures? I'd like to make one equal :)

Just buy a board without a nose.

Like many other, I was also looking for a nose protection solution when I bought my new Alien board last year. I had the ION mast protector on my old board, but the Alien nose is just a bit shorter than the section of mast that the ION protector covers.
I ended up buying this gym floor tile (20mm thick EVA) redfit.com.au/shop/boxing/interlocking-jigsaw-mats/ and glueing it out with clear contact adhesive. About 6 months later, it's still working great.

I've made a couple for friend's boards too, seems to work well so far.

Is anybody using the surfbent with Duotone euro pin mast base? I just got the surfbent and noticed two things: one, if the mast hits the surfbent at 90 degrees, the release button gets depressed and the extension can be released from the base. Two, since the Duotone mast base is low profile, I noticed that the mast touches the surfbent at a pretty "straight" angle ; I guess that is good preventing hitting the nose but I think it will put too much force on the tendon.
I will take pics tomorrow but wondering if someone has some experience with this combo.

I have used the surfbent with Duotone mast base (iBase) for a while. The transparent iTendon is a bit too short and seems fragile in combination with the surfbent, but with the black rubber powerjoint instead of the iTendon it's perfect.

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duzzi said..

Boston! said..

seanhogan said..
surfbent.de/home.html

looks ideal, mate of mine ordered one, will check it out

I ordered one of these (over $100AUD) and soon caved in the nose of my brand new Falcon Foil edition on the second session. Thinking it was just bad luck, I persevered. Did it again a few sessions later (Yes, I am not the most skilled foiler). The manufacturer claimed that they had never had a failure before and refunded my money. I would not recommend them. (for foil boards anyway)

I used my surfbent for the last four months. Plenty crashes zero damage to the board (Flikka Foil).

Newbie here. More than plenty of crashes. Using the SurfBent V2 on the Horue Tiny 110L. Two spider line crackling. Sanded down to prep for repair. Looks to be only the finish coat. No obvious carbon fiber damage. But just in case applies a coat of Solarez. Then a finish sanding. Cannot tell where the hits were. Paid $75(USD) last season. Up now to $89 at the "local" shop.

Damage was done this season. Last season was a crash fest. This season crashes are significantly less. One factor might be the use of the Chinook ProFlex uni. Sort of a hybrid tendon and mechanical.

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Peer78 said..
I can only recommend the surf bent. There have been quite some discussions about it in other forums. Finally it comes to the point of absorption. At some point everything will brake and I am pretty sure that a catapult stretching your tendon universal plus deformation of the surf bent will beat a poolnoddle as well. Obviously also a point nose of a wave board or fragile ultralight is not the best partner. Beaf up the nose as stated above or go for technique and use deflection instead of absorption. When feeling the catapult coming, hold on your boom and even try sheeting in. Feel the sensation of a spin loop and safe your board.

Hanging on for Fear of the Foil.

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WillyWind said..
Is anybody using the surfbent with Duotone euro pin mast base? I just got the surfbent and noticed two things: one, if the mast hits the surfbent at 90 degrees, the release button gets depressed and the extension can be released from the base. Two, since the Duotone mast base is low profile, I noticed that the mast touches the surfbent at a pretty "straight" angle ; I guess that is good preventing hitting the nose but I think it will put too much force on the tendon.
I will take pics tomorrow but wondering if someone has some experience with this combo.

I have tried the Surfbent with the Duotone euro pin mast base and had the same issues with "the mast touches the surfbent at a pretty straight angle". There wasn't ever any contact of the mast with the board, which is great, but it made it quite hard to rotate the sail around the board while swimming after crashing. I've ended up not using the Surfbent with the Duotone mast base (which is my current favorite mast base). So far no big disasters (some minor dents) with Slingshot boards and no nose protection.

When I was first starting out I was using the Surfbent with a Chinook mast base. That combination works perfectly (and really saved the nose of my board during the learning process when I was constantly crashing).

I heard back from Duotone: they don't recommend using the iBase with the surf bent because they over-extend the tendon and that can tear the safety leash inside the tendon (their website also says that under info for the iBase). that sucks because I really like the iBase. I will try the protector with a different base first.

The other option would be installing a nose protector. I have been using the NSI in my formula board and never damaged the board. My new board has a thin version of the regular NSI nose protector that I don't really trust it will stop the forces of a catapult with my bigger sails.

We shall see. Thank for the comments!

Fanatic factory nose cone, custom paint job, plus Ion sleeve on mast, no Surfbent ....

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WillyWind said..
I heard back from Duotone: they don't recommend using the iBase with the surf bent because they over-extend the tendon and that can tear the safety leash inside the tendon (their website also says that under info for the iBase). that sucks because I really like the iBase. I will try the protector with a different base first.

The other option would be installing a nose protector. I have been using the NSI in my formula board and never damaged the board. My new board has a thin version of the regular NSI nose protector that I don't really trust it will stop the forces of a catapult with my bigger sails.
n
We shall see. Thank for the comments!

Just replace the iTendon with the Duotone rubber power joint with external safety leach - problem solved. Also helps manoeuvring the sail during waterstarts that the rubber version is a bit longer. No issues with release of the extension when the release button is in contact with the surfbent. I think the thick padding of the sail covering the button prevents that the button can be pressed sufficiently to release. Even if it did, the board would need to be pulled in the opposite direction of the sail to release at the same time which is very unlikely.

Protection is optional... just repair after the fact... so much harder and a great pass-time during lock-down!
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Foiling/Foil-board-Repair-Job-The-new-nose-you-all-need

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MProject04 said..
Damaged the nose mid last year. Bought the ION mast board protector, sits on the mast below the boom, and touches the sail mast sleeve at the bottom that is padded.

No damage ever since and no ugly looking nose with noodles and other adhesives. The problem with those is that IF there is damage you cannot see it.

I prefer a clean nose and protection on the mast. Had a look at the surfbent.. but don't trust it.

Mystic has a similar product btw.

I have the ION mast protector, stoped using it because it was too soft and because I know the mast would punch through it. If they made it out of gym mat eva it would be a lot more dense.