I will be taking possession of a new board in a month - SB 100 wide formula race. A friend has one - it's easy to damage the nose as with many boards with fairly tame crashes. What are opinions on proactively neatly installing one or two layers of cloth across the whole nose before the inevitable cracks arrive? Any anyone tried it?

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CaptFathom said..
I will be taking possession of a new board in a month - SB 100 wide formula race. A friend has one - it's easy to damage the nose as with many boards with fairly tame crashes. What are opinions on proactively neatly installing one or two layers of cloth across the whole nose before the inevitable cracks arrive? Any anyone tried it?

Gwen has posted this before. You can also do eva pads either self-made or Unifiber, NSI or other brands.

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CaptFathom said..
I will be taking possession of a new board in a month - SB 100 wide formula race. A friend has one - it's easy to damage the nose as with many boards with fairly tame crashes. What are opinions on proactively neatly installing one or two layers of cloth across the whole nose before the inevitable cracks arrive? Any anyone tried it?

25mm thick EVA foam or similar would be a better option, you will be hitting that nose many times with the mast, something has to give so it will damage the nose no matter how much glass and resin you put on it.

Yes, my Tillo custom Foil-Slalom was built with two supplementary layers of Innegra over the nose and on the side rails. This is a laminate which is much more impact resistant than carbon or S-Glass and much easier to bond than Kevlar. As a belt-and-braces move I've also added a foam nose-protector and so far so good.

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CaptFathom said..
I will be taking possession of a new board in a month - SB 100 wide formula race. A friend has one - it's easy to damage the nose as with many boards with fairly tame crashes. What are opinions on proactively neatly installing one or two layers of cloth across the whole nose before the inevitable cracks arrive? Any anyone tried it?

This stuff works well. I've got some on both my wind foil boards and also use a surfbent mast deflector as added protection. I wish i used this protection when learning. It would have saved me $ in getting cracks repaired. I still fall off now and noses of my boards still cop some mast impact but no more damage.

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.

ALSO SEE : www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Foiling/Foil-Board-Nose-Protection

Yes, thanks for this. I did see this before and I did buy one of the foam protectors from the states for my existing board SB 160 Isonic. What I am considering is just applying reinforcement straight to the board. Prob glass would be better as it might be more durable than carbon that cracks with a sudden hit. I have another friend with the IQ board - have personally seen him drop the mast with extreme prejudice many times with no real damage. It's heavier and a stronger build - once you damage the nose you end up with repairs to it anyway. Personally, I have found the repaired area does seem to stand up to bashes better.

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Awalkspoiled said..
Yes, my Tillo custom Foil-Slalom was built with two supplementary layers of Innegra over the nose and on the side rails. This is a laminate which is much more impact resistant than carbon or S-Glass and much easier to bond than Kevlar. As a belt-and-braces move I've also added a foam nose-protector and so far so good.

Ahh, interesting. I'll look Innegra up.

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Sambo # said..

CaptFathom said..
I will be taking possession of a new board in a month - SB 100 wide formula race. A friend has one - it's easy to damage the nose as with many boards with fairly tame crashes. What are opinions on proactively neatly installing one or two layers of cloth across the whole nose before the inevitable cracks arrive? Any anyone tried it?

This stuff works well. I've got some on both my wind foil boards and also use a surfbent mast deflector as added protection. I wish i used this protection when learning. It would have saved me $ in getting cracks repaired. I still fall off now and noses of my boards still cop some mast impact but no more damage.

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.

ALSO SEE : www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Foiling/Foil-Board-Nose-Protection

The foam looks good for that direction - nice and thick. I have the Surfbent and it has definitely prevented big damage. The second version is better - wider for the mast base and a better boot under it. The race boards have a sunken deck - others using it after some subtle sanding of the Surbent. My mate has done this that has the 100 Formula and has prevented major damage - the small cracks are very minor but leak water. They seem to me to be preventable with a bit of reinforcement.

Absolute best bet is 25mm of EVA with two layers of 4oz S-glass on TOP of it. The glass spreads the load into the EVA. I don't have a picture but I built one before and it was the best protector I've used.

Just fix it after.

I'll feel very sorry for the fmx. What a crash! On film?

I'll feel very sorry for the fmx. What a crash! On film?

I used the 2nd model surfbent until I worked out that it destroyed 2 uni tendons in crashes & was going to rip the mast track out if the tendon didn't break. The noodle works but it's ugly. The xl noodle lasts a month. It gets heavy & water logged as the internal structure gets smashed. I'll drop it when I get better.

The manufacturer should have used innegra. Instead there is 2.5mm pvc, a super thin carbon layer, red paint, red striped sticker & grip. It's light but fragile.

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regal1 said..
I'll feel very sorry for the fmx. What a crash! On film?

Sure is!!!!!!

If you have some basic lamination skills I would highly recommend Innegra as the cloth. You create a dry stack of cloth by using spray adhesive to bond a handful of layers of cloth together with the top layer as plastic drop cloth. This stabilizes the weave so you can cut and fit to the shape of the nose before you wet it out. Then wet this out on the bench, put on the nose and peel the plastic off then cover with peel ply. The result will be good looking, low profile and bomb proof. I have nick named this method poor mans pre preg.

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utcminusfour said..
If you have some basic lamination skills I would highly recommend Innegra as the cloth. You create a dry stack of cloth by using spray adhesive to bond a handful of layers of cloth together with the top layer as plastic drop cloth. This stabilizes the weave so you can cut and fit to the shape of the nose before you wet it out. Then wet this out on the bench, put on the nose and peel the plastic off then cover with peel ply. The result will be good looking, low profile and bomb proof. I have nick named this method poor mans pre preg.

Yes - here's mine after lamination but before final sanding and paint. The extra layers are visible on the finished board but unobtrusive.

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utcminusfour said..
If you have some basic lamination skills I would highly recommend Innegra as the cloth. You create a dry stack of cloth by using spray adhesive to bond a handful of layers of cloth together with the top layer as plastic drop cloth. This stabilizes the weave so you can cut and fit to the shape of the nose before you wet it out. Then wet this out on the bench, put on the nose and peel the plastic off then cover with peel ply. The result will be good looking, low profile and bomb proof. I have nick named this method poor mans pre preg.

I think I understand what you are saying here - if you have any photos of this process, would love to see them.

Sorry Mate, I don't have pics or video.
I watched the video above from Gwenael Gourlay and I think it is Excellent!
I like how the protector can be removed and how the resin never gets on the new board. The only thing I would change is to use one layer of Carbon on the outside and then a few layers of Innegra for better impact.

In the video you can see him using plastic on both sides of the cloth to stabilize the weave. This is doing the same thing I was talking about. When I am making repairs I will spray adhesive plastic to the board and draw my patch on it. I pull this plastic and spray adhesive several layers of cloth together on top of the plastic then I cut it out dry. I wet it out on the bench and then put it on the board with peel ply or stretchy plastic over. It's just a slight tweak that keeps my shears out of the glue as much as possible and keeps the cloth from stretching all over the place.

I went with a 1/2" high density gym mat eva foam and a 1/16" plastic cover, stuck on and together with loctite spray adhesive, posted originally in windsurfing, very durable with no damage after hitting with mast, and allows me to drag the board upside down on the nose with no damage to the board and the eva does not absorb water.

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Awalkspoiled said..

utcminusfour said..
If you have some basic lamination skills I would highly recommend Innegra as the cloth. You create a dry stack of cloth by using spray adhesive to bond a handful of layers of cloth together with the top layer as plastic drop cloth. This stabilizes the weave so you can cut and fit to the shape of the nose before you wet it out. Then wet this out on the bench, put on the nose and peel the plastic off then cover with peel ply. The result will be good looking, low profile and bomb proof. I have nick named this method poor mans pre preg.

Yes - here's mine after lamination but before final sanding and paint. The extra layers are visible on the finished board but unobtrusive.

Yep, this is what I was wondering about. I want to laminate directly to the board - yours looks like a good job as is to me. I have done a fair bit of fibreglassing in a variety of circumstances so I feel confident in doing this. Does the spray adhesive affect the epoxy in any way? Thanks for all the other suggestions.

In my experience the spray snot (spray adheasive) does not affect the laminate in any way. I have not seen any science on that but I learned the move working in a professional boat shop. Leaving the plastic on under another layer will affect the bond!!!!! Also it just takes a hint or slight dusting of spray snot to stick the cloth to the plastic. If you use too much you will wreck the weave trying to peel the plastic off. Best of luck mate! At the end of the day it's just a toy, be fearless and enjoy the ride.