Sanding Bottom of board?

I would wax the bottom with sticky bumps punt wax. Make sure to have mounds and flat spots. You want the surface to look like a golf ball. Wax in x's not circles. I also like to install a few large sponges down there between the fins. For feel. Good luck.

 

A sticker. Great idea. That way he will get some love when you make that cover shot in next month's surfer mag.

 

I sanded both the top and bottom of my tuflite epoxy. It had a factory gloss coat that wax would not stick to. The board was also slow as hell and I felt the sanding the bottom could only help (there's a theory that the microscopic groves on sanded boards reduce the amount of suction/drag created by a smooth surface...same for snowboards). Afterward, the wax stayed on and the board felt slightly faster...win.

 

^^^^that's the theory. My theory is that shapers got tired of doing gloss coats and invents 'competition glassing' to save time and money

 

Yeah, MFitz, you had to expect that one coming, Lee just beat everyone else to it! HA HA Fitz, I found this little article. Don't know if it will help

Sanded vs. Gloss Finish


Although there is some disagreement in shaping communities, a sanded board is thought to ride faster than a gloss finished board. The main reason is the gloss finished bottom does not hold any water on it while riding the wave. The water beads right off. This sounds like a good thing, but a sand finished surfboard will actually trap some water along its bottom surface allowing a film of water to slide along water. This trapped film of water will reduce friction and make the board slick and lively.

When asked about this theory, Erik Nordskog, founder of On It Pro, offered his own insight.

"In the high performance boating industry, we found that a sanded finish works better on a displacement hull (v bottoms) since there's more hull pushing through the water," explains Nordskog. "On a hydro plane, a gloss finish works much better! This is what a surfboard is more like! A sanded finish on a hydro plane hull actually will trap air with the water which slows the boat down. A gloss finish is the only way to go."

 

read some more...... Had my kind of chuckling

Nordskog's company makes a product called Extreme Cream, designed to lower the friction of your board on water. Erik mentioned the fact that although sand finished boards will make some boards surf faster, they have drawbacks.

“The idea of sand finish is the water molecules collect in the pores, giving you water over water. That’s fast. You have slick over slick. Our product is actually more slippery than water. A sand finish will attract dirt and the salt. All the elements attract to it, it’s just filthy and hard to clean. There’s no need for a sand finish anymore.”

We were intrigued, so we asked why this substance won’t simply rub off once in the water.

“People have used a lot of different things over the years, like car wax. It might look good but it creates friction. Any other kind of material comes right off immediately. Nothing sticks and stays. When you have a polymer it instantly starts to bond with the poly surface or the epoxy surface very well.

 

Let me know if you still don't like it. You can have it your way.

And dude, it ain't the surfboard slowing you down.

 

No lee bring AI back!

 

Sand with 1000 or 1500 grit automotive grade wet paper, then polish with rubbing compound, (by hand works fine), regular or fiberglass specific. I polished the bottom of a sanded finish board to clean it up and it now looks like it got a light gloss finish. If your feeling like an overachiever then hit it with car polish then car wax.

 

I've always thought about putting rainx on the bottom... everytime I'm in the car while its raining I'm thinking it has to be a good idea!