I’ve been using full length Gorilla Grip on surfboards for about 15 years now, simply because I’d just gotten sick of scraping wax from my car roof and having the crap sticking to the Rola roof racks and getting it all over my chest and everywhere else and then having to recoat etc etc etc … anyway, I’m just about to trade in a 9’0" longboard for a 6’8" Firewire board that performs just sooooo much sweeter and want to get rid of the longboard. So, I asked the surfshop guy if he’d take the longboard in as a trade-in. Well, yeah, he said, but I’d have to get rid of the Gorilla Grip first, cos “people just don’t go for it!”
Now, I can understand all about being cool (sez he who drives a Volvo - ahem!) … but what the feck is it about people who are just sooo cool that they want to bother with wax? I think it’s NOT simply a matter of people saving money by only having tail pads … I actually think this is a case of herd mentality. If Kelly Slater or Mick Fanning showed up just the once with a full length splay of Gorrila Grip, then shares in GG would go thru the roof. But no, full length is definitely uncool. Or is it? Is it just that people haven’t switched on or expanded their mindsets? For me it was a no-brainer, the first time I ever saw the tail pads. In the early days, they extended a bit further up the board, so I bought 2 sets per board. Hey presto, no more waxing and the grip … well, it’s JUST as good as what you get on the tail pad, you can’t deny that.
I’m just wondering … if it’s a “cool” thing, then maybe I’d be better off just selling the board on eBay, cos I’m not about to strip off a coupla hundred bucks worth of GG - ESPECIALLY if there’s some other enlightened surfer who can see the advantages, but doesn’t have all this “cool/uncool” mental baggage to carry around at the expense of expediency let alone surfing efficiency (but not that enlightened that they’d rather buy a longboard over a Firewire, eh heh!).
So, I’ve got a choice: either strip off the GG and accept a lower price (trade-in!) … or leave it on and sell it on eBay. Quite frankly, I’d prefer to simply get rid of it as a trade-in, but it seems like I’d be devaluing the board. What do you people think about full length GG? (And yep, to hell with cool, I’m gonna stick it all over the full length of my brand new 6’8" Firewire FST Dominator as soon as I get it! Don’t bother trying to talk me out of THAT!! All I gotta do is upgrade that Volvo now, eh? ;D
mate, you drive a volvo, have full deck grip and it was on a longboard, its obvious you dont care about cool....and thats good coz you should ride ( and drive ) what you want and enjoy...stuff everyone elses opinions and this 'cool' stuff....but if ya dont want wax on ya roof, maybe a board bag and then use whatever form of traction that you like and that helps you surf your best ????
tract pads tear the fuck out of wetsuits and your chest. You can’t feel the deck through them for your sweet spot and you don’t get footwells. If you doubt the importance of foot wells, I ride coils, which are pretty bullet proof and I asked for them to be shaped in, though the shaper declined. I find tract pads helpful for knowing how far back my foot is since I can’t see it. The stomp pad gives one something to wedge their foot into and wrap the turn around, you don’t need it as much under the front foot. I am going out on a limb here, but if you maintain your wax then it is lighter than a soaked tract pad. Hell, more people ride sans pad than total padding. Having wax gives you time to connect to your board and check the board for dings or cracks while applying it/taking it off, etc. It takes two bars to get a proper wax job on my 9’6" nose rider, and I strip it down once every other year. Meaning I will be well over 60( I got the board at 17) by the time I put into it what you are spending in tract pads. On my chip pu shortboards, I will break it before I spend 20 bucks in wax. I might never spend what you spend in tract pads considering I get over half my wax free. People tried full traction for a while and left it. There must be some reason beyond cool for leaving that behind. Machado and Dave Rastovich ride alaia’s you aren’t seeing every HP surfer ditching their chips and hopping on a shaving.
You may see it as devaluing your board but you spent money creating a product not many want. In essence aside from riding the board YOU did the devaluing of your property. YOU spent money creating a product with an extremely narrow market that is likely not going to buy your product. Much like the soviet bloc tractors that after the fall of communism, were worthless than the raw materials which had been used to produce it. Besides posting on here isn’t going to change the market at your surf shop; suck it up, strip the pads. Get some spray adhesive and put them on your new board if you are sold on them.
I will leave you with a quote from Occy. He broke his board and borrowed one with a traction pad. When he came in he was asked how the board went in regards to the traction pad he said “I want my old board back”
I’m with ya, BenTimages: stopped using wax years ago. No nasty mess in my board bags or truck bed/cab. No build-up, cleaning off and re-waxing every couple months. No “combing” before each go out. No changing wax if I drive south to warmer waters in the summer. Superior traction. Still have a couple bars of wax in a little box under my truck seat, so I can pull it out and take a whiff if I start jonesin’ for coconut or tropical fruits.
“tract pads tear the fuck out of wetsuits and your chest”
Haven’t ever had that problem. What the heck kind of pads did you try, anyway?
I’m not that concerned with any effect the pads may have on resale value because (at 61) I’ll probably keep/ride my current collection til I either croak or turn into an invalid.
Well, as I mentioned, I bought some grip when they were longer than
the short pads on sale now so there aren’t any tract pads on my boards!
And like dropknee SL, I’m also not so concerned about resale value (I’m just
a few years younger than him) and don’t have the time nor desire to wax my
board before every surf (I used to take wax with me in the water!) and certainly
can’t be stuffed rewaxing twice a year any more (which I also used to do).
More importantly, I just don’t give a hoot about what the trend mongers
might be flogging at the mo and I’m not interested in changing the herd
mentality that’s so deeply ingrained by the multinational surf corporations, whose
suburban shopping mall surf shops sell ANYTHING but surfboards, although you
can buy plenty of other stuff covered with their brand names!
So … I’ll try to flog my board WITHOUT taking off the grip, and if that
proves too difficult, hell, I might just see if one of my nephews wants it
(probably not). I’d rather sell it, cos it might pay for a $200 set of 5 foiled
fins.
Now, THAT will be fun to experiment with! Gonna be so stoked trying out different
combos of 1, 2, 3, 4 and even 5 fins! Oh yeah … WITH full length Gorilla Grip.
Thanks for that unclegrumpy … just rang the surf shop re: new board and the guy told me about a new spray on job in a can that’s coming out soon called “Grippy” if I’ve spelt the name right. I think the Clear Grip Traction looks like the best option so far. Cheers, mate, and thanx again!
And editing this … I just googled http://www.versatraction.com/products/Fun-Board and saw a picture of Sunny Garcia (on one of the other pages on this site), so I guess that’d be a pretty ringing endorsement!
I’ve been using a single thin layer of spray-on traction (Hula Deck) as a base coat and applying a thin coat of wax over that to get my bumps. When used by itself for SUPs they say to use 3-4 layers of the spray by itself. While the resulting traction works quite well it also tears up your wetsuit (even worse on skin). But the single layer covered by a thin coat of wax is a good combo. You use a fraction of the wax and the bumps don’t wear off into bald spots. I don’t know that there’s any money to be saved, maybe a little.
TO ME it’s a shame to build esthetics into a surfboard with color schemes or wood or what not then cover the deck with a prophylactic. I personally don’t like the heavy, dirty wax buildups that some people allow to accumulate on their boards, either.
Yeah, I agree it’s a shame to cover artwork … the last 3 boards
I’ve covered didn’t have any exciting artwork and the Firewire Dominator
(FST) is only a plain old white deck. However, I’ve now purchased some
Clear Grip Traction Tape, which will allow the plainness to shine
through. Using wax until it arrives, I put the old Gorilla Grip tail pad
and extension on, but as they’d been sitting in my garage for about a
decade, the adhesive part stuck to the backing paper, rendering it
useless.
The aeresol spray on stuff is both cheap and extremely lightweight, much moreso than any foam or rubber pad. A $20 can will easily cover 3 or 4 boards, maybe more, depending on how big they are. The spray is even lighter than using a basecoat of wax. Transparent, too. I tape off the rails and spray it right to the lapline so you can’t even see where it begins and ends. I only do a single pass of moderate thickness with the spray, more than a light mist but not nearly enough to get a run. From there I use a light coat of wax over that to raise some mini-bumps, just big enough to keep my tender skin away from the sandpaper-like texture from the spray.
The only downside I’ve found is that when you go to change your wax you’ll have to work a bit to get all the wax off and follow up with some wax remover in order to get to any discolored wax residue that gets stuck in the texture. In my book that’s a small price to pay for getting good stable traction with small amounts of wax.
So, I've got a choice: either strip off the GG and accept a lower price (trade-in!) ... or leave it on and sell it on eBay. Quite frankly, I'd prefer to simply get rid of it as a trade-in, but it seems like I'd be devaluing the board.
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Well I know a thing or two about "value", I am a Real Estate Appraiser. Sometimes the money you put into improving your home does not necessarily add to it's value. For example, if you have a simple house in a $150,000 Planned Urban Development where most houses sell around that price and you improve the house with marble tiles, granite counter tops, fine wood finish and a $30,000 dollar swimming pool and then try to sell it for $250,000 it is going to be near impossible to sell it. Most people who are looking to buy a home in this neighborhood are not looking for these types of improvements, they are looking for a $150,000 house and most probably no other house in the neighborhood has these types of improvements therefore Cost does not necessarily equal Value. These improvements may be nice to have if you are the one who is going to be living and enjoying the house.
I know that this may be an extreme analogy but it might be easier to carefully remove the grip and re-use it with some 3M adhesive and sell the board without it. I really respect people who ride what they like no matter what the mainstream says, I ride a surf mat about 80% of the time. If you like grip or spray or boat non-skid paint, I say go for it and enjoy... :)
Yeah, I preferred to have something a bit more resilient than the spray stuff … I’ve now ordered some XM Clear Grip Traction Tape, hope to get it within the next day or two. I’m just trying to avoid using wax at all. And I’ve also got a new board bag, but that’s more to protect the Firewire from dings.
I love it when people go out on a RANT. Keep it up ,I'm happy. You spent how much on traction pads? ....Couple hundred?
I fix boards. Pads hide delams. Delams on longboards can cost hundreds to fix.
I would never buy a used surfboard with a full coat of wax. I would never buy a used surfboard with a full cover of traction pads. It's not about being cool....In my eyes you de-valued the board because I can't see the deck.....
If you would like help removing your expensive traction pads there's plenty of people on Swaylock's that can help....