There are a couple of things about sanding that some of you may like to know. I remember Jim Phillips stating that planing up into the nose will cause the blade to undercut the stringer and blow it up basically. Pretty much the same deal with sanding. Sand up into the nose and the edge of the pad will try and undercut the fibreglass. Now that I sand down the nose no more clean ups or re hot coats afterwards.
So always sand with the area in front of your pad dropping away from you. Sanding from the middle to the tail on the bottom is one example of this. Pull the sander from the middle towards to the tail and the area in front of the pad will be dropping away from it. Pull the sander from the tail towards the nose and the area in front of it will be rising up at the pad until you reach the middle. Sanding in this direction will risk the edge of the pad trying to undercut the fibreglass for the same reason as trying to sand up into the nose.
Sand down the nose and “down” the board. When you pull the sander back in the “wrong” direction make sure you back right off on the pressure. Just keep the pad close enough to the board so you don’t need to put it back down on the board so to speak, but hold it lightly enough so it doesn’t do any real sanding. Now repeat. Lastly slide your pad when sanding, don’t drag. Have fun!