Surfing Waves

Guys,

Am I trying to look cool by wanting a deck grip on my mini mal? I see the NSP boadrs come with one normally but I am not sure if my board warrants it? Its a 7Ft 3" mini mal?

Ive seen all the post abaout 'its a personal preference'. My preference is I want one, but if my board is too big for it to make any difference I will wait until im on a shorter/fish type board.

Cheers

Dan

Grips are used for many things, including to help with duck diving, preventing your foot slipping off the back and to assist with foot positioning. I am assuming you are talking about the deck grip that sits at the back of the board (tail pad). If you are asking about putting deck grip all over the board, rather than wax, then that works (but personally I dont see the point and you will have rash issues).

I dare say you dont usually see tail pads on longer boards because when you are surfing a longer board your foot will not usually be over the fins/where the pad is usually placed; plus for long boards you often move your feet around (up and down the board). So the pad isnt particularly useful because its not where your foot is and you may not be duck diving.

You could put the pad a bit further up the board rather than right on the tail, and that would probably work, although you could end up with a situation where half your foot in on the pad and half is on the board, but otherwise I cant see any harm if you want one. Dont get one with a 'bump' (kick) on it, I cant see that gives any advantage in a longer board and has some disadvantages. Plus it would look weird if you position it 1/2 up the board.

don't bother, I don't even have a deck pad on my 7'6 big wave gun, and when I had a 7ft semigun I didn't bother with that one either. Just my opinion.

Cheers for the feedback chaps. Ill wait until I am good enough to get a shortboard and then go deck grip crazy!!!

have to echo the mathteacher here. I never saw the need for tail pads on anything but smaller boards. But then again all i have are smaller boards. - whatever works right.

Depends if you want it or not, there is no NEED for one but if it helps you then go for it.

The only thing to watch out for (considering that you have a midlength) is that the kicker doesn't rest in front of your toes when you lie prone on your board. That could get very annoying.

They certainly aren't limited to shortboards though, my longboard has one (came with it) and it is a handy reference point for positioning myself.