Rail tape

Check out the foiling thread.

Hi, I have tried various types, the RS Pro was the better tape out of the basic cheap tape and th Ion tape

Ion tape on last 5 boards. Tough as nails

Cheers everyone. I will report back on the RSPro once I give it a go.

I would never use it.

It is a pain to remove when you ding the board properly, as a repairer I have to add a lot of $$$ to a job due to that pain in the arse muck.
Tape the paddle properly, that's all you need. Nobody puts rail tape all over the top front 1/3 of the deck where we see lots of insignificant paddle strikes, do they?

If you want to sell the board later, 10 min with a buffing compound removes all the little smears n stripes on the rail.

Rail tape is the greatest con the industry came up with.

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Mark _australia said..
I would never use it.

It is a pain to remove when you ding the board properly, as a repairer I have to add a lot of $$$ to a job due to that pain in the arse muck.
Tape the paddle properly, that's all you need. Nobody puts rail tape all over the top front 1/3 of the deck where we see lots of insignificant paddle strikes, do they?

If you want to sell the board later, 10 min with a buffing compound removes all the little smears n stripes on the rail.

Rail tape is the greatest con the industry came up with.

Depends on the board.
Yes I wasted my time putting it on my Smik board, you'd have to take an axe to it to damage the coating on the rails. The hexa traction takes care of the 1/3 area you describe.
However if you want to protect the rails on the glossy painted big name boards, it's a good investment if you're looking to offload them.
I agree that taping your paddle, and using it properly, is all you need if you surf a well constructed board, or if you don't give a crap about your poorly constructed expensive one, or cheap piece of poop.
And back to the original question, RSPro is the sh1t, but none of them are super easy to apply. Or remove.

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cantSUPenough said..
I wondered if the thickness of the tape added some "padding" to absorb the impact.

Of course, you need some shock absorbing material to dampen the shock between two hard parts, especially if they are carbon. Otherwise you are creating structure-damaging impacts that will trigger unexpected failure down the road. But you don't need a rail tape to protect the rails, and especially the paddle blade, some helicopter tape around the blade is sufficient, or the plastic liner that some blade edges have.

also, agree with Mark _australia, some of these brands' rail tapes and paddle tapes are a ripoff and also some are too thick or do not stick properly.
a paddle tape is good enough and if you like putting your board side down or to protect from side scratches and damages then a rail tape is another 2nd option. A quick and easy and cheap paddle tape is electrical tape but it won't last long and in my opinion, helicopter tape cut to sizes is the best for both paddle and board.

If you want extra padding on the paddle blade, Clarke Rubber have rubber edging you can tape around the edge.

There's a few different versions, so plenty of options and only about $9 per meter.

Cheers Mark

In over 10 years of supping, I've only attempted to rail tape a board once, and it was such a disaster with numerous bubbles and creases, that I ripped it off and have been taping the paddle ever since.
It was years ago, can't remember which tape, but I think it may have been a cheapie unsuitable for the job.........
This week purchased a new sup (first in years) with dark rails, the sup retailer/distributor strongly recommended rail tape, "apply wet".

Purchased 3M rail tape from local surf shop, the owner said "apply dry, definitely not wet".........

The plethora of youtube videos on this subject almost unanimously recommend applying wet, not to "activate the adhesion" (as someone suggested), but to facilitate application and placement of the tape.
Jimmy Lewis's tutorial is one of the best:

With conflicting advice (dry, wet??) I decided to follow Jimmy's advice (plenty of other similar videos from Rhino sup etc). I applied two 6-foot long sections on each rail (50mm tape), they were easy to place and adjust into position. The hardest, and most time-consuming part of the whole job, was squeegeeing out the bubbles. Couldn't get 100% of them out, but got close. Concerned that this may eventually cause unsticking, time will tell.

Had some tape left over (two 200mm lengths), so decided to extend the coverage towards the tail (it's a 10' sup). I applied those two pieces dry.

Results and observations: the dry method was also easy, and did allow me a little time to re-position. However, there were several bubbles, and they turned out to be impossible to squeegee out, with no soapy water to assist.
Probably the fault of the inexperienced applicator, perhaps someone with more experience could apply sans bubbles........that's okay, the pieces are only 200mm long, and I'll remove them with the aid of De-Solv-It (Bunnings) if bubbles get any worse (as undoubtedly they will over time).
If I rail-tape another board, it'll be done using the same method as in the above Jimmy Lewis video.

My 5-year-old Kwad has never been rail-taped, there are maybe 3 or 4 tiny nicks on the whole board. So do I need rail tape? Probably not.
Several of the above correspondents suggested "paddle-tape only"; been doing that for years, but it does require re-taping (with double layer of insulation tape) regularly.
If I can find some helicopter tape (rang 3M, also known as "blade tape", "leading edge tape", and 8671P), for some reason not that easy here in Perth, eBay has a couple, then I'll continue to tape the paddle too using that.

The Kwad's staying virgin

I took all mine off one day on a whim. Just seemed like the thing to do. Haven't missed it!

Don't get Ocean and Earth rail tape.

Ion rail tape is great and easy as to apply.

These are worth the $9 at Bunnings for a professional job squeezing out the bubbles.

ta riverider, I used this one: www.bunnings.com.au/qep-6-handyman-squeegee_p6821452 which was pretty good but didn't achieve a 100% success rate.
Might invest in the one you've suggested too, always handy to have