Do It Youself Paddle Protector

Paddles can be very tough on your SUP board rails, when you’re learning you whack the board with the paddle pretty frequently, and once you are catching waves a little paddle flailing when you’re losing balance can result in a nasty and very hard smack to the board. It’s possible to hit a board so hard with your paddle edge that you cut right through to the foam.

A paddle protector is a good idea, and there are some nice ones commercially available. But here’s a simple way to add paddle protection as well as a grip and a non-slip handle cover.

You need to start with a good cleaning. Even if your paddle is brand new there may be wax or oil from the manufacturing processes on the paddle blade. I started with goof off to get all the junk off and finished with acetone. Wear rubber gloves and perhaps a respirator when you use this stuff–it’s pretty rasty.

This is the tape I used–any rubber mastic will work. It’s not cheap, a 30 foot roll is about fifteen bucks, though this was on sale for five bucks a roll at Lowe’s. I got all four rolls. You want tape about an inch wide.

Start at the base of the blade, about four inches up the shaft. Put a few inches of tape on the shaft and then pull gently, stretching the tape about one and a half times it’s length and letting it fold onto the blade as you lay it down, the tension will make the tape fold perfectly, all you have to do is keep the tape centered on the blade edge–it’s easy.

When you get to the reverse-curved part of the blade, the tape may not follow the curve, Just stretch the tape to the shaft, press it down along the spine, then go back and press the tape down onto the blade, being sure to keep it centered on the edge.

Press the tape down along the entire blade. Use a lot of pressure so the center of the tape sticks well to the edge.

Now go back and press the tape onto the face of the blade. Do short sections and slide your thumb and finger downward toward the blade from the edge to get even adhesion and no wrinkles.

Now tape the paddle from the beginning of the blade up the shaft past the ends of the edge tape. I like to extend this taping about six inches or more because this is the part of the paddle that hits the board the most.

Overlap the tape about half it’s width as you tape. Make sure you continue to stretch the tape slightly as you go. When you’re done take a rounded wooden rod (a section of dowel, a big pencil, whatever) and burnish down the tape everywhere to make sure it’s sticking well. Skipping this step or just trying to get away with rubbing the tape down with your fingers decreases the life of your taping job by at least 50 percent

Here’s the finished job. You can also add cushion to your paddle by taping the area of the shaft you grip. If you do this, make the area you tape about twice as long as you think is right–about two feet–because you move your hand around in this area more than most people realize. I also like to wrap a figure eight of tape across the palm grip and a few inches down the shaft to make the paddle less slippery. Alternatively you can wax the shaft and grip to make it less slippery.

Don’t expect this to last very long. If you’re whacking away at it you’ll eventually cut through the tape on the blade. If you want a more permanent fix then one of the commercial edge guards might be a better choice. This approach is readily available, simple, doesn’t affect the paddle action (as far as I can tell) and inexpensive.