Top 5 Reasons To Use Rail Tape

Posted on: March 24th, 2015 by Manny Vargas

I don’t know about you but my paddle board is an investment that I want to last. I do my best to take good care of it. With that being said, the first thing I now do with any paddle board that comes my way… put on the rail tape.

I know some people may think it looks kooky or may hinder the performance but I say fooey. Below are my top five reasons why you should use rail tape too. Here we go:

#5 Support Your Local Shop. Most shops now have their shop logo on the rail tape. This is a simple way to show your support for the shop that takes care of you.

#4 Protects From Straps. If you don’t have a board bag for your board, then the rail tape will help to protect the straps from messing up your board when you strap it down on your roof racks.

#3 Protect Paddle. As much as we don’t want to hit our paddle to the board, we do. When you do hit the paddle to the board, it can chip away at the resin coat on the paddle and eventually open up the paddles watertight seal. That, in turn, will lead to the paddle blade to opening up. You don’t want that.

#2 Protect Board. This is the most obvious, of course. As I mentioned, my boards are investments and I need to protect them so that they can last as long possible. Rail tape will protect the board from paddle banging and setting it on it’s rail while you’re chilling on the beach.

#1 Protect Your Ass. Indirectly, you’ll be protecting your butt when you slip and fall on slippery rocks, in the parking lot or anywhere for that matter. If we fall with board in hand, we instinctively use our board to catch our fall. If we’re going to do that, we should protect the rails on the board which will indirectly be protecting our booties.

If you have another reason, let your fellow sweepers know by posting your reason on the WCPS Facebook page.