After nearly a week of looking at the board and the hexatraction, Victorian Spring weather dictated a day inside.
Time for the Hexatraction.
When we were playing with Helmy's Nalu in the loft, I had noticed he had Hexatractioned the nose.
Asked him how he did it, wet or dry, how hard is it.
He had done it dry, but warned me once it touches the board, that is it.
No moving it, impossible to get bubbles out.
Unsure how doing it wet would go, stuck the first bit down dry.
Disaster, wrong spot, wrong alignment, bubbles.
Note no photo as in state of panic.
Went and raided the kitchen for spray bottle, sacrificed by Medibank Private card as a squeegeee.
First go wet way too wet - hexagon sliding everywhere.
By the way, peeling the backing off nearly defeated me.
Got things sort of under control.
That's the dry applied one at the handle.
Advice if you are considering doing this - get at least 3 more bits than you need, and have a practice on something else before you tackle your new board.
Wet applied ones better, but everything moves - you position the guides, take 5 minutes to peel off the backing, put the hex on the board - guides moved, hex in wrong spot, panic settling in.
I think this is about an hour from starting.
Worked my way across the board.
Not enjoying this at all.
On a surfboard, nothing is square.
No centrelines to follow, planks make it worse because they are scored at different widths.
Guides almost useless as they vacate the area when you put the hex down, end up doing things by eye.
My judgement of the job was much worse than it looks in the photo.
I'm a surveyor, and 2mm out of alignment, 1mm not central worries me.
Because the first row had gone down wrong, things seemed to progressively be getting worse.
Trying to re centralise hexs without making it look like crap.
Went and had a lie down for about an hour.
Back with a new idea.
Working across the board was getting everything creeping off centre - try going down the centre and working outwards.
Sent Helmy that photo - he asked had I taped the templates together?
I hadn't, but seemed like a good idea.
By the way, that's the most useful my private health insurance has ever been.
Might be 3 hours in now, but things getting better.
Spray it wet, but not very.
One squirt, smudge it around - because there is not the huge length of rail tape, the hexs move very easily.
If two guides taped together are good, three is even better.
Deano, product improvement suggestion - get them to supply that shape, in plastic, as the cardboard was starting to tire of the job by now.
Speed of application improving exponentially.
Half Way!
Getting the hang of it now, 3 sided guide still wanted to move, but I was probably caring less.
Front of the board probably less than an hour to do.
Had to turn the board around to get the nose in the light.
Learnings.
Do it wet, but not very.
Do 2 or 3 practice applies before tackling your board.
Don't be too precious - what seems disasterous when applied looks fine 5 minutes later.
Grow your fingernails to get the backing off.
Make sure you have private health insurance so you don't have to destroy a credit card.
This stuff better be grippy!
