A Bit of Self Care... Lisha

It’s not long since I last built myself a mat but needs must. A little while ago I had my mat pulled from my hand on a solid day. I tried to keep hold with my right hand but it got yanked out, possibly breking my finger.

As always, I built Lisha over a weekend so nobody was missing out because of me doing this!

This also led to a strain of the muscles in my right fore arm which gets easily flared up even in small surf.

In short, I need to be alble to let go of my mat! My only options then were don’t surf, have a long swim after every wave or a leash. Given those thre then a leash seemed the best bet. I figured this was also a chance to try the RB-JMC design with a 200 denier deck.

Leashes are always a conundrum with mats. At low inflation they can interfere with things if not well managed and, more to the point, after years of riding without one they just feel like they get in the way. However, there is a need at times which then brings us to the other issue. The materieals, even a 200/70 construction, are lightweight. That’s great for performance but a challenge for attaching leashes. An eyelet will last a while but used over time or in heavy surf (just ask Henry Marfleet about G-Land) they will get pulled through.

So you need to do 2 things: Reinforce and spread the load.

When doing bungee fittings like this I weld a layer of 650 gram double coated nylon into the flange between the top and bottom skins. This gives a very robust strip of fabric across the nose. The nose of a mat is always fully inflated to it doesn’t make a huge difference to the pliability, altough anything on a mat is transferred aound the whole mat so it is noticable as reported by people who have two mats, one with and one without. The eyelets are fitted snuggly to grip the fabric well. That sounds obvious but loose eyelets will wear the fabric.

The next job is to spread the load. This is acheived by using bungee cord rather than rope. The elasticity of the cord soaks up a fair bit of the strain. Also, weaving the bungee through the eyelets and then attaching the leash to the middle loop causes the mat to conertina, spreading the load across the mat, rather than on a single point.

So on to the mat, as I said Lisha is a RB-JMC, super free-breather with negative rocker. The previous build have all been 70/70 which have been impressive in all conditions, including solid waves. It will be interesting to see what happens her then. Heavier decks reduce the overall pliability of mats (more hold, less speed) so in thoery this should have more top end.

Let’s see. I won’t be trying this in chunky surf for the time being as I need to let my arm recover but I’ll give it a crack in due course.

On the name, why Lisha? Well obviously, she has a leash but it insired me to name this mat after a sporting great of yesteryear (wierd phrase) Elisha Scott.

So there you go. Lets see how it works out and get well soon me!

Cheers

G