Surf Nano Products

Board enhancer or snake oil?

http://www.surfnanoproducts.com/index.htm

From the product description page:

Surf Nano Products, LLC announces the launch of a revolutionary product for the water and snow sports industry. The “Board Enhancer” is a clear, hydrophobic coating that when applied to the underside and rails of a surfboard and allowed to cure, creates a water repellent surface which reduces drag, increases board speed, and increases quickness in the turns. It is not a wax, silicone, or teflon based product as is the competition. The product is actually comprised of milllions of glass and ceramic particles that are molecularly bonded to the surface through an evaporating ethanol carrier solution during the one hour air curing process. The result is an ultra-thin, non-stick coating that is 30 nanometers thick, and for some perspective, one human hair is 10,000 nanometers thick. Its UV resistant feature reduces board discoloration.

Form the second paragraph:

The product, manufactured in Germany, was originally developed for glass windshields...

Sounds like RainX!

The Kings new clothes?

Christmas Vacation comes to mind....the sledding scene.

just applied the nano techno stuff on my board ..... its kinda cool how it just feels to the touch ..... going out this afternoon to see how it works

the board seemed much " slicker " ...... a little quicker and a little faster ..... spent most of the day practicing riding switch and backward so i dont have a firm opinion yet ...... but the first ride was regular and seemd to be a noticable difference ...... my daughter jumped in with no wetsuit so i had to man up in front of her and went no wetsuit ..... it wasnt that bad and she actually was in the water for over 30 minutes .... so i think its no more wetsuit from here on out

I got some from the folks at Towanza. It's pretty simple to apply. There are two bottles, the cleaner and then the enhancer. The cleaner seems to be isopropyl alcohol and the enhancer is DEFINATELY a LOT of Ethanol - spray it on out-of-doors! Let it dry for 1 hour then buff it.

We're heading out tomorrow, I'll have to see if there is any noticeable difference, like Frank mentioned.

I would think the science behind the "stuff" is the ethanol is leaving a film on the board that is acting as a water repellent in some fashion. I'll have to look into the concept.

So from, what I was able to find - ethanol is hydrophilic - meaning it attracts water. So the theory is that the coating will attract a thin layer of water creating a super thin boundary layer. The reduction in the boundary layer thickness is what creates more speed. The board is only pulling along a super thin boundary layer of water, whereas an untreated board might have 1/2 inch of boundary layer that it's pulling along.

The theory sounds good!

interesting... im a bit hesitant right now till more reviews appear

Could I get a lifetime supply with a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the pharmacy and a bottle of everclear from the liquor store? Or is the consistency / viscosity of the stuff different?

LOL at Shawn re the everclear - if it didn't work, you could enjoy the rest of the day! The "enhancer" seems to have other stuff in there, but it's definately heavy on the ethanol. Ethanol will dissolve in water, it doesn't float like gas or oil, so I'd think there must be something that helps keep the ethanol "attached", or it could just be that since it's carrying a positive charge and water a negative that stuff is working off some "electron" foundation. I don't know! Will be testing it in a few hours. @ Pete, I'm with you...it sounds more snake oil'ish than anything.

let me know what you find out

Tried it on the board yesterday. You can definately feel that the board is slipperier, but in terms of a speed increase as claimed by the manufacturer I didn't have any of that. I wasn't going to go blasting by the boat I tried a bottom turn out into the flats and didn't recognize any difference in how far out I could go. yet, the board seemed to release better - I could "sorta" pop it off the lip - which for me is AMAZING I did 3, count 'em 3, 360's in a row and I don't do that. I don't know that I can attribute those to this stuff, but if it IS, then it worked great! However, 3 seemed to be the limit, so maybe the stuff washes off? I tend to think I just got lucky on the 3's and it wasn't so much this product.

There is definately a noticeable feeling of the board being able to slide or release better - I was telling someone that it felt like I had lost 10 pounds. I think that's probably the best way to describe it. Of course, YMMV with stuff like this.