Traction Pads
In 1976 Herbie Fletcher came up with the traction pad, with a little help from his uncle..Gordon Clark. The AstroDeck Ads used to rival the Nancy Katin ads for how many big name stars used to be in their annual AstroDeck group shot in Hawaii each year. Soon two upstarts Jeff Kelly and Gary Ward were hawking Trac-Top traction pads.
Young Natural Art world tour Pro Scotty McCranels started to ride for the T-Top boys and it wasn't long before his ample brain caught up with his ample feet. Scotty began layering multiple slices of Trac -Top on "top" of each other and began making these high center bars in the middle of his traction pad. In those days traction pads were these thin little flat pads on your tail to keep you from slipping off when you were doing a "Roller Coaster". Scotty took his idea to Ward and Kelly and they jumped right on it. Their next ad had Matt Archibald.... Get it... Archy... touting the new (forget about Scott McCranels) Trac-Top break through Arch Bar. Just a little twistory for you.
Nowadays you can still see pro surfers cutting off portions, doubling up portions, slicing holes... Baron Knowlton adds a toe pad/grip to the toe side of his pads for added dig and to keep him from gouging those giant pickle sized toes through his boards. That is why NAONLINE has so many varied and different pad layouts. Find one that fits your style and get a grip!
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