Vinyl Tubing Loaded Tan Tien Longboard Nose (and Tail) Guard

The following are instructions to make a cheap and effective nose/tail guard for a Loaded Tan Tien. These instructions should work with other drop through decks. I've also made a nose guard for a deck that is not drop through. I'll post that later.

Pros
Making your own nose guard is cheaper than buying one, it should fit whatever drop through deck you may be rockin', and you can make it with any color.  (Google Vinyl Tubing). Plus it's fun to make stuff! 

Cons
A homemade nose guard may not look as sleek or last as long as one bought from a skateshop. (Keep some extra tubing on hand). You will have zip ties on your deck.

Why make a nose guard?
Personally, I want to make sure my longboards last as long as possible. I have seen the front of boards totally split apart after slamming into walls/curbs/etc. I had a Secter 9 that freed itself from my feet and  bombed down a mountain into some cement. While a file and some woodglue helped remedy the front of my board, it's not as easily traded, sold, or preserved for future generations. Plus I feel that when I work to take care of my stuff that I am respecting the work that went into making it (and the work it took me to get the cash to buy it!).  

Cost
Minimum Cost: Around  $3.00 if you share materials, its free if you've got the stuff laying around your home!

Probable Cost: Around $5.00 - $7.00

Assembly Time: 1-2 hours

Instructions
::Step 1:: Gather materials.You will need the following:

Regular Pliers
Kitchen Scissors or Plier Cutters
10 - 12 Good Quality* Zip Ties
      Usually the longer the zip tie the wider it is. My zip ties were 14 Inches [35.56 CM] long
A Sharpie (or a good eye)
Vinyl Tubing: About 38 Inches [96.52 CM] long will cover both sides, nose and tail.

FYI: You can use less tubing and have shorter guards if you don't want to wrap them past your trucks.  If you do so, you will also need fewer zip ties (3 on each side instead of 5)

The tubing at Home Depot was labeled "Clear Vinyl Tubing, 1/2" X 3/8" X 10 ft". It cost around $5.00. I went with thin tubing so it wouldn't get in my way. Here is an example.

For OPTIONAL Extra Protection:

Gather 10 more Zip Ties (5 per side)
Add Split Flex Tubing
[Mine was " 3/8" (9.5 mm) I.D. " and cost $1.00]

Vinyl Tubing, Flex Tubing (Black) and Zip Ties

The extra protection (flex tubing) will get in your way if you do tricks. The vinyl tubing may as well, but not as much as the flex tubing, and probably less then some other pre-made nose guards anyways.

Now, start makin your nose/tail guard!

::Step 1.5:: Read through all of the following steps so you get an idea for the process. Then make it.

::Step 2: : Lay the vinyl tubing down flat on the floor. It will naturally curve. From here draw a line along the center of the tubing with your sharpie. This is so you know where to cut. Put the line on the inside of the curved tubing (see picture below). The idea is that when you cut the tubing, you want your cut to go straight down the tubing or else it may not lay correctly on your board. I just eyeballed my line as I laid both the sharpie and tubing on the floor.

Insert Sharpie Here

Here you can see my rather messy straight line down the tubing.

 ::Step 3:: Cut along your line. Make sure you cut straight, or have extra tubing to try again :)

::Step 4:: Cut your tubing to the correct length, about 19 inches (48.26 CM) for each side of a Tan Tien. Lay the tubing around the edge of your board and secure with zip ties (see Pic).  Don't fully tighten the zip ties yet.

FYI: An alternate location for the 2 front zip ties that go across the board is to loop them through the extra set of wholes on your trucks. Also, I've seen some people cut several V wedges out of their tubing, which probably makes more sense if the front of your deck is more rounded than a Tan Tien.

Before you fully tighten the zip ties, you may have noticed little bulges appear on your tubing.

Look at that unsightly bulge (on the left) messing up my tubing!

::Step 5:: Take your scissors and cut little V shaped wedges (like a little triangle) out of the tubing. After you do so, the bulges will be gone and the tubing will lay correctly on the board.

This is how it will look after you cut little triangles out of the tubing

Its hard to see on the photo, but I did not make a straight perpendicular cut into the tubing. I did however cut out the bulges.

::Step 6::  Fully tighten your zip ties. I used a set of pliers to get some extra leverage and really tighten the zip ties down.

::Step 7:: Cut all the extra slack from the zip ties. Yup, cut it all the way down. Those little bits of extra zip tie can be sharp and will scratch you like a cat when you go to pull your longboard out of your dark closet. Fact. Meow ow...

Chop that extra slack!

::Lucky Step 7.77:: Rejoice in your new nose/tail guard! WoOt!

For directions for the extra protection (flex tubing), scroll all the way down.

The vinyl tubing has survived being kicked, slid on, slammed into sidewalks, ollied, etc.

Though the tubing is not as clear as before, my deck is safe behind a barrier of vinyl .

If you have any questions, let me know.  Cheers! :-) 

Optional Extra Protection.

::Step 8:: Split flex tubing is already cut along the length of the tube. Just like you did with the vinyl tubing, cut the flex tubing down to size, about 19 inches (48.26 CM) for each side of a Tan Tan. Put it over the vinyl tubing and like above, add zip ties, tighten, and cut off the extra slack.

Here is my board with the extra Flex Tubing. 

I used cheaper zip ties (from a Dollar store) for the flex tubing . The cheap zip ties seemed to work alright, once I managed to get them to tighten that is.

Confession. I didn't use 5 Zip Ties with the flex tubing (See picture above), which meant the corners of the flex tubing would come off when I was doin stuff off the nose of my board...so I suggest using 5 Zip Ties and attaching them like you did the vinyl tubing.

Final Note: The flex tubing did come off after some abuse, although the vinyl tubing is holding strong!