Enhance your surfing experience with CIMI's high-performance Surf Traction Tail Pads. Designed for durability and superior grip, these tail pads provide exceptional control on your surfboard.
The CIMI surfboard traction pad sits on the tail of the deck, exactly where the back foot drives through a turn. It replaces a pad that has gone smooth, lifted at the corners or worn through, and it is also the first grip many riders fit to a new board. The job is simple: keep the foot planted when the deck is wet, waxed and moving underneath you.
Shops and rental operators keep a surfboard grip pad in stock because it is the accessory that brings a board back into service. It is the small item a customer picks up with a surfboard leash, a set of fins or a board cover, and it is the first thing to change when a deck starts to feel slippery underfoot.
The upper surface is where the pad earns its place. CIMI builds it with a raised woven texture — small blocks rather than a flat sheet — so the sole of the foot meets an edge in every direction instead of sliding across a smooth face. Circular perforations run through the pattern, giving water and trapped air somewhere to go when the deck is wet and breaking the suction that makes a flat surface feel greasy.
Under the texture sits a cushioned layer that takes the sharpness out of the deck under the back foot on a long session, without lifting the foot so far off the board that the turn feels remote. It is the difference between a surf traction pad that reads the deck through it and one that feels like standing on a mat.
The pad is cut to follow the tail outline, so it does not catch a rail or lift where the deck curves away. Compared with a plain surfboard grip pad, the pattern and the perforations do more of the work: the block design carries the look, and the holes keep the surface usable once wax and water are in it. Each pad finishes with a peel-and-stick adhesive backing that stays flat until the moment it is fitted.
- Grip underfoot — A raised woven surface gives the back foot an edge to push against in every direction, so the foot stays where it is put through a turn. - Water clears instead of pooling — Circular perforations through the pattern let water and trapped air escape from under the sole rather than sitting in a film between foot and deck. - Cushioning without losing the deck — The padded layer softens the ride on choppy days while keeping the pad low enough that the board still feels direct. - A surface built for daily use — Salt water, wax changes and a back foot pressing in the same spot are what a pad actually faces, and the construction is chosen for that rather than for a showroom shelf. - Peel-and-stick fitting — A surfboard traction pad goes on without tools: clean the deck, set the pad, peel the backing and press from the centre out. - Tail only, by design — The pad covers the area that takes the most punishment and leaves the front of the deck free for wax or a centre pad.
A pad lasts longer than the wax on top of it, as long as it is cleaned properly. Rinse the tail with fresh water after a session so salt and sand do not dry into the texture, and use a soft brush with mild soapy water to lift wax residue out of the pattern without attacking the adhesive underneath. Keep solvent-heavy cleaners off the pad itself — they soften the bond at the edges, which is where a pad starts to go first.
Heat is the other thing to watch. A board left in a hot car, or lying wax-side up on the sand, gets the adhesive working, and a corner that lifts in the heat rarely lies flat again. Store boards in the shade and out of a closed vehicle wherever you can.
Look at the edges every few weeks. A corner pressed back down early usually holds; one left to collect sand and water will not. It is time for a new surfboard grip pad when the pattern has flattened to a shine, when the edges curl no matter how often you press them, or when water sits under the pad after a session.
| Product type | Surfboard tail pad |
| Product reference | No.00568 |
| Placement | Tail area of the deck, under the back foot |
| Surface | Raised woven texture with circular perforations |
| Backing | Peel-and-stick adhesive |
| Fitting | Clean, dry deck; position, peel and press by hand |
| Designs | Several graphic designs across the traction range |
| Supply | Wholesale quantities and private-label programmes |
A traction wall lives or dies on how the designs sit next to each other. The CIMI range is built as a family rather than a single item: the same construction and the same fitting method run through every design, so staff learn one job and a customer who liked one pad can be shown five others that do the same thing in a different look. For a buyer, that means one surfboard traction pad line can fill a shelf instead of one hook.
Behind the range sits a manufacturer rather than a trading desk. Designs are developed and built by the same team, so a change to an outline or a graphic is settled by the people who have to produce it, and the pad you reorder next season is made the way the first one was. The traction range also sits inside a wider catalogue of leashes, fins, covers and racks, which is what makes a surfboard tail pad easy to buy as part of a full accessory order rather than on its own.
- Leashes — Regular, non-slip, Hypalon, bodyboard and SUP leashes, from short lightweight options to longboard lengths; a surfboard leash for every board on the wall. - Fins — Honeycomb, timber, G10 glass and nylon fins, plus fin accessories, so board builders and shops can fill the fin display from the same source. - Traction — Tail pads, centre pads, skimboard pads and waxless pads. Where a customer wants a traction pad for surfboard decks across the whole stance, the centre and waxless options cover the rest of the deck. - Covers — Basic bags, regular bags, stretch covers and bodyboard bags for travel and storage. - Racks — Travel tie-downs, storage racks, display racks and bike racks; a surfboard rack for the shop floor, the garage or the van. - The small items — Wax, inserts, paddles and apparel fill out the same order, so a season's accessory list does not have to be split across suppliers.
CIMI Sports began with a small group of surfers and outdoor people who wanted gear they could rely on. The first products were designed, built and then taken straight back to the water by the same team, and that loop — make it, ride it, change it — is still how the range develops.
What started as a handful of items for friends has grown into a brand used by surfers, shops and schools in a lot of different water. The team is bigger and the catalogue now covers leashes, fins, traction, covers and racks, but the working method has not changed: the people who design the surf traction pad are the people who test it, and a product only reaches the catalogue once it has been ridden properly.
We are still, at heart, a group of enthusiasts making gear for other enthusiasts. That is the part of the business we protect.
- Durability — Gear is made to take the elements rather than to look good for one season; a pad that fails early is a failure of the design. - Functionality — Every detail has to earn its place on the board. If a feature does not help the rider, it does not go on the product. - Style — Function comes first, but the gear should still be something a rider is glad to be seen with, which is why the traction range runs several graphic treatments. - Environmental responsibility — Eco-friendly packaging and sustainable production methods are part of how the products are made, not an afterthought. - Adventure — The point of all of it is the session; the gear should disappear into the background and let the day happen.
A board spends far more time on a surfboard rack than it does in the water, and the people who ride our gear spend that time thinking about the next session. We want to hear about it: send us a photo of your board with a fresh pad fitted, tell us how it went in the conditions you ride, and ask us when something does not feel right. Shops and schools are part of this too. A photo of a traction wall, or of a fleet of rental boards lined up after a refit, tells us more about how a design sells than any report, and it shapes what we develop next. Wherever you are and whatever you ride, there is a place for you in the CIMI community.
CIMI is a factory-based supplier with 16 years in surf and watersports hardgoods, manufacturing at our own facility rather than sourcing through traders. Chain stores, supermarkets and surf-brand stores buy from us because one supplier covers a full accessory assortment, so a season's order and its reorders can be planned together. We take on OEM and private-label work, adapting designs, colourways and branding to your programme, and we schedule production against your agreed range plan. Send us your buy list and target dates, and we will confirm what we can make and when.
- Designed and built by the same team — The people who draw the pattern work alongside the people who cut and press it, so a change to an outline or a graphic is agreed by everyone who has to make it work. - Materials matched to the job — The upper surface has to grip and resist wear, the cushion has to stay springy through a season, and the adhesive has to hold on a curved deck. Each is chosen for its own task. - Ridden, not just measured — Products are tested in real conditions by a team that surfs, and a pad that feels wrong underfoot is changed before it reaches a shelf. - Repeatable between runs — Construction, fitting and finish stay the same from one production run to the next, so a reorder matches what you sold last season. - Checked before it is packed — Surface, edges, backing and print are inspected as the pads come off the line, and anything that does not meet the standard does not ship. - Consistency across the range — The same standard applies to every design in the surfing traction pad line, which is what lets a buyer mix designs on one shelf without mixing quality.
