Making a handle in the bottom of Slingshot Wizard 125 liter.

I would like to have a handle in the bottom of my Slingshot Wizard 125 liter.

Did anybody ever try to make this DIY by making a small hole in the bottom of the board.

I guess in the middle in the center of gravity of the board with the foil mounted.

Or did anybody break his board around this place : are there reinforcements at that place I better not cut into pieces ?

Maybe you could purchase a handle and glass it in, some handles you can hook your fingers in and pick up the board with one hand.

If you mean an inset carry handle like on a SUP board yes it can be done but it needs to be a handle that is in a high density foam cassette otherwise its going to fail and leak recommend to find someone that has done it before.

Thank for your good ideas and interesting insights.

1. Hydrosurf and KDog : these prefabricated inside handle boxes seem indeed a good idea. Do you have examples or experience with this ? I felt inside a factory installed box and it feels curved for better grip.
2.BullroarerTook : this is a very good and original idea. So I guess it can easily be removed at all time ? Will have indeed a (small) effect during taxing. I'm thinking of a hand a little bit foil shaped not in the lenght but width of the board. Could be a small extra foil in the middle of the board.

3. The idea of BullroarerTook makes me think of a rubber suction handle I could carry around and put in the zipper pocket of my impact jacket. Snap on and off when necessary.

4. By the way right now I'm doing someting similar. I have a small rope / belt in the zipper pocket. I put it through both front footstraps underneath the board and then pull the board up on these rope/belt on the bottom side. I have a 500 meter standing depth area

5 Mark_australia is the best and easiest idea : I'm in Belgium and I'll send the board right over through the earth.
So there is a carbon stringer there in the middle. So I guess just making a hole, putting a prefabricated handle box in with some super slow epoxy is not a good idea I guess.


Guido

I read somewhere that the slingshot boards are a different construction than a regular sandwich windsurf board. Is that true?

Yes - no bottom sandwich in those model of Wizard

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Mark _australia said..
It's a very good idea
router hole
stick in with resin and qcell

sand a shallow depression and glass over

as an aside, have a good look there for creasing across the bottom the slingshots are notorious for it
if doing a handle it's a good opportunity to put a bit of repair effort in. actually not just creasing, if one concave is quite a bit deeper or vee is funny it shows it's trying to twist. Seen some real interesting ones

Confirming that Mark does excellent work

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YellowHelmet said..
these prefabricated inside handle boxes seem indeed a good idea. Do you have examples or experience with this ? I felt inside a factory installed box and it feels curved for better grip.

I have used prefab handles bought on Amazon (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W61GVT2/). Easy to put in (route exactly, use very slow epoxy + some filler). They are not quite as comfortable as the handles in commercial boards, but perfectly fine.

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YellowHelmet said..
The idea of BullroarerTook makes me think of a rubber suction handle I could carry around and put in the zipper pocket of my impact jacket. Snap on and off when necessary.

I've used a rubber suction handle for a while to carry windfoil gear. The problem I had was that it would sometimes come loose while I was carrying the gear. I ended up using climbing sling that I wrap around the fuse and my hand, with the other hand on the mast foot. Good balance and control, and even weight on both arms.