Taping Poles

[VTechVaulter]

so the question about special wraps was never answered. Is that somethin you can ask pacer for, or do they only do it for Jeff.

[Carolina Extreme]

so the question about special wraps was never answered. Is that somethin you can ask pacer for, or do they only do it for Jeff.

They would have to answer for sure. But I believe they only do it for Jeff. They did custom wraps for a little while but I heard it was to time consuming for to little money. You can wrap your own with gym floor tape. It comes in many colors and widths. I wrapped my 11 yr old daughters pole in a rainbow of pastel colors. We tried a red on white criss-cross pattern on one of Chase's old poles. If you have an old pole that needs a face lift it is a good, protective, way to go.

[Russ]

Where does one buy "gym floor tape"? I've never heard of that one. Is there a web site where you can order it?

[Carolina Extreme]

Where does one buy "gym floor tape"? I've never heard of that one. Is there a web site where you can order it?

I have no clue about a website to order but you probably can order it that way. I just pulled a roll of ours out and it is made by a company called "Martin" out of Carlstad, NJ. It is "Multi-Purpose Plastic Tape" and is 60 yds long.

We bought ours from one of the better stocked sporting goods stores in our state. They called it gym floor tape, I'm assuming it's used to mark the lines. It is a little thicker and slightly heavier than the tape the manufacturers use, and definitely more protective. It comes in all sorts of colors and widths. We have red, royal blue, white, purple and green in 1/2", 1" and 2" widths. They had many other colors too.

I don't use them very often but they are great to have when we need them.

Jeff Hartwig used to get the same type of tape I believe as the manufacturers use. I don't know where he got it from though. He bought white and purple. I'm not sure but I believe Gill Athletics wraps his for him now. I guess they didn't want to take a chance of him jumping on a slightly misaligned wrapped pole and people might think they did it.

[vaultmd]

Rusty,

Do you have any good tips for wrapping one's own pole? I'm sure that if I tried doing my own right now, calling them pieces of crap would be an insult to all the crap in the world.

[Carolina Extreme]

Rusty,

Do you have any good tips for wrapping one's own pole? I'm sure that if I tried doing my own right now, calling them pieces of crap would be an insult to all the crap in the world.

Wilson, Always start from the bottom up for starters, so the tape will not roll down on you. Also once you have started the tape, pull several feet of tape off of the roll (but do not cut) and then roll the pole (either with your hand or maybe roll the pole down your thigh) to get the tape onto it. If you try to wrap the tape onto the pole it will be a disaster. The keys are have a steady length of tape ready to run it up the pole as you roll the pole away from your body. The gym floor tape is not extremely sticky so you can reposition it if you need to. It stretches too so pull it snug but not to tight because it will deform it's shape. Once I finish the different color wraps I wrap some of the tape around the bottom to dress it off. If you have any excess tape hanging out from under it you can gently press down on it with a pocket knife to trim it away. Be careful not to press hard enough to damage the fiberglass though.

If you want to go all out for a smooth clean look, clean the old fragmented and deteriorating tape off of your pole. It's nearly impossible to pull old tape off cleanly, try some turpentine or other solvent to loosen up the tape and to clean the old glue residue off also. Check with the crowd out at Earl Bell's to see what Jeff used to use on his. I'm pretty sure it was turpentine. I haven't cleaned one in a while but I think that is what I used on mine. If it's a newer pole and you just want to customize it you can apply the tape right over the smooth factory tape job and it'll come out still smooth.

Good luck with it. You'll probably screw it up a bunch of times like I have. LOL

[mcminkz05]

so this extra tape doesnt affect the pole at all? and if anyone finds somewhere you can order the stuff, let me know!

[Russ]

Hey I found it. They also sell it in narrower widths. You can find it easily by poking around a little on this site.

http://www.servicesports.net/Products_B ... tem_5.html

[Russ]

This page appears to have the other widths and lengths that they offer.

http://www.servicesports.net/Products_B ... ories.html

[VTechVaulter]

d***s sporting goods also carries it in store if u dont wanna pay for all the shipping from online purchases

[Carolina Extreme]

so this extra tape doesnt affect the pole at all?

We've had it on several of our poles for years now and the only difference is they seem to weigh slightly more but they seem to respond the same.

[mcminkz05]

http://dunhamssports.com/product/index. ... age=search

this is the same tape i think.. much easier to order than the other place!