Lightweight piste (Leon Paul) at Atlanta NAC

[Craig]

They had one in Atlanta for nationals and while I didn't fence anything that counted on it I did get to warm up on it and liked it just fine.

The ones at Summer Nationals were from Absolute. They LP, Absolute, and Artos strips all look to be the same materials. There may be some slight variations, but I haven't seen anything to make me thing they are remarkably different from each other.

Craig

[KD5MDK]

This strip was being sent back to Leon Paul because it was delaminating (under cushion was separating from the conductive surface). The USFA armorers have only used this two or three times, so I don't think they were impressed with the durability.

I presume you are referring to the Atlanta NAC here.

Who were the armorers for that one?

[rcmatthews]

The one at the Atl NAC had wires running through the base material. It looked sort of like a pin striped suit if I remember correctly. I think that possibly putting it over a carpet pad would help. When my pool first started to fence on it, it was only taped at the ends. We finally got them to get an armorer and tape the rest of it, but it still slid around.

[swordsen]

If you put it over a carpet pad it will get hole poked in in quickly. WE bought some of these from Germany through TCA recently and had to send one of them back the same weekend due to de laminating. I was telling Bill at LPUSA about as we looked at his and I saw the same issue there but on a smaller scale. Luckily the guys in Germany are being good about replacing it. It seems there were several in that batch tha didn't get glued properly.
The LP and the German ones look almost identical. ( I think the conductive wires run in different directions but don't hold me to that) Durabilty will be a substantial issue I suspect in the long run. Our university likes them though becasue they are much easier to put down on their nice gym floor than our older metal strips.