Adding Foam to Your Fishing Boat

This reFlex foam deck looks cool... but are there any downsides to a foam deck?

More and more these days, we’re seeing foam decking both on new model fishing boats and also in the form of retrofitting older boats. There are lots of companies producing it, and you can have it professionally installed or in some cases, buy the material in sheets and apply it yourself. But many anglers are a bit suspicious of this stuff. Is it really worth the cost to put it on your boat? What are the upsides, and what are the downsides?

This reFlex foam deck looks cool… but are there any downsides to a foam deck?

I’ve been through three different brands (SeaDek, ShipsDek, and reFlex) on three different boats over the past decade, and I’m a big proponent of adding foam decking to fishing boats. Here’s why:

It cushions your body, reducing wear and tear on your knees, back, and neck. It’s especially comfortable to kneel on as compared to rock-hard fiberglass.
When something gets dropped to the deck it cushions the impact, and eliminates the loud noise. Dropping a one-ounce lead weight on a fiberglass deck can spook every fish within casting distance, but on a foam deck it’s nearly silent.
This stuff looks great, and when done by a professional, you can add custom touches (like the redfish engraved into the reFlex in the picture above).
It’s grippier than fiberglass underfoot. If your boat gets slimed and you rinse the deck off, there’s no risk of anyone slipping.
It cleans up about as easily as an aggressive non-skid (and similar to fiberglass, when fish blood or leaf stains appear, they bleach out in the sun over time).

So, what about the downsides?

It does have a limited lifespan. If it’s not applied properly it can start coming up in a few years and when properly applied can be expected to last five to seven years – but then will need to be replaced.
Tears and rips can and do appear over time.
Oils and fuels can discolor the material.
In some rare cases if the boat is stored in such a way that sunlight hits a piece of metal or a gel-coated surface just right, it can reflect and magnify the sun and cause “sunburn,” distorting a spot in the material.

On the whole, whether this stuff is right for you or not is a judgement call only you can make. I know that for my part, I’ll never own a boat without it again.