I bought 4 of them on recommendations of others, thought I might use them someday. Going up the Welland canal with extreme turbulence in the lock bouncing the boat off the concrete we used these exclusively, they took an unbelievable amount of abuse and kept coming back for more. After all the mud and grime was washed off they still practically look like new. Having fenders available all the time is good advice, but having some REALLY BIG fenders available for some purposes saved me many thousands of dollars worth of Awlgrip.