I was thinking of putting a skit plate on both ends which takes a lot of impact/abuse...but at least to me just not justify spending that kind of money to buy the kit to put it on....so I ended up putting duct tape on both sides (3 to 4 layers), just replace it every other 3 or 4 times outing...cost not even 1 roll of tape each time.....cheap...plus you can see which part takes up the most impact.... black or silver your choice to match up the color of your canoe, I even put white, blue and red