Covering
Covering the bottom of the floats is really a must. It makes the bottom smoother, protects the bottom from small dings and most important it adds considerable strength to the float. The simplest covering is to use 2” wide plastic packaging tape. Just as easy, a little lighter and looks better is to use the colored covering tape they use for covering foam wings. Your LHS will probably have some. Other covering options would be a low temperature iron on covering such as Econokote or Solite. One that is very easy to apply and one of the toughest is 3/4oz fiberglass applied with Minwax Polycrylic. The Polycrylic wets the fiberglass cloth and pulls it down on the foam. Because the cloth is so thin it is easy to apply to a curved surface. With any of the covering options I like to overlap about ¼” on the sides to give the corners of the float some protection. You could cover the whole float but I think this just adds unnecessary weight.

Although not essential you may want to consider gluing a piece of 1/32” ply to the back of the step to give it a little more protection.

I decided to cover mine with the colored tape and the pair now weighs 1.5oz.