Tyres - bad luck or am I doing something wrong?

I'm with the tyre boot crowd.  I make my own from old tyre sidewalls and, as Matthew says, stick 'em to the inside, overlapping the split by a fair bit.  I've never had one let me down.

I believe the Panaracer is a decent tyre, certainly not one of your £9 specials, so you must just be unlucky.  The only way is up!

Gaffa tape - two layers at right angles - also works for those. Put it on the back though.

Few tyres are immune to side cuts like that. The question is do they go right through? If they do you can put a boot on the inside of the tyre. I use car innertube patches. They're thick and effective. Combination of bad luck and the surface you're riding over, but they don't have to be binned just because of sidewall nicks.

 Panaracer maybe? (Made in Japan)

What tyres are they Mr Crank?

Pressure won't make much difference to sidewall nicks, it mainly helps prevent snakebite punctures.

What sort of surfaces are you riding on?  I took my cross bike over the downs a few times and got about three sidewall slices from flints/stones in a month before I decided that was terrain better suited to the MTB.

Methinks bad luck.