The board is designed to go fast and it does its job. It requires an advanced paddler though, since it's not the easiest board to balance on. It's extremely light, so you want to be very careful when you handle it. Specially in the wind, it's better to have someone helping when loading on/unloading off the car.
Designed for downwind runs (I had my longest glides ever), both me and Jeff had the impression that it would do really good on calm, flat water too. A board for efficient long distance stand up paddling.
Here's the baby.
Here's how to steer.
And here's a little video.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting
If you can't see it here, try here.
Thanks a lot to the shaper Mark Raaphorst that let us try the board. You can find more info about the F16 and other SIC products at paddlemaui.com.
Nice shirt, by the way!
4 comments:
I like the idea of the SUP, especially Marks version, he seems like a top bloke!
I am going to look into this a bit more.....GP could you explain to me why you would even need a steering system on a board, dont you steer with your weight distribution and the paddle?
Lano,
Mark IS a top bloke. I forgot to mention that he is the shaper of the Starboard 12.2 too...
I didn't use the steering at all during the downwind, but Mark told me it takes 8 to 10 runs to become good enough to use it during a downwind.
But the main reason for a steering system is when you're going from point a to point b and you have side cross wind. Without a steering system, you would be forced to paddle only on one side and that would quickly kill the muscle of that side. With the steering, you can compensate the deviating effect of the wind and keep alternating the paddling on both side.
Huge advantage.
Also it always fine tuning while surfing wihout adding DRAG to steer. So in tiny waves you do not loose energy in turning the board for longer glides.
cool broertje!
Post a Comment