I am fancying an sup for messing about in the med with,but dont fancy spending anywhere near the £1k that a recognised inflatable sup seems to cost.
To that end the decathlon itiwit/tribord inflatable sup looks decent value at around £300. Has Anyone got any feedback on these?
I appreciate that theyre probably not as good as the 1k jobs,but will they be good enough for a non serious sup'er who just wants to go bay hopping in mallorca?
Oops sorry,wrong forum ,could someone move this for me?
I'm going through the same thought processes.... Was out on a Red SUP yesterday but at £849 it aint going to happen!
Someone on here (Blitz) mentioned they were good I think.
If it's drop stitched (which I think they are) then it should be pretty good.
Well, ive just bought one,will report back after a few rides
Can you take a photo of the deck; want to see how much dropstitching there is...TVM
Will do
Here you go,hopefully this shows enough detail
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9J_dlzISUVdTkJub1JFcV9IOWs
Super-thanks. Looks good. You went for the 9'8"?
Yes 9 foot 8. Would have preferred the 10 foot 6 but they didnt have that in stock in the Palma decathlon,but should be ok with the 9 foot 8 one.
Wont get chance to try it until tomorrow,but hopefully it will do the job without breaking the bank
Keep me posted... Think I'll go for 10'7" online but yours will be better in the surf I guess....
I've got the 10' one, and have been out a few times so far but only on the river. Spent most of this weekend paddling around on it! It's good, seems very stable on little waves/wash from boats and doesn't really flex.
I don't have anything to compare it with, but build quality of the board, paddle and bag all seem good. It spent most of Sunday afternoon being used as a diving/jumping platform in the river for the kids while I steered it around- it's pretty stable!
As mentioned, we've had the 10' 6" one for a few months and have been really happy with it.
So, had a few exploratory rides on the decathlon sup, and it seems good, im still learning how to balance ,but the board itself seems great, no complaints from me. Im sure its not as good as a 1k board,but for my purposes its great
[img] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9J_dlzISUVdS0RjSjZqd2hUUlE/view?usp=drivesdk [/img]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9J_dlzISUVdS0RjSjZqd2hUUlE/view?usp=drivesdk
watching this with interest as can justify a cheap SUP, but nothing as serious as a Red etc.
unfortunately though julians has just won this thread with that last photo...i was only going to pootle up and down the thames 🙁
I just did not get on with inflatable SUPs. I'm pretty big and heavy though so I think that that played a huge part in it. For me it did not matter how inflated they are there is too much flex. That was using a variety of the Red models. Jumping on a rigid one was just night and day difference. Very much like kayaks in that respect.
But if it's just messing about and a rigid is not an option it'll be fine. Just don't get on a rigid one or you'll be permanently dissatisfied back on your inflatable.
I live on the thames, so would be looking at getting the bus/train up or down stream and paddling home etc...probably a bit tricky with a rigid board but from what i've seen perfectly doable with an inflatable.
I've only ever used an inflatable Red board, which felt solid to me - but interesting to hear how much difference it does make.
There is detectable flex with the decathlon board,not so much when youre paddling,but if you see someone padling past you see the board bending slightly.
Not an issue for me ,at least not yet anyway, maybe it will show its limitations as i get more experienced.
Standing and padling is harder that i expected ,im getting better every time i go out,but im very wobbly still and providing lots of entertainment for anyone watching
I might be telling you how to suck an egg here but look up J strokes and bow draws if you are not already familiar with the concepts. Always frustrating watching people constantly changing hands and sides with their paddle as they try to go in a straight line on flat water.
All help is gratefully received, will look that up, although at the moment perfecting my straightline paddling is coming second to just staying upright on the thing
I was providing a lot of entertainment to people on the various moored boats in the bay earlier
Well, I sold my HT and bought 2 10'7 ITIWIT boards from decathlon. Very impressed indeed. Felt no worse than the Red boards I was on a week earlier.
Did 6 miles on the river Avon yesterday and it was great. Opened up a whole new world....
Glad you're getting on well with them.
We were at SUP Armada last weekend at Bewl Water near us in Kent. 2 nights camping and SUP'ing on the reservoir. Weather was a bit hit and miss with some lovely sunny spells but some rain and bit breezy on the Saturday. Really enjoyed it overall.
We took our ITWIT but also took out demo boards. I was really interested to see how a premium board felt as I'd not been on one to compare before. I tried a 10' 8" fanatic fly air premium and didn't think it felt much different from the ITWIT. The deck surface was perhaps a bit nicer and I liked the colour scheme but I wouldn't pay 3 times the price for one for sure.
I used my SUP on the sea in the bays round mallorca for the rest of my holiday, it worked well, no complaints from me.
Still finding balancing quite tricky, but getting better with every outing.
Paddling into a headwind is hardwork. And I found the cheapo paddle I bought from decathlon is quite flexy, I guess I may buy a better quality paddle at some point.
Im back out in mallorca in august, so itll get another few outings then.