Evening,

Having been through various threads on here I am SUP curious. I am looking at getting a couple of boards around £350 budget per board. What confuses me is all the brands. I know the Red ones are high end but beyond that I am at a loss in a sea of SUP.

Anyone have any experience at that price or able to point me in the right direction?

Thanks

What do you want to do with it? Touring? Whitewater? Pottering?
For general use something about 10”6’ and 15cm thick will be spot on.

Whitewater is shorter. Touring is much longer.

Thread title should really be “WhatSUP?”

Yo! SUP

I went for this one https://www.tbmaritime.com/product-page/v-boat-stand-up-paddle-board

Came next day. It’s a fairly generic one but the guy has a small business  so we happy to support him

Still not had a chance to get out despite the weather  😔

I think the intended purpose is pottering, maybe use in small surf on a river too. Is that too broad for one board?

What are you planning to use it for? Most folks start out on a 10ft x 32” wide board – fine for learning, pootling about but may find it limiting after a while if venturing further afield. More rigid boards are better in any sort of chop, longer boards relative to width glide better but don’t turn as easy.

Nah a general play board will cope fine with that. I have a 14’ tourer and a 10’6”
The long uns great for going places and the other ones more playful

Decathlon

The Mrs bought a couple of these last year

No likely Amazon link but they were;

Bestway Hydro-force SUP, Oceana Convertible Stand Up Paddle Board set with Hand Pump

She has a good quality SUP and these were to use and leave at her sister’s . They work fine and were good value. The pump is the weakest bit of the lot but you can always buy a better quality or even electric one later.

We have a Decathlon one – 10′ I think. Seems good quality and lighter than the TwoBareFeet one we already had, so just ordered a couple more.

Avoid Cool-surf/Cool-snow – no boards in stock and if you order direct from them lots of people are getting an import/VAT bill on top.

“Real” brands, i.e. ones which are actually designing and focussing on SUPs and not branding Up stuff from China include

Red
Starboard
O’Shea
JP Australia
Jobe
Fanatic
Neish
and some others

Tahe is Bic (the ballpoint pen company that also makes surfboards).

There are some others,McConks is a UK brand, Anomy do ‘funky’ patterns, Sea Lion are ‘eco friendly’.

Most of these won’t get you down to 350. Red and Starboard are probably the more premium brands. JP do an all-round board in their lightest construction for 399.

Don’t know much about Decathlon.

The standard all round board is 10’6″ X 32″ X 6″.

Forgot to mention that I was told if the description mentions “military-grade” with regard to the materials then it’s probably full of crap!

What’s the local consensus on that board Drac? Same price range I’ve been looking at and a want to avoid dubious imports and rebrands etc.

Another vote for decathlon. At least you can return it to a store if it has issues

“Real” brands, i.e. ones which are actually designing and focussing on SUPs and not branding Up stuff from China include

Where are these “real” boards made then? I think you’ll find it’s not by dudes in small shacks between discussions about how the ethos of SUP has been exploited by ruthless corporates. 🤣

Where are these “real” boards made then? I think you’ll find it’s not by dudes in small shacks between discussions about how the ethos of SUP has been exploited by ruthless corporates. 🤣

I think the point being made is those brands design and develop and have it made vs choose an off the peg design and rebrand it.
No ones denying it all comes from China

Back in ‘the day’ most Decathlon windsurf boards were basically re-badged BIC. Not always most cutting edge, but decent quality and perfect for most folk. If the same ( or similar approach) applies here, would see no reason not to look at Decathlon.

Yup the “real” was in quotation marks for a reason.

It’s very hard to tell with SUPs how much thought goes into them but there is a bit of a dividing line between boards which have been designed or at least specced by the brand selling them and ones which have been picked out of a big catalogue and badged up. That’s all I was trying to delineate.

I could very well be wrong too. Like I say it’s hard to tell.

You can get one made by a guy in shed but it will be a hardboard and cost thousands.

And despite them all coming from China and being huge lumps of plastic I think it’s worth trying to get one that is well designed and will last rather than end up in landfill by next summer, as I suspect so many will be.

At that price we were recommended aquaplanet by the person we borrowed off last week.

Looked at reviews they seem to have a 10’6 board with good customer service and aftersales which appears to be the deferentiator at this price point all the actual boards look the same

SUP ?

Mavic SUP ?

Stronger and smoother joint

Soudé Usiné Process.

After bending, the rim joint is arc welded. The welded seam is then milled for a smooth finish.
– Extremely strong rim joint
– Eliminates shuddering when braking
– Superior wheel balance

If you are curious, I’d highly recommend going and trying it by having a lesson or two – it also means that you should get to try different types (all round, touring etc) and differing brands. You’ll more likely get on with it enough to be able to then hire to try different brands before you spend loads of money.

Can one sit down on a SUP?

Can one sit down on a SUP?

I believe so, yes. But you have to call it a SDP.

From what I can see, SUPs are like bikes. If you spend £450+ you get a decent board that you won’t want to upgrade after a couple of months. Then as you spend more you get a board that will flatter your limited abilities, but with ever smaller returns as the price goes up. I went for a Fanatic Fly Air Pure in 10ft 4in which has served me well and I haven’t felt the need to upgrade. I do wish I’d gone for a better paddle to start with though as a decent carbon paddle feels much more efficient. I borrowed a friend’s RED 50% carbon paddle and it was so much lighter and stiffer than mine.

I went for a Fanatic Fly Air Pure in 10ft 4in

Got exactly the same one after a fair amount of research.

I love it, does everything i need, is incredibly stable and a real joy to potter around on. Had plenty of stuff on it to.

Agree the default paddle isn’t great, it slips down during use which is a bit annoying. tried tightening the clamp thing, but no joy. Time to get out the carbon fibre paste from the bike part box!

I painted a picture of some SUPs and it sold last weekend.

Not sure if that helps but I was happy

I’d agree with @Mister-P that a decent paddle makes more of a difference, I’ve got a composite Red one for kids to use and it’s fine but the bamboo and fibreglass one is wonderful to use in comparison. More power, less weight and lovely flex.

I seem to remember in my kayaking days the same, I had a set of Werner carbon paddles which were superb compared to aluminium shaft and plastic bladed ones.

I might go for that Fanatic board too. Looks decent, good reviews and only a bit over budget. Also take on board the point about paddles not all being equal.

Have tried SUP a few times and whilst not in love with it does make sense for getting on the water where we live.

Mrs LDM got me a Bluefin, happy with that,

not to hijack the thread but…….

The plastic pump broke and noticed you can get an adapter for a SOP – Schradar valve, thinking the BlowJoe would be more efficient? has anyone tried this?

I got an aqua marine vapour a little bit ago. Seems nice and was £380 all in. It was to share. Now I want one for myself as its a lot of fun.

I have been looking at the fanatic air pure ones a lot and they seem decent enough. I remember fanatic from my windsurf days so its a familiar name. Probably a tiny bit fancier than the vapour I have now but I doubt I would notice performance differences paddling around a lake. I really want one for this weekend but I think I have left it a bit late!

@worldclassaccident love that pic. If you ever do another give me a shout

The plastic pump broke and noticed you can get an adapter for a SOP – Schradar valve, thinking the BlowJoe would be more efficient? has anyone tried this?

Bike pumps are low volume & high pressure which is the opposite of a SUP pump. A friend of mine uses an electric car tyre pump on her board and it takes forever to inflate. I’d buy a pump designed for the job.

grantyboy – I take commissions. NicksArtStuff.com

Bike pumps are low volume & high pressure which is the opposite of a SUP pump. A friend of mine uses an electric car tyre pump

Yes I’d quite like to cut the cords in those.

Sitting at the side of the loch last week and a couple reverse up as close as they can get to the loch and unroll their board then fire up two pumps simultaneously into their boards with the engine idling…..

No need no need at all. I did ask if they could turn the ignition off while parked but I was told they needed it for their pumps. The point I feel was lost entirely on them.

Wouldn’t be so bad if the electric pumps did it faster -they didn’t . Was a good 20minutes of ddddddddrrrrrrrlllll

Should have suggested the little CO2 canisters. Much quicker and quieter 🙂

I agree the electric pumps make no sense at all, unless perhapse you’re the downtrodden patriarch of a family of four and have to pump up all the boards whilst your kids and wife complain about the T6’s WiFi. It takes about 5 minutes to pump up a board, as for effort, it’s like people who drive to the gym to walk on the treadmill.

As for boards, I got one of the Lidl boards which show up as £599 on the Mistral website. And did 5 miles on it in about 1h40 yesterday. I can’t imagine it’s that much better or worse the other cheaper boards if Lidl could buy them in bulk and sell at £200. The aquaplannet ones get mentioned a lot on forums, the decathlon ones seem to hold their value unfeasibly well on eBay though.

Ignore the “it’s a fad” naysayers who moan that it’s all plastic landfill next year. It’s great fun. More akin to going for a hike and looking up at the view, whereas rowing/canoes are more like a bike looking down at the trail.

I agree the electric pumps make no sense at all, unless perhapse you’re the downtrodden patriarch of a family of four and have to pump up all the boards whilst your kids and wife complain about the T6’s WiFi. It takes about 5 minutes to pump up a board, as for effort, it’s like people who drive to the gym to walk on the treadmill.

Actually, this is unfair. I physically cannot pump a board up to the full volume (15 or 20 psi), it’s not just about getting knackered doing it either, I do not have the strength

So long as when pumping up using an electric pump is done with courtesy ref noise and keeping disturbance to a minimum.

Guessing you’re anti e-bikes too? 😉

Actually, this is unfair. I physically cannot pump a board up to the full volume (15 or 20 psi), it’s not just about getting knackered doing it either, I do not have the strength

A common complaint of cheap pumps in most of the sub 400 quid boards I have looked at is shit pumps. None of them looked anything like the pump I borrowed last week which had 2 settings and following the instructions I was given the board required no more strength than a bike tire to inflate it just takes longer.

@trail_rat
Nope. This is high end boards and dual action pump (although I have used single chamber too)
Also nice to be able to leave that and get the rest of the gear ready to get on the water but it really is a problem for me

Have we also considered the reasons as to why some people may not be able to use manual pumps and opt for alternatives?! 😊