Ive been doing alot of paddling lately and am in the process of knocking out a few “downwind” or race boards. I paddlesurf alot at San Onofre and get to surf with Ron House pretty much every day. We went down to a race for outriggers and paddleboards and kinda crashed the party and made them give us a division. I like racing alot and plan on doing more of it in the upcoming season. I have my ideas on what will make a board go as does everyone.
This is Ron’s take on it…
its a 14 foot standamaran. pretty much just a bisected blank with a stringer on either side. All I know about how it goes is what I found out by watching Keith paddle away from me like I was going backwards. Its held together by to carbon tubes affixed with fin boxes upside down and drilled through fins.
When I was mulling over design ideas, this was something I was thinking about. Im thinking of fully rounding up the bottoms into faster hull design, more like 2 outrigger hulls. Looks like Ron (the one with the white wide brimmed hat) beat me to it…
Very interesting indeed. Anyone have pics of Lairds race board? Ive heard rumors of a 16’ pack killing machine, more surfski than board. Would like to see it…
In the future, watch for all kinds of designs to pop up in the SUP arena. There is a huge potential market anywhere you find water. With influential surf gods like Laird Hamilton making international press crossing the English Channel etc, interest is sure to spread.
Flat water SUPs could be sold to inland enthusiasts. Big wave, racing, hotdog, touring, tandem and ??? are all potential niches in this untapped market.
Stand up paddlers are stoked to have a new and different toy. As with kayaks, there is a lot to be said for water craft that can be strapped to the roof of your car and launched anywhere. No trailer, no licensing or registration fees, no maintenance - just grab and go.
I’m trying to get some dims on the Timpone boards Laird and Dave Kalama used to paddle da islands. They look pretty thick and more like a paddleboard which is where the design has to go if you want to go fast. Just like the U/L paddleboards, our California boards should probably be be narrower and have less rocker than the Hawaiian downwind sleds.
There are some photos of a cool looking 16’ Jimmy Lewis board at the bottom of the thread at:
awesome, thanks Chris. Been kinda crappy lately. Ive been getting alot of paddling done lately.
So hear it is, what I kindof looking for in a touring rig. Baja coast runs, with camping gear being towed on a raft, or lashed to the deck.
check the self bailing vents in the last pic. With tech like that, you can scoop the deck pretty deep to bring down your center of gravity, mo’ stable ride I would suspect…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much into canoes and kayaks as well as surfboards, but I have to ask where the transition lies between a “Stand-Up-Paddle” surfboard and a “stand-on-top” kayak. The Hamilton craft seems to have way more design elements in common with a sit-on-top yak than SUP or any other variety of surfboards.
This is a very cool thread and this direction with the SUP open ocean stuff… I’m part of a new company that will be doing all kinds of SUP products and accessories and one division we’ve been approched with will be spearheading some very radical open ocean design stuff but I have to keep it under wraps for now… Listening to the smart guys in a meeting about where they want to take it was very inspiring even though I’m not a big open ocean paddle participant… All I can say is if they build what they are talking about with our team of guys helping them I’ll get more into paddling for sure!
I agree with Sam as far as these are not really a surfboard anymore. I think they are better defined as Stand Up Paddleboards… On occasion I take my 15 footer and catch some tiny waves and its fun but its really meant to paddle and catch open ocean swells… Whatever you call them, they will be popping up all over the place… Another thing about this type of design… Every serious builder is very hush hush about what they are developing because they are being built for competiton… They are being built to race… So far the best design I’ve heard of that actually has been raced is Dave Kalama’s 16 footer with a rudder… Dennis Pang told me at the start of the race he looked up and Dave was already pulling away from him on his lay down paddleboard… Within a few strokes he was a board length ahead… Within a minute he was 20 yards ahead and pulling away fast! Dave ended up finishing right behing Jamie Mitchell…
This is in infancy stages right now… Go for it guys and take this thing to the next level and beyond!! Aloha
Tried calling you today to tell you where SUP board design is going. Check out: http://www.joebarkpaddleboards.com/noahsclassifieds/ and click on “Classifieds.” Joe is now full on into building this type of craft and drawing heavily on his experience building some of the fastest and most sought after paddleboards around. I was at the race in Long Beach today and he had 6 demo boards from 14’ to 16’6". I could not believe the glide and can’t imagine how good they most go in downwind conditions. They don’t come cheap as it takes about twice the carbon fiber that it would take to make a racing paddleboard of the same size, but these are the most advanced racing SUP’s I’ve seen yet. That guy who’s name begins with an L is doing the R&D on the big boards - just wait and see what’s coming in the next few months.
