New models and trends in the Stand Up World in 2016
Now the 2015 race season is almost ending, the SUP world is waiting for the new models of 2016. The trend in the racing world seems to be creating all purpose/ all water race boards. Until now, each brand had a flat-water dedicated race board and possibly a downwind oriented board. But many few races in the world are really full flat water. Maybe the famous SUP 11 City in Holland also called the Tour de France of SUP can be considered as such a full flat water race. In general most of the races have some choppy water or wind factor and the racers had to paddle with narrow flat-water boards or carry multiple boards. In 2016 we will see more all round shapes that can handle medium chop, decent downwind but also can be raced in the flat-water.
Still the trend of narrowing the boards continues. The designers are introducing some concave shapes in the bottom to compensate the lack of width with the balance problems. I hope this trend will stop somewhere otherwise only skinny professional SUP racers will be able to paddle on these boards. Many people are afraid that the SUP industry will do the same mistake like the windsurf brands did in 90s.
On the SUP surfing front, the trend that started this year and in 2016 we will see more is those flat nose boards. I call them the chocolate bar shapes. Almost all major brands have one and they seem to be a good choice for weaker waves like we have in Mediterranean.
A quick look into the race boards in 2016
As usual, all major brands update their models. Especially Starboard is famous of updating their models almost too fast. The popular All Star model has been updated again but this time the updates are really big and interesting. The board got the bottom shape of the Race model, which only survived one season. The concave bottom shape supposed to give the new All Star better stability and some advantages on the flat water since the board needs that. It looks like a medium chop – downwind board. I have a 2014 model All Star and love it and look forward to test this one. As usual the All Stars come in 4 different widths and in 12’6 or 14 feet lengths.
Once a niche but dominant player in downwind world, SIC, became a big player as soon as they have been part of a bigger sports brand. Their X models are quite popular in all flat-water races. Now the legendary shaper Mark Raaphorst released an all round race board called FX competing with All Star and others. I talked to the racers of the SIC brand and they sound very happy. This FX board will give them the possibility to compete in the not so flat races better. The board has a more tail rocker than the X and a more chop friendly nose shape plus no recessed deck.
Naish Javelin is also updated with a more semi surf, semi downwind nose to make it more useful in all conditions. We always have problems to test them here in Spain because they are so expensive but great boards. Naish fans will like it for sure.
Fanatic Falcon series also got an update. The previous version was a good downwind board but not so fast enough in the real medium chop race conditions. The new Falcon seems to be in the line of All Star or Javelin shape. Fanatic released also a pure flat-water model called Striker that can be used in flat water channels.
What are those chocolate bar looking SUP surf boards?
Â
It all started about 2 years ago in California when some SUP surfers were experimenting with their shaper friends to take the Vanguard/Simmons surf board designs and implement them to SUP world. The concept became so popular; in many SUP forums people were talking about these boards. The boards are shorter, have parallel rails and a straight cut nose. Some of them have wide tails, some have fish tail and some have really narrow tails. These boards are surprisingly stable for their size and volume, super fast in medium size waves and most importantly very much fun. Now the big brands picked up the idea and developed similar models.
Starboard calls its line the Hyper Nut. They have 9 different Hyper Nuts to choose from. They have mono concave bottoms and apparently a big seller.
Hokua Raptor is Naish’s weapon of choice. It has also a slab nose, V-bottom and sharp rails. A good choice for smaller and weaker waves.
Fanatic’s model is called Stubby and they have an inflatable version of it too.
But my favorite of these new slab nose funky toys is the Speeed from Sunova. Sunova is a surf brand from Australia and the shaper Bert Burger is well known. The Speeed has a new XXX Balsa wood technology and they look amazing. I ordered one Speeed for myself.
Exciting new models are coming in 2016 so good luck in earning the money to buy them.
Until the next article I wish you a lot of fun time on the water. If you have any questions about SUP surfing or real estate in Mallorca (which is my real job), you can reach me at ahmet@mallorcaresidencia.com. Information about SUP events in Mallorca can be found on our Club de SUP Mallorca Facebook page, www.facebook.com/groups/clubsupmallorca.
Ahmet Senoglu
