Best Unlimited Board for Flat Water

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Need some input on what is the best unlimited race board available for flat water conditions.  Bark ? Ohana ?, etc.......  16 ft + in length.

[blueplanetsurf]

Bark and Ohana make great unlimited boards for flatwater.  Generally speaking, narrower is slightly faster, but it you fall, even just once in a race, because your board is too tippy, you would have probably been faster with a wider board.  If conditions are calm you can use a narrower board and probably don't need a rudder but with choppy/ windy conditions you want more stability and a rudder.

I'm sure you have done your research and have read these two posts:
http://zenwaterman.blogspot.com/2009/11/sup-race-board-comparison-planing-vs.html

and:
http://zenwaterman.blogspot.com/2011/07/flatwater-speed-test-unlimited-sups.html

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Thanks for the links.  The second link was very interesting.  The Ohana board certainly pulled ahead in the one test. 

[Nemo]

Naish have a ace in their sleeve...a 14' javelin "super light" comming soon

Sent from my GT-I9100

[TallDude]

Richmond's are the fastest. T-Max, Brian S, etc. etc. all paddle Craig's boards. http://richmondpaddleboards.com/index.html   Craig is the king and master of the unlimited world. He just understands very long boards, and makes them very light. I just raced a 18'-8" x 24.5" carbon Richmond in the Hanohano last weekend. It's a 5 mile flatwater race, and I shaved 15 minutes off my time from last year. The board is a lot more stable than you would think for a 24.5" wide, and it is knife'y fast. I think it weighs about 25 pounds. I saw a Rogue unlimited, and on closer inspection it looked like a Richmond. Then I saw Craig's little nautilus shell logo by the nose. T-Max's Riviera unlimited is a Richmond. Craig has not updated his site for over 5 years I'm sure, but he is constantly building boards for the best racers. His prices are very reasonable too. I've raced and paddle just about every brand of unlimited on the west coast, and in my opinion Richmond's are the fastest.

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Cool looking board.  What was your average speed ?

[TallDude]

The race was 4.75 miles with no wind to speak of. I did it in 44 min. so my average speed was 6.5 mph. I got dunked twice along the way. 270 SUP's hitting the first turn was pretty crazy.

[Area 10]

Average speed 6.5mph. Wow. I'm sure that board is excellent. But you must be equally as good.

The hull speed for a displacment hull boat of 18.66 ft is, I think, around 6.4mph. So you were averaging hull speed, which takes some doing, especially if you fell twice and had turns to contend with.

Wish I could do that.

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Sounds like a very fast board. How stable is it compared to an Ohana?

[TallDude]

I like the Ohana, but they are mass produced at 26" wide. They are not setup like an all custom, one off, fit to you company (which Craig Richmond is). The Ohana's double chined bottom is unique, but they don't feel as fast. All the big name racers no longer paddle them. Your a little higher above water line, which takes away from stability. Most of the Ohana's I've paddled were fiberglass. Though they were light (lightly glassed) they flexed quite a bit. I had an older Ohana that I was considering a trade on until I saw it leaking in more than a few spots. It was a team riders at one time, and it had seen better days. The Richmond's I've paddled are all carbon, well made, very light and stiff.

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Hey Talldude that is good information to know.  I have heard they are not as stable as others.  I will look into the Richmond boards.  Thanks