SUP board comparsion

[thornburg99]

Hi all -

I am new to the forum and new to SUP.  looking for advice, please!
I am wanting to buy my first board (inflatable) but not sure if either of my potential choices are the right board for me and where I plan to ride.

Info about me and where I want to ride:  rented board before at local lake several times.. did fine with it.   I am 47 yr old female of large body type (200+ lbs) who plans to ride mostly on local lakes, however when I take my beach vacations to OBX, NC, want to ride on sound side and ocean side (on those calm mornings  ).

Board's I am looking at:
-  Red paddle Co : 10'8" Ride MSL
-  2016 Starboard 10' Astro Whopper Deluxe Inflatable

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, tips would be greatly appreciated. any other boards I should look into also?
I am excited to get out there more often but concerned about getting the best board for me.

thanks,
thornburg99

[JimK]

Hey,

The Astro Whopper is a nice board but I think you are over engineering your needs Another great board to consider (that happens to be on Closeout) is the Fanatic 11FT X 32" It is stiffer and more durable and is very competitively priced

If you are interested in the ZONER DEAL on any of these PM or email me

JimK
Extreme Windsurfing

[PDLSFR]

I have the Starboard Astro Zen 10'5 inflatable and it is a great board, fun on flat water and even surfs well. I picked up their carbon 3 peice paddle which fits in the bag nicely and makes for a perfect travel set up.

I have also heard good things about the Red Paddle boards as well.

If you can try to demo different boards as one might feel better to you than another.

[spookini]

You probably can't go wrong with any of those 3 choices (incl the Fanatic).
The Reds do ship with a very nice padded duffel w/ shoulder straps and luggage wheels....

But in my experience, you DON'T use the travelbag much.  It's a nice bell-and-whistle but mostly eye candy.
The Red goes to 25psi, but the others you can take to at least 20psi, no problems.

Your choice might come down to graphics (personal preference), and price.  Mr.K's zoner pricing is hard to beat

Keep in mind, whichever board you choose, you will want to get a high-pressure pump, or maybe a double-barrel high pressure pump like the Red "Titan"(?) pump.  Getting beyond 15-16psi with a standard single-barrel HP pump is quite a workout.  But worth the extra rigidity.

And you'll want to save some coin for a nice lightweight carbon paddle.  You'll learn quickly that a cheapie paddle is miserable..