Windsurfer for sup

[highlander51]

I have a Fanatic cat 380 windsurfer that I drug out to do some flat water paddling and thought that it might work ok for some down wind.  It's 12' 26.5" wide, but double concave bottom.   250 liter volume. I had it out on a flat lake and it paddled fine, but wondering about the ocean.  Any ever done this?  I want to see how I would like this down wind stuff before I buy a proper down wind board.
I sup surf every day but I'm getting the bug for this for flat ocean days for the work out.

[PonoBill]

Sure, lots of people have. Take a look at this article on Ke Nalu for the outer edge in windsurfer reborn as SUP board.
http://www.kenalu.com/2010/01/25/the-low-buck-option/

[highlander51]

Thanks Bill.  I'm going to take it with me in the am to Malibu, so if no waves I'll have something to do. There are three of us at the Bu that surf every day on sup's and have been kicking around the idea of going up the coast to Latigo and going down wind to Malibu. We will see how it goes.

[highlander51]

Ok, so I took out this thing today.  Not so fun. It felt like I was rolling a log on one of those lumberjack competitions. At 26.5" and 6" of free board the side chop put me off in no time. Trying to get back on the board was even hard.
I'm 6" and 215 lbs. so how long of a board should I start demo for an all around down winder? I feel like 30" wide would be a minimum, but I know the shape plays into the width.

[DavidJohn]

Try and demo a big Naish 11'6" and you'll notice a huge difference.. You want to make the learning experience fun and enjoyable.. not hard work and frustrating.

DJ

[highlander51]

The 11'6" was one of the first boards I used when I started sup. I loved surfing that board but sold it to Vince Klyn after he got in a motorcycle accident and could not surf anymore.  Vinny now surfs that board and is working on a 10' Aipa.
I'm looking for more of a racing/ touring board. This windsurfer was more shaped like a down wind  board so I thought that I try it. Fine in a lake but no good in the ocean.

[DavidJohn]

I thought you were looking at using a windurfer board to learn to SUP and didn't realize you'd been doing it for a while.

Sounds like you need to demo a 14' Glide.. It's a beauty.. Not that wide but still very stable.. and loves the rough stuff.

DJ

[PonoBill]

30 inches is really a lot for a downwinder. My F18 is 28, and the Penetrator is 22" unladen, 24" with 185 pounds on it, 24.5 with 250. The Jimmy Lewis Slice is a fast short board that's very tubby, but it's a weird exception. I have no idea why it's fast, it looks like a sunfish--like it should have a lateen sail, a girl in bikini, a guy with a flatop and a polo shirt, and a picnic basket on the deck--but it's really fast.

Let's see, where was I...oh, yeah...
 
You need to get your sea legs with almost any board, and a board that is going to be fast on a downwinder can be a particular challenge. You already know how to SUP, so this won't discourage you, I say stick with it a while. The first few times I tried the penetrator I thought it was impossible. A week later I wondered what my problem was.

[highlander51]

Ponobill, I know that you had a Starboard point and read some of the discussion about it . I found one that I may try to demo along with a pin this weekend. I can get a really good deal on the point, about the same price as the pin. At 215 I know that is around the limit on the point weight wise. What do you think of these boards?

[PonoBill]

Excellent board, 215 should be okay. I sold mine to Rod Parmenter and he's a really hard to beat on it. It's designed by Mark Raaphorst. I was simply too heavy for it to perform well.

[highlander51]

Thanks, I'll give it a go. I sold my big easy mainly to free up some cash for a real down wind board.

[ian]

Ive just bought an old Mistral Maui12'x26.5 not sure about the volume but it certainly looks the goods for flatwater inland paddleing.its also got nice rounded rails, looking at it i think it may be o.k. in the sea.Just wondering if there would be any restrictions on entering races on it.Ian

[PonoBill]

I can't imagine that there would be Ian, I've never seen any restriction on board type. Just make sure it's really 12'6" if you're going to enter it in stock 12'6" classes.

[highlander51]

Well I took this thing out again today. Much calmer conditions and I put some decking down. I had applied monster paint because I had it, but my feet were slipping so I could not recover once I started to fall.
What a differance with the decking. I had a blast, this thing hauls -ss. I mainly want to get a feel for this down wind stuff before spending alot of money. Sunday there is a demo day in Santa Barbra and I'll demo the Pin and the Point from Starboard.
I was out maybe 1 hour and was thrashed. What a work out.

Ponobill, did you race Vintage cars? the car in your picture looks like an old sports racer.
I raced with VARA for some years but to much money nowadays.