Will it downwind? Yes or No?

[PonoBill]

Dominator is the only flatwater 14 I will probably keep, because it's fairly fast in flatwater with my weight on it. Sooner or later there's going to be a race I want to enter that won't take unlimiteds or surfboards, my two preferred choices.  I hated it in downinding, but I've seen people use them successfully. I suspect my weight made it different. It was constantly rounding up out of the bumps.

[Off-Shore]

Well it has been nearly a year since I started this thread and so I decided to take out one of our family iSUPs (an 11' RPC Sport with the bendy centre fin) for the ride of its life today.. But will it downwind?

[Muskoka SUP]

Well...? The SUPspense is killin' me!!!

[Area 10]

Well, so far he's concluded that everything he's paddled will downwind, so there's not really *that much* suspense is there, haha!?

[Muskoka SUP]

Well, so far he's concluded that everything he's paddled will downwind, so there's not really *that much* suspense is there, haha!?

Well...  Yeah, I know.  Just trying to take the opportunity to use a bad pun. Actually, I don't even think it's a pun.  A play on words.. Yeah that's it. A bad play on words..
Area 10, you better be careful not to let the air out of his SUP review..

[Off-Shore]

Sorry to keep you waiting.... Just not got time to edit the vid... But this one was different. I have no idea why or whether it was just me, the flexi-fin (which you can take the tip and bend easily 90 deg to the right or left) or the board shape or the conditions, but it was.... let's say... unexpected.... Video will be done by the weekend.

[Area 10]

Wait...he's not about to say "no" for the first time, is he???! Now THAT is what I call SUPspense haha!

[yugi]

center fin? you mean like a daggerboard like on a WindSup? The 11' Sport doesn't have that, as far as I know, so are you trying to say the  fin and thrusters are all flexy? Even that I'm not getting as the current 11' Sport has a US box fin. Did an older model have Ride model like 3 flexy fins?

Can't imagine DWing a WindSup with center fin would be productive. The board would round up on rail (death roll) like crazy, I imagine.

DWing the little floppy fins would make the board be a bit spinny, I imagine. Like sledding on one of those plastic round saucers. DWing a shorter/wider "familly" iSup is all about the plastic saucer sled ride quality anyway - hang on and enjoy the spin. Like a pinball in a pinball machine.

Edit to add: I see from your pic it sure looks like the 11' Sport. Only plausible thing I can figure is you mean you used the special flexy floppy river fin in the US box?

Now I'm curious too. Either it's a revelation and the dawn of the FlexyFin era  OR [more likely I imagine] you have a healthy respect for river riders all of a sudden.

[Off-Shore]

Edit to add: I see from your pic it sure looks like the 11' Sport. Only plausible thing I can figure is you mean you used the special flexy floppy river fin in the US box?

Now I'm curious too. Either it's a revelation and the dawn of the FlexyFin era  OR [more likely I imagine] you have a healthy respect for river riders all of a sudden.

It's the 2016 11' Sport and you are correct, I used the flexy floppy river fin in the US box, as I found out the old rigid RPC fin does not fit in the box despite looking like it does. I'll let the vid speak for itself.. I'm not sure if it was this or the conditions, or me or the board, but it was one crazy ride... fell twice, which for me on this run is just (a little) unusual..

[yugi]

^ only !!!???

[Off-Shore]

Okay... Here it is... Little bit more of a preamble than last year's ones, as it shows my dilemma with the flexi-fin, and some of my safety gear for those thinking of attempting a similar journey on an iSUP..  The knife is to fend off sharks from biting my iSUP..

You can see at the end, it just bolted for the shore like some reluctant dog after coming back from a walk it did not want to go on.. It was fun. It was challenging. But if I had to do it again, I'd take the RPC 10' (or 9'8") with its 3 little flexi fins over this one anytime...


GorPro 4 Headmounted

[DavidJohn]

Sort-of doesn't also.. 

[Area 10]

Oh for heaven's sakes - that's a "no". It's a dog downwind.

That fin will be tragic for DW, but there is more than that going on with the stickiness and failure to plane. It would be worth trying on another day just to make sure it wasn't odd conditions that day. But on the face of it, this looks to be pretty much as bad as any SUP gets for downwinding IMO.

[coldsup]

It's a no OS. Hard boards all the way

[Off-Shore]

Oh for heaven's sakes - that's a "no". It's a dog downwind.

That fin will be tragic for DW, but there is more than that going on with the stickiness and failure to plane. It would be worth trying on another day just to make sure it wasn't odd conditions that day. But on the face of it, this looks to be pretty much as bad as any SUP gets for downwinding IMO.

Alright, I will concede that it was a dog downwinding, but If I get a chance, I'm going to stick a hard fin in it and try again...