White Water/Flat Water SUP?

[Jordo]

Spent last summer renting, lakes mostly.  Finally ready to pull thie trigger and buy my 1st board.  Looking to do both lakes and rivers.  Are there boards out there for both?

[Allan Cheateaux]

Depends. How bony are your local rivers? Too rocky and durability can be an issue.

[corran]

Bingo - how hard of whitewater do you want to run - vs how much flatwater.

For example... in our plastic line:

Stand up 10 - tracks better than the Rapidfire so better for flatwater, and can handle class 1 and 2 whitewater just fine, and in the right hands, class 3.

Stand up 12 - very fast on the flats (for a recreational board) but will still handle class 1 whitewater, and some class 2+ as well, depending on the kind of whitewater.

Rapidfire - made for class 4+ whitewater. With a longer fin in it will handle the flats just fine, but its no rocket ship. it does cruise nicely, but its not a racing machine if you know what I mean.

Then in our Eco line, the Crossover is a great combination board, but it needs to be used only in deep whitewater rivers as it is a composite construction = rocks are bad ;-)

Stand Up 12: http://imaginesurfboards.com/eng/stand_up_12.html


Stand up 10: http://imaginesurfboards.com/eng/stand_up_10.html


Rapidfire: http://imaginesurfboards.com/eng/rapidfire.html


Crossover: http://imaginesurfboards.com/eng/crossover.html

[Easy Rider]

A less self promotion answer           would be :

If your river is quite shallow and there is a very good chance of hitting rocks - then you might want to look at an inflatable or a plastic board for durability reasons.
If your river is deep enough and the chances of hitting rocks is very low - then a "traditional" construction board would be a better choice based on performance. 
If you do got the "regular" construction method - and since you have said you plan on doing mainly flat water - I would look at a a board specific for that type of paddling.   (Naish Glide 12 / Starboard Pin or Free Race / Jimmy Lewis Albatross / etc. / etc.

I live in Edmonton, Canada and paddle rivers and lakes all the time - I personally use a Starboard Pin as my river board - (our river is deep enough and slow enough to paddle up stream)   Just my 2¢

[JoeK]

Vik - I picked up a C4 Waterman ATB iSup from Warren at easy rider.  I can't compare it to a ULI but the C4 ATB iSup was designed for rivers.   It handles great. I've had it down in the Bowness Park eddies a couple of times. Let me know if you want to check it out.

[JoeK]

The other nice thing about the C4 ATB iSUP (or any inftatable) is the light weight.   If you have to scramble over large boulders or steep river banks it nice to have :

1. A light board - 22 pds for an ATB - the rotomolded plastics ones are twice as heavy

2.  A board that can handle a bit of abuse (dropping it, banging on rocks). 

I can see where you would lose some performance but I'm my cause the biggest performance improvement will be my own fitness!