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Stand Up Paddle => Gear Talk => Topic started by: deepmud on October 08, 2019, 07:34:58 PM

Title: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 08, 2019, 07:34:58 PM
I'm looking at an $800

oops hit send

18' ft x 28 touring board - looks stable - to me - it would be a trick for me to get it in Seattle but I have friends who could store it until I could come down - or figure out a way to ship it north.

I got a 12'6" hard board last winter - it's nice - but I find my 14' Elite a good .5mph faster or more for the same effort - I'd love to try an unlimited (might go with my unlimited weight 280 lol)

Terrible idea? Ok? My impulse is to just do it :D
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: TallDude on October 08, 2019, 08:30:02 PM
Big Blue is beat up and I bet very heavy. It's probably taken on water. Not a great design. I have four unlimiteds and have owned and raced / paddled many others. None of mine are over 28 lbs. I have shaped a number of them myself. I would pass on Big Blue.
If you can work out shipping or ROAD TRIP, this is a better deal. Great quality build and shaped by a master of unlimiteds. https://santabarbara.craigslist.org/spo/d/carpinteria-bark-sup-race-board/6972474441.html

Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: Wetstuff on October 09, 2019, 06:21:54 AM
You'd be about $5-600. underwater from the looks of the pics.  Did the guy found it on the side of the road?  Take TD's advice.

Jim
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: Bean on October 09, 2019, 07:35:13 AM
On a positive note, that board does look completely theft proof  ;D
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 09, 2019, 07:51:37 AM
Too heavy to run away with? :D
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 09, 2019, 07:55:16 AM
Big Blue is beat up and I bet very heavy. It's probably taken on water. Not a great design. I have four unlimiteds and have owned and raced / paddled many others. None of mine are over 28 lbs. I have shaped a number of them myself. I would pass on Big Blue.
If you can work out shipping or ROAD TRIP, this is a better deal. Great quality build and shaped by a master of unlimiteds. https://santabarbara.craigslist.org/spo/d/carpinteria-bark-sup-race-board/6972474441.html

One hell of a road trip :D it's a bit over 2000 miles to get to Seattle from here. Total bonzai non-stop driving can make that in 48 hours - but then there's a ways yet to go...and still get home again.

That Bark! I'd jump on it if I could figure out shipping for under $500.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 09, 2019, 07:25:28 PM
well - Uship seems like a sort of Uber for shipping - you put up what ya got to ship and where, you get bids. I can both buy that Bark and ship it to Seattle for nearly what that big blue was going for.

Ron, the guy in California, sounds like he's got a good life. Lots of surfing :D I feel pretty comfortable when I can talk on the phone with the seller. I hear the the sound of regret as he says "I'm giving this away"  and he is. But I hope it will be happy with me :D

Thanks for the good advice and help.

Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 09, 2019, 07:38:32 PM
I have to say - the bottom - looks a lot like the shape of my old Sea Otter touring kayak. Flat in the middle, rounded up on the sides, pointy on the ends.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: TallDude on October 09, 2019, 10:47:22 PM
Here's the thing.... That bottom will cause the board to roll side to side. You just have to get use to it. It has great secondary stability and really rolls through the chop well. This was one of Joe Barks earliest SUP designs, but he had had years of prone paddleboard R&D behind him before SUP started. I would be interested in selling my highest volume Hobie custom 18'6 x 26 carbon fiber unlimited if you can work out the shipping details. If your interested, I'll send you pictures? It's in almost perfect condition...at least it was last time I paddled it about a year ago ::)
I had plans for recessing the foot well about 3 inches, but there are a ton of other board building and repairing projects I'm planning on in front of it. At 280, this board was made for you. It has a flat bottom with a recessed standing area.

Here's the only picture I have of it at the moment. I'll have to pull it down from the racks in my garage and take some more pictures.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 10, 2019, 04:28:45 PM
well - I kind of just pulled the trigger last night on the Bark. :D Uship seems to be pretty great for non-critical-time,big-weird-stuff shipping. I even sprung for insurance with Lloyds of London and I'm still not out what I paid for my last inflatable.

Good secondary - yeah - that's how I think of my kayak, too -  but my then butt is below the waterline in a hard shell kayak :D . However - I'm getting pretty good at balance. My 14' Red Elite is pretty unstable and I've used it for creeking, lakes, some chop. It's round-ish(cause it's a narrow Isup) mostly, and tall, and does not have much secondary stability - I usually get tossed in the drink if boats go by.


I messaged you ....
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: eastbound on October 11, 2019, 08:45:41 AM
nice work, td!



matchmaker!
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: TallDude on October 11, 2019, 09:22:23 AM
nice work, td!



matchmaker!
Always like to hook someone interested in unlimiteds up with a good one.  ;)

The uShip looks like a great way to ship boards across the US. Uber for shipping. https://learn.uship.com/shippers/
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: blackeye on October 11, 2019, 10:25:41 AM
I used U-ship to bring a truck home. I had a deadline so it was a bit nail biting when the first bids came in and they were high. It was a Dutch-auction style where competing bidders lower their bids against each other. They can withdraw suddenly which is alarming and frustrating.

In the end it worked out great. The shippers like it because if they can fill in idle time or avoid deadheading home.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 11, 2019, 03:06:32 PM
So - which board is for what conditions? I look at the Bark, and imagine open water, chop - and I look a the Hobie -sort of same but better on lakes, and primary stability looks better. Am I nuts to try to do both? 2 unlimited boards - 2000 miles away....lol
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on October 20, 2019, 12:22:29 PM
So Big Blue is about 45 pounds btw, and supposedly built with renting in mind, so some of that would just be thick glass. I might have been happily ignorant paddling it :D
The two boards are in my friend's garage now. There's a chance I'll visit 'em and paddle this year. Ice is forming on the lakes so I'm not in a hurry to get them up to Alaska.
I'm dying to try them out. My wife thinks I'm nuts getting more boards, and "why 2 more? Aren't they both about the same?". But 2 unlimited boards for $1600 seemed too good a chance to pass up. Thanks again for the help  TD. I will be posting up when I finally get to paddle for sure :D
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: Luc Benac on October 20, 2019, 12:35:02 PM
So Big Blue is about 45 pounds btw, and supposedly built with renting in mind, so some of that would just be thick glass. I might have been happily ignorant paddling it :D
The two boards are in my friend's garage now. There's a chance I'll visit 'em and paddle this year. Ice is forming on the lakes so I'm not in a hurry to get them up to Alaska.
I'm dying to try them out. My wife thinks I'm nuts getting more boards, and "why 2 more? Aren't they both about the same?". But 2 unlimited boards for $1600 seemed too good a chance to pass up. Thanks again for the help  TD. I will be posting up when I finally get to paddle for sure :D

Nothing wrong with that!!!
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: TallDude on October 20, 2019, 03:35:24 PM
I think you scored the killer Unlimited deal. Two really good but different boards. Each has there pros and cons. The Bark is pretty light and in good shape. The Hobie is the same. You can see the repair I did on the tail turned out pretty good. I used the same type of CF to do the repair. The bark has an older screw vent that you have to keep loose while storing and travelling with. It sticks straight up at the thickest point of the board, which means you can't stack anything on it. That's why I had the uShip guy put the Hobie on the bottom. I also gave him some scrap carpet to put between the trailer and the bottom of the Hobie. The bubble wrap and padded board bag I wrapped the Hobie with will cushion the bark on top. I made sure he didn't crank down hard on the boards with his ratchet straps. He hauls a bunch of CF racing sail boats for a company out of San Diego, so he understands how fragile they are. I guess they made it in one piece to Washington 8)
You'll have fun with these boards.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on February 08, 2021, 04:32:50 PM
finally.  I learned that I should have used Lynden freight at the original purchase. Uship guy could have driven about 1.5hrs less and they'd have been here way back then. About 2100 delivered for both when all totalled up.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: TallDude on February 08, 2021, 10:06:45 PM
That's crazy! Glad to see they finally made it. Hopefully they survived? Two very different feeling boards. The Barks always felt strange to me with the tall ridge running from tip to tail. It feels like you're straddling a beam while you paddle. Plus any cargo has to have some kind of spacers on each side to level it out. But, it has a nice quite glide, sits lower in the water, and is a little wider I think.
The Hobie on the other hand, will feel like you're standing on a dock, with the volume of a dock. I bet it will handle you and a bunch of cargo. Feels like it sits on top of the water more.
Let us know what you think?

I'm getting ready to order a mountain bike in an XXL frame. They said to expect to see a late 2021 to early 2022 delivery???? Really... Oh well.
Title: Re: Echo Composites 18' touring - good deal?
Post by: deepmud on February 09, 2021, 10:49:03 AM
I hear bikes have gone crazy. SUP for the land :) I like the Bark at least how it looks up close. I ponder dugouts for cargo and footwells like the new Kruger NW Passage Bark. We have a local guy making carbon canoes of strip-built foam with carbon inside and outside, so some local expertise exists. As-is I imagine I will like it for paddling out of Seward and Whittier.  It LOOKS like a sup blended with an ocean kayak. Like my old Sea Otter squished down lol. Needs bunch of tie downs to start. I bet that ridge adds a ton of...rigidity lol. I haven't even unwrapped the Hobie yet. At least I can paddle up and down the Tailrace.  It is forecast to warm up again maybe this weekend.  Been -10 or so this week.
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