Starboard steps up

[obxaddict]

My friend and I had a great light wind sup wave sailing sesh the other day but he broke his starboard drive.  Turns out Starboard is replacing his board.  I was very impressed and just wanted to share a positive experience.

[WaterSurge]

Hey, obxaddict,
I also wave sail with my SUP every now and then. I just ordered a Starboard Drive (10'5") with mast base inserts from a local shop (I plan to sell my 2008 SB 11'2"), so I'm interested in knowing more about your friend's experience...
How did your friend break his sb "drive"?  Was it a 2011 model?  How did he get Starboard to replace it?

Thanks in advance...

[obxaddict]

Here is the story.

http://ncboardrider.blogspot.com/2011/05/when-good-waves-go-bad.html

[surfcowboy]

That's nice to hear. Again, no one here thinks they are a bad company, just sloppy with ads and marketing. Cool to hear that they helped out.

It's cool when companies back up their products.

[obxaddict]

That's nice to hear. Again, no one here thinks they are a bad company, just sloppy with ads and marketing. Cool to hear that they helped out.

It's cool when companies back up their products.

Sorry but I wasn't posting anything responding to or related to anything previously posted on the zone.  I think this may fall more into the random act of kindness category   

I'm most interested in spreading stoke for the sail on a SUP!  I wish companies would make a bigger advertizing deal regarding how wonderful it is to have the sail option for flat water and waves.  There are fewer windsurfers these days and I think it is good for SUP and windsurfing.  I'll stand up and shout for any company trying to make sailable SUPs.  However, one negative thing I can say about Starboard and most other companies is good luck figuring out which ones have the sailable option.  It should be in a 16 pt font banner on these websites.

[PonoBill]

I too thought that sailing SUPs was going to be almost as big a deal as paddling them.

I like it so much I haven't sailed my windsurfing boards at all since I started. I think people assume it's a compromise notion--sailing a big clumsy board just because you have it handy instead of a high-performance windsurfer that's tuned to be optimal for the conditions. I believe they don't understand that it's a different thing. More fun, less limiting, more flexible, less disappointment. You can almost ALWAYS do it, and it's a completely different feeling. In waves it's more like power-surfing waves than sailing. In light winds and flatwater you can still sail, and you can do things you can't do on a performance board. In high winds it's a challenging, no strap, drive the board/sail the sail kind of feeling--very old school.

An unlikely combination that works extremely well.

[WaterSurge]

good deal.  thanks for sharing, obxaddict.

[wavehobbit]

I don't know what I would of done w/o my
Quatro Custom 8'10". I moved to ST. Thomas a year ago
and all the wave spots have large wind shadows. With a SUP I'm able to slog out to the wind line and the higher rockers are just so much surfier than a reg. windsurfer. Love sailing strapless. I can't believe more people aren't doing it.