Brian Syzmanski must be an evil genius

[paddledaddy]

Okay I doubt he is evil, but good-hearted genius doesn't sound impressive does it. Anyway, I recently got carried away and made an impulse purchase on one of the Starboard "The New" 12'6" x 25 race boards designed by Brian Syzmanski and I think I am finally understanding why this board is the way it is.  Anyone who has seen these things immediately notices how different they are. The overall look is something like a wooden clog. The nose is bulbous compared to most race boards. The tail could not be narrower or sharper. And the paddler stands down in two deep footwells that may actually be below water level. Now, after 3 sessions I have to say all of these radical ideas work together nicely.

As a bit of background I have been paddling for more than 3 years and over the past 18 months I have owned the K-15 and demoed or raced on several other race boards. In fact, 6 months ago I took a quick ride on the Syzmanski designed 12'6"x23" and instantly decided it was too tippy and I didn't like standing down in those foot wells. I also quickly tried out the Syzmanski designed 12'6 x 26" Surf Race and thought okay I could use this board to race on but nothing special. About 2 months ago I tried that board again for a longer 1 hour paddle and thought: "Hmm, there is something special there but I can't put my finger on it."  At the time I would have said it is sometimes very fast feeling but the overall speed is not always there and I am not sure how to get it to be fast when I want it to. The nagging, "What is it about that board," made me decide to purchase one but now none are available. So instead, I purchased the still available 12'6" x 25" "The New" which has those dreaded deep foot wells and a very narrow sharp tail.

So here is the review after testing it for three sessions. First, this thing has incredible secondary stability and it's due to those wonderful and by the way very comfortable foot wells. In fact in six hours of paddling I have never fallen off and what I expected to be a tippy board isn't at all tippy once I got used to how it handles. Those footwells are contoured and by moving one or both feet forward or back, the contour allows me to change the pressure on my feet that otherwise go numb on most long paddles.  The contour also helps me find the center easily. The water that gets in to the footwell is limited to a small space and doesn't seem to effect the boards performance as much as other boards with a large sunken deck area. However, the bait fish have trouble getting out and you may need to reach down and free one now and then if you don't feel like sushi.  Next, and most importantly, the way this thing goes over top of the chop instead of through it means it always behaves well and is always ready to plane if the swell is from behind. And once it is planning the hard edges in back allow it to steer on the swell very nicely. In fact this is the first true race board (not dedicated downwind board) that I would say handles well while planing. Even with its'super narrow tail, I felt in control of going left or right without fear of upsetting the board by catching a rail or burying the nose. It was also no trouble to step back with one foot onto a higher back deck. In fact it felt completely natural and leaving the front foot in the footwell added a great deal of control.

To sum it up, I think there are faster boards in ideal flat-water conditions. Other boards with a true displacement nose down in the water are just faster in calm water. But when the water gets choppy, I think the Syzmanski boards seem to be able to keep up with the true displacement boards and behave much better doing it. In addition they plane on the smallest swell very easily and are easily controlled while on plane.  

At 200+ pounds I generally prefer 14' boards and and have a 14' Coast Runner on the way, but now after spending time with this board I may have to add a 14' x 25" ACE as well someday. The coast runner should be ideal in the rougher conditions and the ACE should be excellent in light chop. In the meantime, I'm enjoying this 12'6" board and have something I can race on for small local events. Cheers!

[Muskoka SUP]

Hi paddledaddy...

I agree about Brian S.  I'm not sure what and why he shapes stuff like he does, but it works...I am impressed by my Coast Runner everytime I paddle it!

Not sure if you saw this vid from PaddleBoardSpecialists..here it is.



I've been thinking about a flatwater race board...even up to a week or so ago, the Bark Dominator 14 was my target...

After paddling Szymanski's Coastrunner, I'm thinking maybe one of the many versions of the old "new" or the new Ace might be a better pick for me....

David

[PauHanaTX]

Sure was throwing lots of bow wake.  Every stroke it seemed the bow would drop just a hair and drive down into the water throwing the spray.  Can't be doing nothing but slowing down.

For pure speed on the flat water I'm not buying into the bow design.  Too much volume and nose rocker.  In the 14' and 12'6" classes every inch of waterline on the correct design translates into speed.  This board has about 12" of nose not even in the water.  As far as marine design goes that's a disadvantage, no way around it.

[greatdane]

I've asked several people who are marine engineers and life-long kayak designers why this design is fast.  None of them know.  They all agree that on paper it just doesn't make sense.  But then you paddle one with a GPS and the numbers don't lie.  They are fast & I'll be damned if I can say why.  I don't own one, but have tested them and been beaten by them several times.

Two weeks ago at a 10 mile race in Canada, I covered the course in 1:49 (with a medium tail wind) on a 12'6" Competitor.  The 2nd person to the beach was a gal named Lina paddling a 23" wide NEW.  She was just one minute behind me and beat all the other stock racers to the beach.  Now granted she is a bad-ass lady, but it was a great showcase for that board.

[Easy Rider]

As Beau states - they truly are different - BUT they are fast.

This spring I tested the following 14" boards on a glass flat lake.
Starboard ACE
Naish Javelin
Jimmy Lewis Saber
Naish Glide 14'

With my GPS - the Starboard was the fastest over a 1 km marked course (a rowing course) by 23 seconds. 
2nd was the Javelin / 3rd the Saber / 4th Glide.

So no matter what may appear fast - Brian knows his stuff and the boards ARE fast.

[paddledaddy]

That video really reinforces my point that these Syszmanski shapes can keep up with other race boards but handle much better doing it. I have never tried the bark but have tried several similar boards and I have to say I would be surprised if the 14x27 Ace can keep up with the 14x27.5 Bark in dead flat water like they showed. But when the conditions get choppy is where I think the Syszmanski boards do best because they behave so well. Also there is that 14x25 ACE which should be a bit faster and if it is as stable as my 12'6"x25 THE NEW then it is stable enough for a lot of people. Please do not think I am knocking the Bark I think we are all comparing boards to Bark because so many top racers are winning on them, but I also notice a lot of average racers falling off Barks in rough conditions. After struggling with a displacement board in choppy conditions for the past year, I am looking forward to messing around with the Syzmanski boards more. Let me also add that these are not the only boards that handle well. I have borrowed the YOLO race boards plenty and they are top notch. Fast and handle well and don't look like either of these two.

[pdxmike]

I've asked several people who are marine engineers and life-long kayak designers why this design is fast.  None of them know. 

If the board is fast, but engineers and designers don't know why, then it's doing things that they aren't appreciating, or that the measurements they use aren't picking up.  My guess is that some of that has to do with the influence of the rider on the board, and vice versa.  A paddler who is standing up is a much more dynamic load on a board that someone sitting down--their weight is going all over the place in comparison to someone sitting low and in one spot.   And the board influences the paddler, because you can't put full effort into your stroke if you're not stable, and making the rider stable is more difficult when he weighs far more than the craft, and is standing up. 

Since everyone who paddles one seems to comment on the deeply sunken deck feeling stable, that's evidence that engineers and designers may be underestimating the role of stability in making the board fast.  They may be focusing more on the shape of the board in the water, instead of viewing the "vessel" as being both the craft plus the rider. as one unit.

My other guess is that the fact that it's good in chop makes it outperform their expectations, because of all forces that act on a vessel, chop must be as tough as any to analyze.

So, it just happens that one thing the board seems to be especially good at--providing stability while remaining narrow--is the one thing that is more important for SUPS than anything else (thus more likely to be under-appreciated by people who design other craft) and the other one--performing well in chop--is something that is especially hard to analyze or quantify. 

Plus, any sort of vehicle, vessel, etc. that is unusual but works well is hard for designers  to understand why it works well, because if it was designed according to the usual design beliefs, it would look conventional.   

[greatdane]

In kayak design, and I don't have a clue how this translates to standing up, but a general rule of thumb is for every one inch you drop the seat (center of gravity) you can narrow the beam by two inches.  That is huge. 

[pdxmike]

In kayak design, and I don't have a clue how this translates to standing up, but a general rule of thumb is for every one inch you drop the seat (center of gravity) you can narrow the beam by two inches.  That is huge. 

Wow, that is huge.  That also means if I eat enough donuts, I could do fine on a 23" wide board. 

[lee]

Hey Great Dane remember when we first saw Bows of the Syzmanski boards At San Diego and thought they looked funny?
And then when we saw the sterns We thought they looked like the Future!
My new 14 race CC is freakin awesome.

[Kaihoe]

I've just moved from a Race to an ACE and the stability is much greater with the deep footwells.

Today I was out in 14knot plus head winds with nassty mixed chop/bumps of 1.5 to 2 meters.  I found it suprisingly stable in the conditions.  I was definitely able to paddle better than I would have been able to on the Race in those conditions and the Race was 4.5 inches wider!!!

When I turned and went with the wind it would catch everything going and felt at least as stable as the Race.  This is from someone who only got onto a SUP for the first time in January and has struggled (for decades) with any balance related sport except skiing

Given the same basic design thinking on the two boards I feel the big difference is the lowered footwells but also the high sides ( its got to be twice as deep as the Race) with their canoe like rounding providing a graduated stability.

Another really noticeable difference is how stable the ACE feels when you kneel on it. It feels like you are in a boat designed for sitting in, so much so I feel safe being out in the rough stuff because if I felt I couldn't stand to paddle back I know I would be able to get in on my knees ( at least in anything I would attempt )

BTW the top guys around here are using these for long distance down winding.  And the 14x25 is proving to be a real rocketship in most conditions.

I do agree that in flatter conditions the bow does seem to be pushing a lot of water. All that white stuff spurting up from the front of the board is depressing when it's my hard work being converted into something that isn't forward momentum

[Argosi]

I've been paddling a 23.5" wide 12'6" long NEW in AST construction this season. It sure is a fast board for me in flat and downwind conditions. Going downwind, I feel I can almost catch runners at will as long as I have the energy to paddle for them. I haven't experienced that on any other board.

In strong side or quartering winds, the thick nose tends to get blown around though. That's the one disadvantage of the NEW.

This past weekend, I was testing out a custom 14' x 26" custom Bark 26lb board. I did a 1km run up and down a slow moving river on my 12'6" NEW and then repeated it immediately on the Bark. When paddling the boards, the Bark felt faster since it was just slicing through the water with no nose splash. The NEW on the other hand had the typical nose splash with every stroke that I'm used to with this board. I sure was surprised to see that my run on the NEW was 0.1 kph faster in average speed than my run on the Bark! I figure I would've been slightly faster on the Bark if I was in better shape though. I was more fresh on the first run on the NEW. In any case, I was still expecting the Bark to be significantly faster than the NEW.

I ended up buying the Bark as it's a great board but my test also reinforces how fast my NEW is.

[robon]

While my 12'6" 31.5" wide SB race isn't narrow enough to for competitive racers, I had my doubts about it's appearance and function before buying. Bulbous and clog like are really good descriptive terms for the Race series. After several phone calls and talking to those who had the chance to paddle one, I decided to get one sight unseen. This design works well in all conditions except the high volume nose does get blown around a bit in high side winds. Simply put, it works well and it is a good design. The wider models are excellent for touring and very versatile.

[PT Woody]

I would love to know why Starboard pulled the 23" wide board from the range. I bought an EJ Johnson carbon prototype recently and I'm finding it damn quick, though somewhat of a challenge re stability. I already had the 25" glass version and found that one pretty easy to handle. Did they decide the 23" was just too narrow for the market?

[PauHanaTX]

The sooner deep foot wells are banned the better.

At what point does a SUP turn into a Stand Up Canoe (SUC)?

Right, I get it, the Starboards are fast and we all want to go faster.  And they're faster only because they're more narrow, and are only more narrow because they're dropping the center of gravity below the waterline.  An above the waterline SUP will never be able to compete.

Is this the path we want SUP design to trend down?  Racing in boats?  Because that's where this is heading.  Look at the craft Mark (from SIC) raced in the 10-City Tour (in Holland) a few years back.  He was standing up in a racing scull.

I'm hoping that SUP will establish a rule banning any part of the body to be below the waterline.  Manufactures will have provide the public with what rider weights will sink the standing area below the waterline and that riders will have to weigh in at races.  No big deal.

I'd rather step on a scale at a race than into a boat.