Starboard Ace 14' x 25"

[balance_fit]

Argosi

Very complete review ! Thank you very much.

I usually paddle in no stronger than 15 - 20 knot downwinds and, believe me, going upwind over 10 knots is truly a workout, in any board !
I race some times, although it's not my main purpose in sup. I do love to have as fast a board as i can balance in, for workouts in mixed water with chop, say, 1 foot, and sometimes up to 3 foot ocean swell. That's it.
I do value a downwinder better than a flatwater capability on a sup. Even so, i still prefer sleek race shapes for our small downwinders, instead of going for a dedicated downwind sup.
Regarding stability, i had a Lahui Kai 12'6" Mitcho for awhile, which regarded as a quite a tippy board, and was ok with it unless i was in 3+ foot ocean swells with wind. Under those conditions, it was more energy devoted to balancing than for paddling.
I don't look at the ACE Pro, because,  i also paddle downwinders and mixed waters. I feel the Pro's bow would bury under in downwind conditions.
I'm looking at a 2011 ACE. Does someone in the forum have information or pictures regarding the difference between this and the 2012 model?
As always, i'm very grateful to you all, i owe you quite a good chunk of info and videos/pictures once i get my new ACE.
May all be well

[paddledaddy]

I would also like to get some opinions about the difference between 2011 and 2012 models of the ace.

Does anyone know if the 14'x25" ace used in the Ausie test was a 2011 or a 2012?

Also, is the 25" version actually faster than the 27" for someone around 200 pounds. I had a 12'6"x26 New and I just wasn't very fast on it. I loved the way the board felt but I think I sank too much board in the water.

[balance_fit]

In one of the threads related to the ACE it's mentioned that the 2012 has increased bow rocker ... but, can't remember where it was posted. Will search.

[DavidJohn]

I would also like to get some opinions about the difference between 2011 and 2012 models of the ace.

Does anyone know if the 14'x25" ace used in the Ausie test was a 2011 or a 2012?

Also, is the 25" version actually faster than the 27" for someone around 200 pounds. I had a 12'6"x26 New and I just wasn't very fast on it. I loved the way the board felt but I think I sank too much board in the water.

Pretty sure they were  2012 model boards in the test.. and I asked that question  (about what's changed) and was told that very little if anything has changed between the 2011 and 2012 model Aces.. and the 25" Ace is faster than the 27" Ace even for someone around 200 lbs.. but it is also slightly more tippy.

DJ

[JonathanC]

Very subtle changes between 2011 and 2012, slight change in the tucked rail position under the board. Really not enough to worry about if you can get a deal on the 2011. The one tested was the 2012.

The speed difference is surprisingly small between the two boards and at 200lbs I think you would need to be more experienced/skilled to really notice a big speed difference. Any feeling of the wobbles or balance checks very quickly erode any speed advantage a narrower board provides.

[PT Woody]

We did a 2 hour race in choppy and windy conditions just last weekend. Camo had a choice of the 28" or the 25" Ace boards and he decided the wide boy was the way to go. I had the choice between the 25" Ace and a Coast Runner. I decided my only chance to beat Camo was to outgun him with a skinnier board so I took the 25" Ace. Unfortunately I ended up in the drink about 5 times and Camo stayed dry. He also had me beaten comprehensively for board speed. That wide Ace is still a very fast board in the right hands. Going back on our test results, I didn't publish this at the time but I used a Garmin GPS to record top end speed on every board and the 28" Ace was surprisingly the quickest board of the lot for me and by a considerable margin.

[DavidJohn]

 I didn't publish this at the time but I used a Garmin GPS to record top end speed on every board and the 28" Ace was surprisingly the quickest board of the lot for me and by a considerable margin.

Wow.. even quicker than the Jav and the Bark?

DJ

[PT Woody]

Easily quicker than the Jav and the Bark. The only thing that came close was a 12'6" Fanatic, believe it or not. Of course, with just one rider, the stats are prone to error based on environmental changes that can't be equalised across a broad test. Originally the big basketball player was also recording speeds but his Garmin failed. I have my figures written down somewhere, I'll have to dig them out.

[JonathanC]

We did a 2 hour race in choppy and windy conditions just last weekend. Camo had a choice of the 28" or the 25" Ace boards and he decided the wide boy was the way to go. I had the choice between the 25" Ace and a Coast Runner. I decided my only chance to beat Camo was to outgun him with a skinnier board so I took the 25" Ace. Unfortunately I ended up in the drink about 5 times and Camo stayed dry. He also had me beaten comprehensively for board speed. That wide Ace is still a very fast board in the right hands. Going back on our test results, I didn't publish this at the time but I used a Garmin GPS to record top end speed on every board and the 28" Ace was surprisingly the quickest board of the lot for me and by a considerable margin.

PT do you mean the 27" Ace or the 28" Ace Pro?

[PT Woody]

Sorry, I meant the 27" Ace - that's the one Camo won the race on and also the one that I found to be fastest top end speed at our 14' board tests.

[1paddle2paddle]

PT - was the 14 x 27" ACE was fastest of all the 14' boards for you?  Even beat out the 25" ACE?

Was the 27" ACE fastest overall for everyone?

I had been thinking that for our downwinders the 27" ACE might be faster than the 25" ACE for me since I would spend more time paddling and less time swimming.

[balance_fit]

PT, have you performed any gps speed comparison between Coast Runner and ACE 14' x 25", in any conditions..top speed, average, flat, down / upwind, etc?

Very interesting the fact that the 27" can allow the paddler to record a faster top end speed to a light paddler, even if wider. Would the extra volume have something to do with it?

[DavidJohn]

IMO.. This 'one off' gps top speed during the test is not to be taken too seriously.

During the test the conditions started to change with a strong at times gusty tail wind down to the turn and head wind heading back.. Getting a strong tail wind gust on the way down and then getting a lull in the wind heading back would give you a great time overall and if the gust was strong enough you could almost catch a ripple and almost surf it (more like getting a push from behind) for a second or two like getting a little runner and it would only need to be a few seconds to record a high gps speed.. I had the opposite happen when I paddled the Jav.. I had calm conditions on the way down to the turn point and just as I turned got hit with a gust so strong for a few seconds I struggled to maintain my possition let alone move forward into the wind.. This killed my overall time.

The 27" wide Ace was not consistently the fatest board with all paddlers.. It just happened to be or PT.. Maybe the extra width gave him the ability to get more power down who knows.. But you can't read too much into one persons gps results.. But still I'd be interested to see them..  

DJ

[PT Woody]

The reasons DJ provides are the reasons I didn't publish those results. If the other paddler with a GPS was able to provide his speeds, we would have had some sort of mildly valid data but as it stands, it was just a curiosity. For the record, I achieved one of the best overall times on the wide Ace and I totally expected to blitz on the skinny Ace but only set a modest time on that board. Again, the later conditions and possibly fatigue had an impact on the comparative times.

[starman]

I do not have a lot of confidence in the numbers the Garmin spits out. I have junked my 305 and bought a Locosys GT-31 GPS. It's the GPS used by most of the Windsurfers, Kiters etc for speed records. I trust the numbers I'm seeing and find it a better tool for measuring our "speedy" SUP's.

I use to watch the speed numbers on the Garmin's screen bounce all over the place as I paddled. Average speeds and distance would be about right but I gave up on looking at max speeds over let's say a 20 second period and it never looked right.