Does having to pump up inflatable ever deter going out?

[deepmud]

Area10, from your prior posts we know that inflatables are not suitable for downwinding, surfing, paddling w/ a child, and now "serious sup'ing".  I guess all we can hope is that inflatables dont "attack us".  (That would require a new thread..) 

Jiminy H.  I used my 14' last year for a 34mile openwater charity paddle...  I made it across while many other folks bailed due to tough conditions.  At the finish I deflated,rolled up, and threw it in the car...  If I were in deepmud's shoes, I'd take patch material, and wouldn't go alone either.  Probably wouldn't go alone on a hardboard either, based on the environment he's describing.

Edit: added the video showing sudden failure. I can't even tell what he hits - but it certainly sucked. He's not alone, but clearly it was an unpleasant feeling. Even after the repair, you can see he's sick with worry the repair will pop - no wonder, the instructions say let it sit 24 hours at 70F - not gonna' happen in Glacier Bay.



Exactly - plan ahead - I DO think isups are for serious paddling to remote places - but pay attention to the "penalty for failure". I don't even want to have to wait the recommended 24 hours for the patch to cure - and I won't be going alone on an extended trip. I'd paddle the length of Portage Lake, right among the icebergs - but I'd be damn careful next to shore if I was alone.

[deepmud]

By the way, I've often wondered if anyone has been inhibited from going a long way offshore on an inflatable. If you dinged your hard board it would still float. But an iSUP wouldn't. Has anyone ever had a valve failure offshore? What did you do?

I've wondered about this, too.

I seems to me that the video posted on another thread about adventure SUP where a guy is paddling in Alaska and seems to just brush against some rocks while filling a bottle from a waterfall, and the board then gets a puncture and deflates, should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who ventures into even mildly tricky waters with an iSUP. I was intending later today to paddle one of my kids a bit offshore to go round a wreck, on an iSUP. I think I'll scratch that idea, and take a hard board instead... If we tagged the wreck for some reason (and I can't think why we would, but you never know), I'd only get a repair bill, not a long swim back with a frightened child.

In another thread a while back, one of the forum members claimed that iSUPs were good for "serious" SUPing. I think this issue alone, never mind performance, rather puts a hole in that claim, if you will forgive the pun.

Quality iSups like Red and Uli are tough enough for whitewater paddling.  That guy in Alaska must have had a cheapo.

Fanatic - are they cheapo?

"the hole" occurs about 5 minutes into the video. He has to get towed quite a long ways to find a beach - the video speeds up and then fades out with him just holding his finger over the hole. It's spooky - he's barely moving when it gets cut. I can tell you the rocks on the area are broken slate - pretty much knife-sharp.

[spirit4earth]

By the way, I've often wondered if anyone has been inhibited from going a long way offshore on an inflatable. If you dinged your hard board it would still float. But an iSUP wouldn't. Has anyone ever had a valve failure offshore? What did you do?

I've wondered about this, too.

I seems to me that the video posted on another thread about adventure SUP where a guy is paddling in Alaska and seems to just brush against some rocks while filling a bottle from a waterfall, and the board then gets a puncture and deflates, should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who ventures into even mildly tricky waters with an iSUP. I was intending later today to paddle one of my kids a bit offshore to go round a wreck, on an iSUP. I think I'll scratch that idea, and take a hard board instead... If we tagged the wreck for some reason (and I can't think why we would, but you never know), I'd only get a repair bill, not a long swim back with a frightened child.

In another thread a while back, one of the forum members claimed that iSUPs were good for "serious" SUPing. I think this issue alone, never mind performance, rather puts a hole in that claim, if you will forgive the pun.

Quality iSups like Red and Uli are tough enough for whitewater paddling.  That guy in Alaska must have had a cheapo.

Fanatic - are they cheapo?

"the hole" occurs about 5 minutes into the video. He has to get towed quite a long ways to find a beach - the video speeds up and then fades out with him just holding his finger over the hole. It's spooky - he's barely moving when it gets cut. I can tell you the rocks on the area are broken slate - pretty much knife-sharp.

You're right-----my bad assumption. 

[Area 10]

Area10, from your prior posts we know that inflatables are not suitable for downwinding, surfing, paddling w/ a child, and now "serious sup'ing".  I guess all we can hope is that inflatables dont "attack us".  (That would require a new thread..) 

Hey, look, I have two iSUPs, and I enjoy using them. I think they are very good for some things (principally, causal paddling, playing with kids etc, and flat water racing, especially in their own class). I'm just surprised that no-one seems to be discussing this basic safety drawback. Surely it can't be long before someone's valve leaks, or someone hits a buoy or something submerged when they are further away from shore than they can swim, and then we are all going to wonder why we weren't insisting on e.g. multiple chambers, double skins or other safety features (maybe a minimum amount of buoyancy when deflated) on all our iSUPs.

I have a 20 dollar inflatable boat that is intended for beach use and it has three chambers and warnings about the safety aspects of inflating them all. But the only multi-chamber iSUP I've seen is the 18ft x 6ft Starboard Starship. In Europe an iSUP can easily cost you over 2000 dollars. For that I expect someone to have thought about some basic safety issues. I hope it doesn't take the death of someone before we all start to put that on our list of requirements in an iSUP. A single skin, single chamber iSUP is only marginally more safe in terms of impact than a lilo. (In fact, my lilo has three chambers so maybe it is more safe.)

[deepmud]

Area 10 you have a good point - "serious sup'ing" sounds elitist when read but I try to watch out for how writing "sounds"....

I'm surprised this discussion didn't end up on Inflatable Overnight - Bring Pump? thread. 

I think the multi-chamber idea deserves consideration. Even a perimeter chamber would let fix the main section (maybe with a clamseal, lol) while still afloat, and if you have a pump you are back in biz.

[spookini]

Safety aspect??  What about broken leashes, fin cuts, and of course there's DJ's "death by downwinder" story (.. he clung to a buoy until spotted by a passing freight ship).

Shouldn't a pfd be onboard anyways?  Shouldn't we all have a comfort level in water BEFORE engaging in water activities??  Windsurfing:  "don't sail further than you can swim back in".  Same probably goes for SUP, no matter what board you use.

(Ah, here we go.. had to do an advanced search:  "DJ..and..helicopter..and..McDonalds"   )
http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.0.html

[pdxmike]

Do inflatable boards pop?  You're more likely to die from being hit by a coconut thrown by a shark...or not.  Only a poll will provide a scientific answer.


Seriously, I agree it's unlikely to happen, and probably never in most uses, but also agree if it does, it could be bad.  It's a valid issue for certain uses as Area 10 states.  And it is true, every el cheapo raft I've ever had had 2 or 3 chambers, albeit they were thin-skinned compared to iSUPs.  Also true that the great safety feature about SUPs--they'll always float--isn't so true for inflatables.


Do sharks attack inflatables? 

[spookini]

Do sharks attack inflatables?

They may, but only in the 12'6" board shark class.  Unlimiteds would solve that. 

[pdxmike]

Do sharks attack inflatables?

They may, but only in the 12'6" board class.  Unlimiteds would solve that. 

spook--a friend of mine was trying to get me to do the Maui Channel Swim one year.  He said you can see sharks swimming in the area, so you just want to be sure not to be in last place.


Multiple chambers could add safety if your board was bit, even though that sounds like a baffling design.

[deepmud]

Do sharks attack inflatables?

They may, but only in the 12'6" board class.  Unlimiteds would solve that. 

spook--a friend of mine was trying to get me to do the Maui Channel Swim one year.  He said you can see sharks swimming in the area, so you just want to be sure not to be in last place.


Multiple chambers could add safety if your board was bit, even though that sounds like a baffling design.

You're trying to divide and conquer!

[spirit4earth]

Safety aspect??  What about broken leashes, fin cuts, and of course there's DJ's "death by downwinder" story (.. he clung to a buoy until spotted by a passing freight ship).

Shouldn't a pfd be onboard anyways?  Shouldn't we all have a comfort level in water BEFORE engaging in water activities??  Windsurfing:  "don't sail further than you can swim back in".  Same probably goes for SUP, no matter what board you use.

(Ah, here we go.. had to do an advanced search:  "DJ..and..helicopter..and..McDonalds"   )
http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.0.html

That was an amazing story!  Pretty scary----I'm glad it worked out.  When out in the big water,MIT makes sense to wear the pfd, not have it attached to the board.
I have a question as an aside-----how often are paddles simply lost if you have to ditch it when falling off the board?  (Obviously coming from someone who's not an ocean dweller.).   

[capobeachboy]

ULIs have been running over all kinds of rocks & logs in rivers for years as they were pretty much the only choice for river boards back in the early days of SUP.  We experimented with some single skin boards but they were just too fragile.  The last two years we've used our boards in the California 100 - a one-day 100 mile paddle down the Sacramento River.  There's lots of rapids, rocks, logs, thorny bushes etc. but all our paddlers & boards made it unscathed.

If you're doing a heavy downwinder, a paddle way offshore or a big channel crossing take all the precautions or you're screwed no matter what you kind of board you paddle.

PS: Our friend Taku from ULI Boards Japan takes his kids offshore all the time.  He's used an ULI 14 to finish 27th overall in the 2013 Molokai beating Jeremy Riggs & Zane Schweitzer.  There's some great stuff on their FB page but the translation tools are pretty bad: https://www.facebook.com/ulijapan
 

[deepmud]

The Fanatic may indeed be single skin - the video doesn't do much detail on the puncture .

DJ - wow - and he took pics! crazy. What a story.

[Area 10]

Our friend Taku from ULI Boards Japan takes his kids offshore all the time.  He's used an ULI 14 to finish 27th overall in the 2013 Molokai beating Jeremy Riggs & Zane Schweitzer. 

That is a pretty amazing result. Was it a custom ULI? How heavy is he?

Of course, with the Molokai you have a safety boat with you, so it wouldn't matter too much if your board went "pop!" or the valve sprang a leak. But many of us paddle alone most of the time. I remember seeing a pic on the forum here of a surfski (I think) that had been hit by a flying fish in, I think, Hawaii. The razor sharp nose of the fish had punctured straight through the hull of the boat and the fish was actually embedded in the hull.  Funny things happen at sea.

I would have thought that using multiple chambers might also be an opportunity for increasing the stiffness of a board.

[capobeachboy]

Flying fish spearing an inflatable?  I guess it could happen but you would have to have some pretty bad luck.  If you don't have a buddy and have to to a solo downwinder I think leash, pfd, a cell and or vhs would be the minimum along with letting at least two people know your intended route & eta.

Taku was on our 2012 version of the 14' ULI race board.  It was a special edition and we made about ten of them at 26" wide and 6" thick.  He weighs about 160 but at 190 I could paddle that board in all kinds of conditions, but the 12'6" version was a little tippy.  He's racing Molo again this year and I he's got a couple boards to choose from depending on the conditions from 24" to 26" wide.  His kids are padding 5" thick boards that are 22" wide. They do a lot of offshore downwinders at their home in Okinawa.