The Rocket Ship has landed in Portugal

[supnorte]

Eat dust, Elon Musk! 

The SIC Maui RS has landed in Portugal. Featured in this video: RS 12'6 x 25'', RS 14'0 24.5 and RS 14'0 x 26''

[Dusk Patrol]

What's your opinion about RS' glide compared to an X-14 Pro?

I ask because the SIC marketing touts the RS as the evolution of flatwater boards, and the X14 Pro (26") is my personal benchmark reference (and others') for glide. Meaning for a 'normal' board, without getting into the rarified 21s 23s, etc.

Maybe a factor is my 2015 X-14 is feather light, before the 2016 addition of innegra, for durability, but which adds weight.

I'm just curious if the allwater RS hull design truly results in a fast board.
   

[supnorte]

What's your opinion about RS' glide compared to an X-14 Pro?

The X-Pro 14'' is manly a flatwater board with low volume (comparing to all-water boards), altough I had a X-Pro 12'6 and used it in a wide variety of conditions. I loved the way that board surfed but like I said it wasn't an ocean board and was difficult to handle in rough conditions.
What I saw and felt with the RS on flatwater is that the board has a great accelaration and glide per stroke. Super-stable (you can go narrower than what you are used to) and although it has a lot of volume you don't feel like you pulling some extra volume (like sometimes it felt with the FX). I haven't tested on ocean conditions (those boards on the video were for costumers and team riders), but I'll get my 14'0 x 24'5 in a couple of weeks or less. I live in Porto (Northern Portugal) and I have a really wide variety of conditions: the Douro river and other rivers nearby for flatwater training (and some river DW), Matosinhos Beach (very similar to Dana Point minus the pebbles and the small shorebreak, so it's a perfect beach for beach race) and several perfect downwind runs. So I think this board is just perfect for what I want (for nuking DW conditions I have a Bullet 17'4).

But think that Area10 did the perfect summarize of the RS on Asutralian Seabreeze moments ago. And if you know Area10 is rather difficult to please 

"I demoed a 14x26 RS today, in windy and shallow flat water on a river.

It felt very comfortable to paddle, and would make a nice board to paddle for intermediates and up even when not racing. It's got bungees at the front which was a pleasant surprise for a raceboard - pretty useful. Fat rails, fat tail, and a fairly bulbous nose means it doesn't look particularly svelte off the water but it feels quite svelte actually on the water.

It does give "easy speed" - it's pretty straightforward to get it almost planing when paddling, and so achieve good top end speeds. I should imagine that gifted paddlers will get crazy speeds out of it. But even a dork like me felt good on it. So, it's quite a flattering board and it kinda skips along the water when you really get it going. A surprise to me was how well it quartered the wind given the bulbous nose and fat rails. Very nice predictable handling. Nice and stable: the claims about stability aren't BS. I didn't get to try it on any proper downwind conditions but with the wind behind me on the river and some little ripples, it took off extremely well. I should think that in proper small downwind conditions it will go like a "rocket ship" indeed.

The board felt light, even with all the fittings (two race handles as well), and was really well balanced on the handle. It was noticeably lighter than a 14x26 Maliko, despite more volume. Of course, the Maliko is I think a full PVC wrap so might be more durable. But time will tell I guess: The SIC has innegra reinforcements at various places on the board. Usual superb SIC handle. Tracks well. Overall it felt very refined indeed, and I can well believe that a lot of thought and time went into the design. I find it hard to criticise the performance - there really wasn't anything I disliked about it at all in that department. The nose splashes a bit, but it doesn't seem to slow it down. So overall, top marks for performance from me.

I do have a couple of suggestions/Qs for Mark Raaphorst about it though, to consider for next year's model:

1. Why are the race handles where they are? They aren't really in the conventional position at all.

2. The deck pad is a bit thin (presumably to save weight) and not very comfortable to stand on for long periods.

3. The deck pad is a pretty uninspiring colour, and looks more like something I'd expect to see on the floor of a public toilet than a stylish uber-expensive race board. It also shows muck (I was paddling in a muddy river). Style, please!

4. The leash Point is almost directly beneath the fin, not further back. So if you were surfing the board (eg. a beach race) you'd risk treading on the leash/leash point. Pretty irritating. Please move the leash plug 6-8" rearwards: there's plenty of room.

5. The fin it comes with is the 8.3" SIC Carbon Weedless. The SIC fins are a great design. But I think the 7.0" would probably be plenty for this board for most people, especially in flat water.

But these are all pretty minor points, and I've never seen a production board yet that I couldn't criticise in one way or another: I'm a bit of a perfectionist. The far more important aspects are that it is definitely fast, is very easy to handle and is forgiving, and will be a really nice board to paddle even when not racing. For me, it's pretty close to being the perfect 14ft race all-rounder (and closer than anything else I've tried)."

Hope it helps

[Dusk Patrol]

^ Thanks. Also for forwarding Area10's comments. Will be curious to hear your further impressions when you get your 14.     

[Area 10]

What's your opinion about RS' glide compared to an X-14 Pro?

I ask because the SIC marketing touts the RS as the evolution of flatwater boards, and the X14 Pro (26") is my personal benchmark reference (and others') for glide. Meaning for a 'normal' board, without getting into the rarified 21s 23s, etc.

Maybe a factor is my 2015 X-14 is feather light, before the 2016 addition of innegra, for durability, but which adds weight.

I'm just curious if the allwater RS hull design truly results in a fast board.
   

If you are comfortable on the X14 Pro then you’d definitely go narrower than 26 for the RS because the RS design is inherently more stable. So the comparison would be between a wider board with a cutting bow and a narrower one with a kinda planing-hybrid one. The speed would then depend on what kind of paddler you are and how far you are paddling (and in what conditions). I think that for non-elite paddlers, there is a huge amount to recommend in a cutting bow in flat water. You can’t get around the fact that with the planing nose all-water designs (like the All Star, RS, Maliko etc) your waterline is a bit shorter and you can see lost energy in the splashiness of the nose, and the water sprinkling off it. The cutting bows part the water with so little drama in comparison, and utilise every inch of the waterline.

But a funny thing happens when an elite paddler with grunt to spare gets motoring on a planing nose board. Whereas a cutting bow seems to accumulate water and bog down as you approach hull speed, the planing nose ones seem to get lighter on the water instead, and the top speed seems to be less limited by physics and more by the paddler. Now, 99% of paddlers can’t keep a planing nose board at those kinds of speeds - and it can’t possibly be efficient to do so - but if you are in the 1% that can, then I think that maybe planing nose boards might possibly be faster for you than cutting bow ones, at least as long as the distance isn’t great.

So whether you’d be faster or not on a narrower RS (which has the same stability as your X14 Pro) would be down to you, I suspect. I doubt you’d be much slower, and the RS is likely to be more versatile. It’s fairly light too, despite the Innegra.

[Dusk Patrol]

Thanks for the additional detail.

Not being an elite paddler, what I like is the sensation of efficient glide. So I’m not necessarily looking to go faster than my X14 Pro, but was just curious if hull design has evolved to where a RS planing nose actually provides the glide.

Hustling to maintain the planing nose up on plane sounds like too much work!

[Area 10]

No, I don’t think that board shapers have unlocked some new secret. It’s more like they have found ways of allowing really good paddlers to shine, as well as devising ways to maintain stability while narrowing the board. I doubt if the RS is more *efficient* that your X14 Pro, or that it has more “glide” (however you are defining it). Having said that, if you power up the RS and then stop paddling completely, the board does keep going for quite a long time. So, if that’s your definition of glide then it has plenty. And if I was in a short sprint race I’d rather be on the RS.

So I don’t think that you need to sell your X14 Pro

For me, what the RS offers is a more versatile and easy-to-use board in a form that doesn’t lose you much flat water speed (if any), and will gain you plenty of advantages in some situations (e.g. downwind). That would be the reason to buy a RS if you already have an X-series SIC, I think. But if you only ever paddle pure flat water then you’ve probably already got a great board for that.

Hope this helps.

[C.I.Sup]

Area 10, if I recall you have (had?) an X14.  Not the pro model but the wider 28.5" one.  Any comparison on stability and speed from that board to the RS in 14x26?  Sold my X14 and am looking for a board that I can still do a lot of flat water paddling (lots of swell, chop, etc) but also start learning to downwind on.  I was very comfortable on my X14 so thinking I could maybe move to a narrower board.  Weight is around 200 lbs.  Thanks!

[Area 10]

Area 10, if I recall you have (had?) an X14.  Not the pro model but the wider 28.5" one.  Any comparison on stability and speed from that board to the RS in 14x26?  Sold my X14 and am looking for a board that I can still do a lot of flat water paddling (lots of swell, chop, etc) but also start learning to downwind on.  I was very comfortable on my X14 so thinking I could maybe move to a narrower board.  Weight is around 200 lbs.  Thanks!

Yes, I have the 28.5” wide X14. The 14x26 is similar in stability. I’ve actually found myself thinking that I could have gone the 24.5” wide version, and I like stable boards. If you were fine on the X14 you will be fine on the 14x26 RS.

For me, the 14x26 RS is a little faster in pure flat water than the X14, but a whole lot nicer to paddle, because of the narrower width, principally. Upwind and crosswind in bumpy waters it is usefully faster and easier to handle.

I don’t think that the RS would be the *ideal* board to learn downwinding, although it would definitely be better than the X14 for that. The easiest boards to start downwinding on have plenty of rocker and fairly low volume tails. But the RS is not significantly worse at downwinding than many other all-waters race boards. It’s just that dedicated DW boards are so much nicer to downwind. But if you can only have one board for everything and actual downwinding is not going to be very clearly your main focus, then the RS should be a good choice. It is definitely one of the best boards I’ve ever tried in dealing with crosschop and winds. The handling is very neutral indeed with no nasty surprises that will have you off. The more I paddle it the more impressed I am. It is easy to be fast and comfortable on it. And it’s got all the little touches that make ownership easy, and enhance adaptability: the handle, the race handles, mounting point at nose, and also leash points forward and aft on the deck, deck bungees, drain holes that don’t let water in, good easy rail shapes for loading in a vehicle etc etc. It’s clear that it has been designed by someone who actually paddles a lot themselves and combined with how easy and comfortable it is to paddle, means that it would make a good tourer/fitness board  as well as racer.

I can imagine that a lot of racers who have bought an RS will keep quiet about it. It could definitely be an unfair advantage, and who would want to tell potential rivals about that?

If you liked the X14 then I am pretty much 100% confident that you’d like a 14x26 RS, and would be glad you bought one. I can’t see a downside. The RS is also usefully lighter than the X14, and presumably the Innegra-reinforced rails, nose and tail will be tougher too.

It’s got plenty of volume and the rails are thicker than on the X14 so you don’t need to worry about weight.

Hope this helps.

[yugi]

Revolutionary news from you, A10!

A non-watercutting displacement bow that you find acceptably fast enough on superflat water. Maybe even better than a cutting bow. Wow.

I feel like the SUP world has officially entered a new era with that news.

[Area 10]

Revolutionary news from you, A10!

A non-watercutting displacement bow that you find acceptably fast enough on superflat water. Maybe even better than a cutting bow. Wow.

I feel like the SUP world has officially entered a new era with that news.

You’ve got to remember that the RS 14x26 is 2.5” narrower (maybe even 2.75”) than the X14, and it is also lighter. I am not comparing the 14x26 X14 Pro with the 14x26 RS, because that’s not what I was asked to do by the OP. I’m pretty sure that I’d personally be faster on the 14x26 RS than on the 14x26 XPro. But that would be because RS is much more stable and I’d be able to get the power down much better: The XPro is probably at the limits of what I am comfortable with stability-wise. So this is more about my failings than any inherent flat water design advantage. But a better (and lighter) paddler might well be faster in pure flatwater on the XPro. I’d be surprised if they weren’t, in a straight line (ie. no turns or drafting, where the RS would show a clear advantage). But what the RS does so well is to flatter the paddler. So it’s great for chumps like me.

But, actually, it is surprising anyway how fast in pure flat water some of these newer all-waters designs can be.

I’d prefer the RS if it was an unlimited class version. But for a 14 it’s very pleasant to paddle indeed. There are few boards that don’t have at least one obvious flaw, but this doesn’t, really. I’d prefer it if the DW performance was a little less technical, but then it wouldn’t be so fast the rest of the time. IMO this is a very well sorted design, and is definitely as close as I’ve come to trying a “one board quiver”.

[yugi]

Wow.

You just said: “one board quiver”!

Just wow.

[Area 10]

Wow.

You just said: “one board quiver”!

Just wow.

Well, not for *me*, obviously

But I could manage with a specialist DW board (my custom UL) plus the RS for everything else. (And then some surf SUPs, obviously.)

That’s pretty radical for me

[PT Woody]

Has the X Pro been discontinued? I can't see it on the SIC website.

[ukgm]

No, I don’t think that board shapers have unlocked some new secret. It’s more like they have found ways of allowing really good paddlers to shine, as well as devising ways to maintain stability while narrowing the board. I doubt if the RS is more *efficient* that your X14 Pro, or that it has more “glide” (however you are defining it). Having said that, if you power up the RS and then stop paddling completely, the board does keep going for quite a long time. So, if that’s your definition of glide then it has plenty. And if I was in a short sprint race I’d rather be on the RS.

So I don’t think that you need to sell your X14 Pro

For me, what the RS offers is a more versatile and easy-to-use board in a form that doesn’t lose you much flat water speed (if any), and will gain you plenty of advantages in some situations (e.g. downwind). That would be the reason to buy a RS if you already have an X-series SIC, I think. But if you only ever paddle pure flat water then you’ve probably already got a great board for that.

Hope this helps.

This is interesting. One of my contacts had offered me a chance to formally test one (26 inch width though sadly). I'll be honest, when I saw the photo's and the usual marketing blurb, I wasn't that impressed or that interested in it. However, your account does make me want to think again.