Author Topic: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions  (Read 7167 times)

oceanAddict

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Hi there,

 As I  found myself getting into stand up more and more I decided to add a travel inflatable and purchased used Bullet off the distressedM.  I'm a 3rd owner after it's been BigWinds rental and later one other person. The board itself appears to be in pretty good shape and came with all accessories. Finally had a chance to try it yesterday in waist-thigh choppy and windy surf.  It was my first attempt on inflatables and after some rough time in the beginning, I managed to score few decent (for conditions and my skills lol) rides.  First impression: it's quite different from hard boards. Being inflatable it sits "on the water" and more affected by a strong side wind. At the same time I feel like it was easier to get it going from the standstill and had couple waves when I was able to make the wave at the last moment with just a few short strokes. It was more difficult to pop the nose after it pearl - even if I move back the board flexes and keeps nose under water.  I also noticed if I didn't get the board exactly perpendicular to the wave on the launch there is a very good chance it would go sideways and flipped. But it could be attributed to the pintail shape and fin selection (which is my first question). The board came with SIC weedless 9'. My thought was it's probably not a good fin for conditions and I used 4A 9.75' fin. Does it make sense?  I'm planning to bring the board to FL this winter and thinking to take these 2 fins. One for - long distance paddling,  and other for waves...

My second question is - what the best way to store the board to prolong its life? Keeping it in the bag will make creases more permanent and thus more prone to failure I guess? Partially inflated?

And here is a mandatory pic with my pump master.


   
Infinity Blackfish, SIC Bullet Air Glide, Sunova Point Break #003, Sunova Soul

DavidJohn

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2018, 11:24:08 AM »
I’d be using a 9” or 10” dolphin shaped fin.. and I keep my inflatable board 3/4 inflated when not being used to prevent permanent creases and deck pad damage. Great looking board.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2018, 11:30:02 AM by DavidJohn »

singingdog

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2018, 04:31:00 AM »
I keep my Red inflated all season (4-5 months) to full pressure: no issues after 3 years.

oceanAddict

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2018, 06:21:29 PM »
Cool thank you both  8)
Infinity Blackfish, SIC Bullet Air Glide, Sunova Point Break #003, Sunova Soul

PonoBill

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2018, 09:17:25 PM »
Great looking board. If you had said it was an F14 hard board I would have believed you. I bet it will be fast. I keep my Red Dragon fully inflated all summer and store it deflated but flat in the winter. So far so good.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Quickbeam

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2018, 10:52:29 PM »
Between my wife and myself we have 4 inflatables. Two are stored partially inflated with the other two deflated, rolled up and put away. I would prefer to have them all stored partially inflated, but we don’t have the space to store all 4 that way all winter.

So far at least, the ones that have been stored deflated and rolled up don’t seem any worse off.
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Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
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Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
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RideTheGlide

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2018, 06:17:50 AM »
I have one of the cheapest iSUPs you can get. Paddling it is what got me hooked and now I have a Glide (officially take possession in 6 days on my 60th birthday). Once it gets warm, I will probably leave the racks on my car all the time and leave the iSUP inflated. I will still use it a fair amount; I don't want to bake the Glide when I am meeting people near my office after work. But this past season I used it a couple of dozen times deflating and rolling it up every time and it seems no worse for it. As an aside, I think inflatable all rounds in the 10' to 12' range have become something of a commodity now with the tech for them getting old enough that pretty much everyone has adopted it. I paddled a lot with people who had low end and high end iSUPs and hard boards and there is a lot of difference at the high end, but at the low end not so much; no horror stories (actually the only iSUP horror stories I heard were overheated Red Paddle boards) and low end ones tend to get rolled up more because people using them often don't have other boards and haven't invested in racks yet. long winded way of saying I think it's fine either way; left inflated or rolled up.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2018, 06:20:10 AM by RideTheGlide »
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Green Water Sports

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Re: New to me SIC Air-Glide Bullet 14 ft, first impression and questions
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2019, 07:38:16 AM »
I store some boards fully inflated in an outdoor store room (tropical warm and humid climate) for months on end and only top up the boards once in a while. Other boards I store inside in AC rolled up.

A rolled up board will have some wrinkles but after a few hours inflated, they'll iron themselves out from the inside out with the pressure.

If you'll be leaving the board for months at a time and have space, I usually suggest unrolled on a flat surface at 1-2PSI, away from sources of extreme heat or cold, rodents and sharp objects, out of the elements (sun mostly). Otherwise, rolled up in the closet is fine too.
Julian
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