How do you recommend people make decisions about the width of a board if their height and weight aren’t in the same category? According to my weight a 30” board is best, but for my height 32” is recommended. This is an amazing video! All your guides are really helpful
Thanks for the positive feedback. If you are tall and have good balance, then going narrower with the width is ok. More width will give you greater stability. You could always split the difference and go 31"...
I so wish I watched this before buying my 12'6"x 30"x 6". Too narrow for this big fatty😊. If I do it over, I'm going for a much wider board. I'm spending far more energy fighting to stay aboard than I am paddling. Other than continuing incredibly entertaining dismounts, would those training wheel outrigger floats be a less costly fix than buying another board?
In my experience, a 10’6” board is too short for me (182cm height). Generally, boards under 11’6” are the allarounds, 11’6” - 12’6” are the touring sups and 14’ are the race boards. Whatever sup you choose in the end, choosing the right paddle is even more important. There is a huge difference between carbon paddles and the cheap aluminum ones.
10'6 is a good place to start as a general rule and has been the case for many years because they are manoeuvrable and have stable shapes to aid learning, however, with this comes limited glide, so we are seeing a lot of people start with a 11'6 board. We call this type of board a Improver or Performance all round board. They have slightly better glide so will last you a bit longer as a first board, but can be a little less stable due to outline shape and as a little longer they are slightly less manoeuvrable. BUT many people get on very well now with these as a first board. You can learn a lot about them in our head to head test we did last year; supboardermag.com/2022/08/26/improver-allround-isup-test-2022-supboarder-pro-head-to-head/. Cheers Will - SUPboarder
Hi, very nice video! Do you have some overall advice for board length as well, in relation to a persons height and weight? In my example I'm 180 cm/5'11" and 100 kg/220 lb. I'm buying my first SUP after trying a small one for a few days and am torn between 3 boards from Aqua Marina: Fusion (10'10"x32"x6"), Magma (11'2"x33"x6") & Monster(12'0"x33"x6"). Sorry for listing all these details, but just some general advice about length would be nice :)
Length will give you little bit of Stability - this is fully explained in our SUPboarder PRO Tech Talk on Stability ( find it on our website) but mainly the length will give you better top speed and glide but at the compromise of ease of turning and manoeuvring. I think you will be best suited to the Magma or the Monster :)
I had a bluefin carbon sprint 14ft until i had to send it back because it had a crack in the fin box and found that board really stable I've now got a Rogue 12.6 and I'm struggling with stability I'm 5ft 8 and around 16st🙈 what do you think is the problem please?
Hmm, it is strange there is such a big difference in stability between the two boards. Having a longer board will help with stability. The Rogue is also quite refined and narrower in the tail which will sacrifice the stability quite a bit. Hope this helps. Thanks, Beau
Hi guys! If choosing between the 12.6x30 and 11.6x29 sizes, would there be a significant difference in the speed of these boards? What do you think will have a bigger impact: slightly longer length or slightly smaller width? PS: my weight is 55-60kg, height 174cm
This is a very good question. In my experience with paddlers around your weight it seams more important to have a narrower board than a longer board when it comes to overall enjoyment when on the water. But to answer the speed question. The longer board will be faster but only just! not much in it really... Any help? Thanks Reuben
does a few inches difference in width matter? I am looking to buy a cheap isup and don't want to spend too much on it,there is 28 and 31 inch to choice
If you are new to stand up paddling, go for the 31" wide option. 28" is very narrow when learning to SUP and should really only be used by those with experience. Even boards with 1" difference in width feel completely different so it does matter. Thanks and good luck! Beau
All those boards you have said are 34" wide and they will offer you a good amount of stability for your weight and height. The real deciding factor is are you wanting to paddle a little bit further or are you wanting to maybe have a bit more of a movable board. If you are interested in really just paddling further definitely look at 11 4 boards. They will offer you much more glide but if you want an easier more manoeuverable board that turns around quickly and maybe you can even catch the odd wave with go for the shorter board. That is the basic difference between these two sizes, more manoeuvrable and more glide. Hope that helps thanks Reuben
Yes, we will look at height in a separate video - however height often needs a bit more stability as a general rule. The extra width will not be a problem for paddle strokes as the rider is taller and the board is a good 'fit' for the bodies size. Regards Will - SUPboarder Team
It also depends on your weight. If you weigh under 90kgs, then it is better to have a board that is around 31-32". If you weigh under 75kg, it is best to have a board that is 5" in thickness and around 31" width. Hope this helps. Beau
