Kona or Pacifico

[more force 4]

Thought this would be a better thread rather than cluttering up the bulletin board .

Voodman - if you are going to use the board much in surf and for SUP, I think the Pacifico would be the best bet. Looks like much thinner rails than the Kona, probably going to be lighter too. Can you actually buy one yet? For all-round versatility - Kona. From the promo pics and blurb, it sounds like they have given the Pacifico more of a windsurf rocker and are less surfier than the Big Red SO boards. Those apparently only plane on the wave face and use rail length to slog to windward -- which they supposedly do quite well. But it looks like the Pacifico is more surfy than the Kona, although that guy John in Florida claims to sail his Kona in head high+ surf on a regular basis.

THe Pacifico is 78 cm wide; the Kona Surf 65; the Kona Style 70 cm wide; the width on the Pacifico will make SUP much easier.

[downwind dave]

i thought the debate was longboard vs hammock and beer? personally i like a cold pacifico after sailing.

[more force 4]

Dave:
After age 40 or so,
hammock+beer = increasing waistline
SUP = decreasing waistline

Light wind Kona sailing = fool yourself into thinking you've expended energy, so drink much beer and eat much fatty food to celebrate = increasing waistline?

[KUS]

aaaah, what's SUP? you guys with yer acronyms are getting very governmentiesque

[more force 4]

Quote
According to Mistral "the whole world is talking about this great new sport (SUP) – Stand Up Paddling" - and they have just launched a board to get more people on the water. Either catching waves or using it for a fun-paddling session on flat water conditions – this new board is accessible for everybody and can be learned within 5 minutes.
...
Mistral Pacifico SUP Stand up paddle board or windsurf board

endquote

[downwind dave]

aaaah, what's SUP? ..

sounds like an old beer commercial

[more force 4]

Dave
You got an obsession with beer today?

[TheLaw]

I am still not clear on what is the matter with RS? For Kus RS = Regular Surfing...why do we need to stand up and paddle a huge board? Did I miss the memo?

Yes you might be able to catch waves but you can't really turn much once you are on it. I watched RichardM at JR one day and he is pretty good at it...man it looked very slow and painful to me. I am not trying to bag the sport I am just stating my observations.

[more force 4]

1. I don't surf, so all my knowledge is book larnin' FWIW (Kus-you OK with that one? )
2. SUP is said to be able to catch mushier waves and even unbroken swell, so you can catch waves further out and more often. THis is supposed to be because you can paddle so much faster than a shortboard or lay-down on a long board
3. So you can also cruise out to offshore/hard to get to breaks
4. Its supposed to be awesome full-body workout but fun even on flat water
5. Liard H. and the other super beach boys can catch Lanes and Jaws monsters with a paddle and dispense with the jet-ski tow-in. Thus more 'pure' (I expect he has the ski standing by anyway....)
6. If Liard does it it must be cool. He also does it in no waves (e.g., English Channel crossing)
7. If its thought to be cool then it will sell lots of boards
8. If it sells lots of boards, some surfers will put a sail them and thus sell booms, masts, sails, extensions, etc etc
9. And the manufacturers will have the 80s heyday of sales of millions of boards being sold again
10. And some people might get rich

[more force 4]

Oh, one more. Kinda along the 'pure' lines.

SUP is what the aboriginal Hawaiians did, and they used the paddle to control their huge wood boards that had no fin/

So it sort of back to surfing roots....

Edit: here's Wardog's SUP site with all the above in better detail and with pics. http://standuppaddling.com/standup_paddle_surfing.asp


Doesn't sound particularly slow and ungainly - maybe its one of those things thats more fun to do than to watch?

[TheLaw]

Happy SUP'ing....questioning why I bothered commenting in the first place.

[downwind dave]

mf4 if you or anyone else (law?) wants a paddle blade i have an extra, all you need to do is macgyver on a shaft, add some $20 mossy craigslist longboard and youre good to go in this exciting and hot new sport.

[icurumba]

RichardM here, nice to see a post on SUP (stand up paddling). I wouldnt recomend this sport,...its very boring and slow. Better to stick with windsurfing. Anyway there's no surf on the island.

[more force 4]

Hey thanks DWD - I'm going to see if I have an old kayak paddle blade (I know we have one, but its Roger's and I'm not sure he'll let me cut it up). For the shaft, no-one has ante'd up a busted RD mast - I think I'll chop up my 1979 One-design mast, which is no longer holding up netting to stop basketballs, and use that for the shaft. It would be nice to bevel in the 20 degree 'kick' to the blade needed for SUP.

I'll use my >>$20 Kona board, thanks! Probably wider than the ancient boards. I'll use it in the flatwater this weekend if there is no wind. I did look at Wardog's video clip on that link I posted, I don't see any evidence he turns the thing on the small waves he was on (kinda backing up what The Law said), looking at it I thought I'd be able to handle little waves like that OK on the Kona, even with no prior experience. The ones he was riding looked way too small for any RS. It was cool that his board picked up and surfed the unbroken swell - he has one shot looking backwards at the board and its wake, clipping along with no whitewater in sight.

[downwind dave]

ok but a mast would be a bit of overkill unless youre planning on clubbing something large to eat. check out a hardware store for good stiff fibreglass shafted "all weather" yard tools