Very exciting day at Paddlefast today as our initial order of demo iSUPs have arrived from both Red Paddle Co and Naish!
First up is the best-selling Red 10’6″, part of the ‘Ride’ Range from Red Paddle Co.Red Paddle is the company who seem to have been involved in inflatable paddleboards from the word go and the prevalence of these boards in waters around the world are testament to this fact. So sturdy you can drive over them (although we wouldn’t recommend it!), these boards fit snugly into a kit bag, the Red Paddle 2.0 SUP wheelie bag, which also has straps to make it a rucksack – paddle anywhere! Also in the back is the new twin chamber Titan pump, designed to help you spend less time pumping and more time paddling. The pump fits alongside the arm band protection for the 3 red iFins. The iFin can handle anything – hitting rocks, grounding on the beach or standing on the board are all no problems.
Also included in the box is a 10″ surf leash (not coiled), plastic waterproof phone case and a repair kit (just in case). Your standard Red 10’6″ package comes with an Alloy Vario Paddle, but we also ordered up a 3 piece travel Carbon Paddle, just to see how light it really is.
Next up is the Naish Alana Air 11’6″ which is my personal favourite – it has a mermaid on the underside which calls to my inner water goddess! Naish have a reputation for being a little more ‘out there’ than other brands. Contained within the distinctive Magic Bag, a black and yellow rucksack with vents, is the high pressure gauge pump, repair kit and 10″ black fin.
The snazzy black and white deck and subtle pink touches on the extendable paddle and board make it slightly girly without being totally OTT. On the underside, a US Fin Box means attaching the 10″ fin or indeed changing it for another (such as a weed fin for example), is a piece of cake. This board is great for exploring as it holds a good line as well as picking up waves, it’s even stable enough to try a few yoga moves if you tuck your paddle through the cargo elastic on the nose.
Finally, the Naish One 12’6″ N1SCO black and yellow inflatable SUP, also part of the Air Series. This bumble-bee looking board is a one design board with its own race series around the UK and beyond. In fact, the race management are hoping to bring the race circuit up to Scotland in 2016, so if you want to satisfy your competitive nature, you should get one of these boards to take part. With a slightly elevated nose to help glide over small waves, this board is long and lean. Don’t be taken in by all the race hype though, it’s perfectly capable of taking grom passengers up front to enjoy the view or have a shot at paddling themselves.
Again, the distinctive black and yellow Magic bag with the same high pressure gauge pump, repair kit, US blade box and 10″ blade but this time we upgraded to the Hele Vario 8.5 paddle for a higher power transfer (translation, so you can go really fast!). You can view the complete Naish paddle range here.
The complete Naish Air Series can be viewed here , including the Mana, the Glide, the Nalu, Alana and the ONE.
With the exception of the image of the Naish One above, the photos were taking when we opened the boxes for the first time at a sailing event at Grafham Water, some were more interested in the box…
If you would like to hire or buy our demo boards, please contact the office on either 01324 861 756 or [email protected].