Picking a Stand Up Paddleboard, need SUP Help!

[Danno]

BUMP:

Wife and kiddo want these, for lakes. Don't want to spend a ton of money. Saw that Costco had some for $400, but Amazon has some that are close to $200, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/XYLOVE-CO-Inf...HCJ3JYZ5T&th=1

I'm a SUP jong, it's my wife and kid that really want to do this (and they're jongs too). So I don't know the ins and outs and what have yous.

[HD333]

BUMP:

Wife and kiddo want these, for lakes. Don't want to spend a ton of money. Saw that Costco had some for $400, but Amazon has some that are close to $200, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/XYLOVE-CO-Inf...HCJ3JYZ5T&th=1

I'm a SUP jong, it's my wife and kid that really want to do this (and they're jongs too). So I don't know the ins and outs and what have yous.

I bought a couple of the sub $400 inflatables off of Amazon a few years ago. Vilano was the brand. They have held up well after a couple years of use. Only used in lakes. Inflatable is nice for traveling, it rolls up and fits in a big backpack that came with it.

I really think most the sub $400 ones are basically the same materials with different graphics on them.

I suggest getting a battery/ electric pump if you will be inflating/deflating between uses.


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[Name Redacted]

I suggest getting a battery/ electric pump if you will be inflating/deflating between uses.

^^^This

And the cheaper ones will be fine to learn on. Less stringers, less stiff, etc but beginners won't know enough to care.

Make sure they wear leashes, especially on the lake. Wind can throw you off and I've seen paddle boards fly a really long way, leaving the paddler there to swim to shore. This is how people drown from paddle boarding on CO lakes every year.

[Cruiser]

I bought some ebay ones for similarly small money this summer and used them plenty. Kids and adults enjoyed them. Biggest takeaways are that a bigger board is better for comfort / stability and that pumping them up with the supplied pumps is not ideal. I have a compressor in the garage and ended up just pumping them up at home and tossing them on the roof to drive to chatfield but I also picked up a Walmart 12v inflator for times when we were going father afield and didn't want them on the roof for the drive.

[XXX-er]

the hard boards are faster but get damaged when you drop em but the blow up boards are bullet proof and it doesnt hurt when you fall on themhttps://redpaddleco.com/en-gb/paddle...e-tough-stuff/
https://redpaddleco.com/en-gb/paddle...e-tough-stuff/

[grskier]

BUMP:

Wife and kiddo want these, for lakes. Don't want to spend a ton of money. Saw that Costco had some for $400, but Amazon has some that are close to $200, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/XYLOVE-CO-Inf...HCJ3JYZ5T&th=1

I'm a SUP jong, it's my wife and kid that really want to do this (and they're jongs too). So I don't know the ins and outs and what have yous.

The high society deal is good for the 2 for 1, makes it $550 each.. they seem a little nice than the ones we see off ebay or amazon, and they are local here. All their boards probably come out of one of the chinese factories. Kids loved them in the lakes.

[Danno]

So, bumping again, been browsing amazon and trying to make sense of the differences between the amazon ones and expect as was posted that there aren't many differences. But being a SUP jong I want to see if there's something I am missing or should I buy the cheapest one?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BY8C3GB/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088WGKH1X/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0822NC27P/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DV6BJ1V/

[Danno]

and I hear y'all on the electric pump but that will be a secondary purchase after I get tired of the manual pump.

[adrenalated]

You'll get tired of the manual pump after the first time blowing them up.

I bought two High Society SUPs when they were doing a buy one get one sale and for that price, they were totally worth it.

I guess the main risk of buying a cheapo Amazon one for lakes and such is that they'll sink.

[Danno]

They have BOGO but it's 799 for 2, these on Amazon are close to half that. And they all get decent reviews.

Honestly, these are for my wife and kid, so I'll let them figure out that using the manual pump sucks.

[adrenalated]

Honestly, these are for my wife and kid, so I'll let them figure out that using the manual pump sucks.

They'll figure it out after 5min of pumping and one board isn't even half inflated, and then you'll spend 30min pumping them the rest of the way up while they fuck around on their phones, and then you'll order an electric pump on Amazon.
I'm just saying, you're gonna buy one, might as well just factor that in and do it up front.

[Cruiser]

In my limited experience with cheap sups, bigger is better. We have a couple of them and our friends do also. So I've used a few of the cheap ones. Something like your second link that's 11' long and 33" wide is more stable and comfortable (and probably slower if that matters) than the 10' ones.

And yeah, the manual pump sucks but if you're airing a few boards up you can let the electric do 80% of the work and then switch to the manual to get up to 13psi while the electric moves on to the next board.

[WMD]

What SUP to buy really depends on what you want to use it for. There are huge differences in quality and shape/design. I originally thought the whole SUP thing was just a gimmick, but I absolutely love SUP now. I've run whitewater, my family has done multiple self support SUP trips in the Tetons, MT, and BC, I love to go on long lake cruises, and I paddle for fitness and have even gotten into some racing. I have inflatables - I keep them inflated when at home so I can just throw them on the car and go, but have taken them as luggage to Mexico, Panama, the Virgin Islands, Belize, the Galapagos, even tributaries of the Amazon. I don't mind the pump but keep them inflated as much as possible so I only have to pump when I go somewhere new. If all your wife and kid want to do is lie on a board in the sun, it probably doesn't matter what you get. If they want to get into yoga or fitness or something else, quality and shape matters. For inflatables get one that can pump to at least 15 psi if they want to really paddle.

I use Red Paddle boards and run them at 17-20 psi. For fitness/touring/racing/whitewater a good paddle makes a huge difference too.

[Danno]

How much does a pump cost? No idea what I should be looking for and how much I should spend.

[Danno]

What SUP to buy really depends on what you want to use it for. .

Paddling around lakes, can't imagine they'll be used for anything else.

[WMD]

Width matters. Skinnier than 30" and they get very tippy. 32" wide can be a good stable width. Long and skinny means faster but less stable. 10-11 is a pretty typical length for general purpose.

Thickness matters too (that's what she said...). 4" may not provide enough flotation for bigger people, making them super unstable. 6" is better for larger people, two people, taking a dog, etc, but can feel like riding a cork if a super light person is on it.

[Name Redacted]

How much does a pump cost? No idea what I should be looking for and how much I should spend.

Mine was about $99 new. They are also nice for getting all the air out when deflating to pack it down. Like others said, if you have the storage space, leave them inflated. X2 on finishing em off with the hand pump. Also make sure the valve is set correctly! Sucks when you wait 15 mins to inflate then lose most of it when you unhook the pump and have to do it all over. Ugh.

Some friends have some cheap ones from Amazon. They are sufficient for booze cruising. One was defective but still functional and the company sent them another board free of charge. Didn’t have to send the other back. I get the feeling they are pretty cheap to make.

[Cruiser]

Had good luck with this pump last season

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tou...lack/535758726

[Danno]

Had good luck with this pump last season

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tou...lack/535758726

Huh, we have one of these in my car (not the same exact one, but same basic idea), maybe I already have what I need?

[Cruiser]

Perhaps, but the one I linked is a dual stage unit with fittings for the sup valve. The 1st stage is high volume (think pool toys) and the 2nd is higher pressure to get you up into the 13-15psi range for the sup. Ime getting connected from the inflator/pump to the board is not without some challenges since sup valves (particularly on these cheap Chinese boards) vary somewhat.

[Danno]

Ah, thanks, didn't notice that. This is what I have in my car (not exactly but basically), doesn't look like it will work: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kensun-Po...ll&athena=true

[XXX-er]

Paddling around lakes, can't imagine they'll be used for anything else.

I've heard of people doing some pretty long trips in the ocean https://normhann.com/ but thats probably not going to be you

Running raft shuttles I have seen pumps fail from people using them to air up 16 foot rafts so there is a duty cycle to consider

[adrenalated]

How much does a pump cost? No idea what I should be looking for and how much I should spend.

This is the one I bought. It was like $25 cheaper at the time though.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[hawkgt]

wifes first sup was the middle of the road. decent enough and I enjoyed it jumping on from time to time, even caught some trout last year just trolling the lake. last fall she jumped on the high society 2fer. the material is thicker, more rings to attach stuff, seam welds are bit wider in material overlap. I did get the bigger one for fishing off so I got that going for me.

[grskier]

wifes first sup was the middle of the road. decent enough and I enjoyed it jumping on from time to time, even caught some trout last year just trolling the lake. last fall she jumped on the high society 2fer. the material is thicker, more rings to attach stuff, seam welds are bit wider in material overlap. I did get the bigger one for fishing off so I got that going for me.

We have the 2 high societies. We burned out an airpump last year that was single stage, so we're in the market for a double stage, may look at the rechargeable ones though for alpine laking.