I was a little skeptical about pure touring SUPs. A twelve-footer is a board clearly designed to not race. It could technically fit in the 12'6" class, but it would be at a disadvantage without those extra six inches. Not that I race, but it seems like NSP was making a deliberate statement with the length of this board.
Let's start with the NSP blurb: “The 12'0 Cruiser is new for 2013. It is designed as the board that can do it all. Stable, easy to use, great for fishing, training, family and fun! The new cruiser was designed with the perfect width and volume to get you started and off and cruising quickly on flat water or the ocean. Last years 12'0 was very popular with hire centers and the new design takes the usability to the next level.”
My first impressions were that the board is very wide, and it is at over 33". The fin is also a vertical, non-surf-style fin. I'm told this fins of this style creates more drag than a more swept-back shape, but I've yet to really test that. It's also very flat with a little rocker in the nose.
The nose has more of a ship-style point than my Exocet Marlin 14, which is more kayak shaped.
Looking at the deck, it's very clear this board is designed for cruising. It's wide in the front for extra stability. There are also fourteen tie-downs in the front! (Count them.) I love a board with tie-downs. They give you that extra flexibility when cruising. You can put all sorts of things on them like rigging, or a net, or a deck bag. NSP seems to understand that. The one thing missing was a threaded Go-Pro mount. There is a tie-down where the mount should be, but it's clearly for rigging or maybe the forward mounting of a leash.
Time to get the board in the water. I lifted it by the handle, which is the new style with recesses into the board. It was the first time I tried it and I never wanted to go back. Wow, you get such a better grip with it! I remembered all those time shlepping my NSP 11' surfboard up and down the beach by the handle, my fingers cramping painfully. This little change in the handle would have made all the difference. The 12' Cruiser is also very light. The website says it's fourteen pounds, which seems a bit light, but it was definitely easy to carry.
Time to paddle this puppy. I first played with it in the water. The board was very stable. The extra width meant I had to bring the paddle out a little further than I was used to, but I got used to it quickly. It tracked well, which perhaps could be improved upon with a different fin. It turned easily with sweep and cross-bow turns. The relatively short length and extra width made it an easy board to pivot-turn.
Not all of my pivot turns are successful!
After playing around for a while, I took the board on a GPS run around lovely Lake Oceola. I used MotionX-GPS on my iPhone 4S in a waterproof pouch. I kept the phone in the waist bag with inflatable PFD. The water was flat, almost glassy and there was no wind. The water was fresh. Results:
| Name: | Track 015 | |
| Date: | Jul 18, 2013 7:19 pm | |
| Map: (valid until Jan 15, 2014) | View on Map | |
| Distance: | 0.87 miles | |
| Elapsed Time: | 11:28.0 | |
| Avg Speed: | 4.5 mph | |
| Max Speed: | 11.4 mph | |
| Avg Pace: | 13' 11" per mile | |
| Min Altitude: | 411 ft | |
| Max Altitude: | 413 ft | |
| Start Time: | 2013-07-18T23:19:58Z | |
| Start Location: | ||
| Latitude: | 41º 20' 05" N | |
| Longitude: | 73º 47' 55" W | |
| End Location: | ||
| Latitude: | 41º 20' 05" N | |
| Longitude: | 73º 47' 56" W | |
4.5 mph is a pretty respectable speed for this board, especially on fresh water. Fresh water is a little slower than salt because it floats the board less, so more of the board is exposed to the water creating more drag. I'm not sure where that 11.4 mph reading comes from. It doesn't show up on the stats for the run, so it may be an artifact or I may have gone that speed very briefly as I pushed myself onto it. Either way, it probably isn't enough to skew the results more than a tiny bit.
One of the neat surprises was the lovely bow wave the board made. When I got it up to speed, maybe 3.5 mph, the water would curl up past the nose in a pretty little arc. At faster speeds the water would get higher than the board and trickle onto the face. This was a little distracting — I ended up pushing my speed just to see how high I could get the bow wave to go. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I liked it.
After the timed run I paddled the board in a few more casual laps around the lake, chatting with Jerry and Ivan, another SUP buddy. That was even more fun than the timed run. this board seemed to like being paddled casually. It was great platform to just enjoy being on the water. My guess too was that this was a board more at home in flatwater conditions. It might get tossed around a little bit in chop because of the lack of rocker, but the target paddler for this board probably would be going out in conditions like that, as opposed to crazier paddlers like, say, me.
By the end of the evening I have to say I was sold on this board. Who needs to race, or surf? If you just want a board just for flat water, this NSP 12' Cruiser seemed like the perfect platform. A bigger person might find it a bit small, and even tended to sink the nose when I stood forward of the handle while paddling, but for people under 200 pounds, this is a great choice. The light weight is a plus for anyone with not a lot of upper-arm strength, although spending a lot of time on a SUP tends to fix that. It's quick and easy to stand on.
Is this the ultimate SUP? No, but it's an excellent SUP, well suited for touring, paddling, and seeing the scenery. For the person who just wants a flatwater SUP to do all these things and isn't concerned with racing or top-end performance, what's not to like?
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