Tough Touring Boards, Some Plastic, Some Not

For obvious reasons I've gotten a little obsessed with durable boards lately. Frankly, this is something I wish the paddleboard industry would pay more attention to. Fort this reason, I'm going to make it one of the goals of this blog to focus on durable boards that are good for the everyman paddler. This is the paddler who might bring his board into a rocky situation, who might have his kids muck around on the board, who might live in a concrete environment where a board could easily get scratched. These are boards for people who live in the “real world”, where life and the water throw a lot of curve balls and need a board that can take them.

I'm going to make a list of boards which are constructed to take a tough environment. I don't think this exists anywhere. Most SUP lists focus on speed, length or weight. A different approach is warranted.

The Bic Wing, which I have mentioned before:

Photo courtesy of Bic.

Imagine has a few plastic paddleboards (and I own one). The ones I am interested for touring are the eleven-foot Imagine Speeder. While I want to review them individually, here's a good personal review of one.

Photo courtesy of Imagine.

Imagine also makes an eleven foot utility board called the Wizard. It's like the Speeder except that it's wider and has many more tie-downs for gear.

There are very, very few plastic 12'6" boards. One I discovered was the Nalu 12.5 by Ocean Kayak. This is what looks like an entry-level board. It comes in five colors.

Photo courtesy of Ocean Kayak.

Here is the Hovie Scout. It's 11.4 feet long and is designed for paddling in tough terrain.

Photo courtesy of Paddlethemitten.com

There is the Pelican Flow 106. Not many reviews on them, but I don't think Pelican makes the highest quality board, or kayaks for that matter. These are mostly BJs specials, but they have their place.

Photo courtesy of Pelican.

This is the Liquidlogic Versa, which looks a little more like a kayak than a SUP.

Photo courtesy of Liquidlogic

Here is the Jackson Kayak Supernatural. (SUP-er-Natural? Get it?) I like the open plan of the board. It has two mates, a fishing board and a river surfing board, but this the touring model the one that interests me.

I wish Imagine had brought this board to market, the plastic 12'6" racer! I like the center-mounted skeg.

Photo from Imagine, but it's hard to find now. 

This is what Imagine had to say about this board:

"The Racer 12’6” is our “stock class” racing length board - made in plastic. While the focus of this board is certainly not racing, the fitness freaks out there certainly can enter events and the board is so fast that it’s competitive even though its plastic. Our nose piercing bow design, that flows into the efficient displacement hull makes this board a dream to paddle, in all conditions from open ocean swell riding to just paddling at the lake."

• Dimensions: 12’6” x 30” x 8”

• Max Weight: 300lbs

• Board Weight: 45lbs

The Racer never made it out of prototype phase although it was advertised on the Imagine website for a while. Imagine also built a seventeen foot plastic board prototype. I know because I saw it and was even asked to buy it. It was huge and heavy, and apparently the hatches leaked. As I said before, it's too bad Imagine didn't bring these boards to market. They seem to really care about plastic boards and their design. (I have a plastic surf model, so I can say this with experience.)

More tourers as I learn about them. If I have time in the lazier winter months where there's litte paddling to be done, I'll do some more research on them.