2009 Stand Up Paddle Race/Distance/Downwinder Showcase Part 1

We chose an odd day for our showcase–a Tuesday–but we were running out of time and Maui Canoe and Kayak Club had a race scheduled for the weekend that included Stand Up Paddle boards. We assumed most paddlers and some of the boards we wanted to test would be committed for the weekend. Alan (shapeshifter) Sidlo was here from Chicago to participate, and my brother Bob (stoneaxe) Babcock was here from Boston. So we went with Tuesday.

The plan was to do some Battle Of The Paddle-style loops around the flags at the canoe beach in Kihei. Have lunch on the beach and then do a downwinder with a lot of board swapping. On the beach we had some of the most interesting race and downwinder boards available. the weather wasn’t cooperating, and some of our testers had conflicts arise. Ah, well, we wanted to make this small, it looked like we were getting our wish. But we’re getting ahead of the story…

Monday: Weight and Measures and Freezing in the Pool

But first, the weighing and measuring. We decided we wanted to see how these boards measured in the water. The Penetrator was the impetus for this craziness, since as soon as you look at it you can see that it’s critical measurements vary with the amount of weight it has on it. We decided to put a standard weight on each board and measure it in the swimming pool at Ponohouse. I have to say that it was a bit of torture–the pool is only heated by the sun, and it’s been cloudy and cold lately. Bob assiduously avoided getting wet, Alan and I did all the in-the-water work.

This video shows our highly technical process. weighing boards by weighing ourselves on a highly accurate genuine Weight Watcher ™ scale from Costco, then picking up the board and doing it again. Note to Mark Raaphorst, the banging of your lovely F14 on walls and such sounds a lot worse than it is–it hit the hose of the outdoor shower handle. Bob also shows his true colors and admits he has no intention of getting in the pool. This from a guy who paddles with icebergs on the east coast. Gets to Maui and turns wuss.

Here’s more fooling around and some underwater shots of the molded F14 race board from Sandwich Island Composites (SIC). Notice how the planing hull has a flat entry across the nose of the board. Notice also that the full width of the board provides stability. Compare this to the Penetrator 572 pictures later.

Penetrator in the pool. the board has a completely different profile when it’s unweighted vs. weighted. This board was made specifically for my weight (250) and even the 185 pounds we placed on it (Bob’s wife Sue plus a bag full of dive weights) left quite a bit of the nose standing clear of the water.

Measuring the Penetrators waterline. It looks in the video as if we didn’t pull the tape tight, but we actually did, the video shows the tape after the measurement was made.

Measuring wetted width. the Penetrator has deck width of 26.5″, an unladen wetted width of 22″, at 185 pounds it’s 24″ and with 250 pounds it’s 24.5″.

Bob, figuring out the scale–a slow process. Michi, I swear, all those bumps and bangs sound MUCH worse than they were.

Next time, we hit the beach and discover some startling things about racing boards.

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