Aloha! Its Robert with Blue Planet. oh I guess I don't really need that just
make sure you keep that social distancing. So this video is all about
choosing the best board for your needs and at blue planet we've helped thousands
of people choose the best board for their needs. stand up paddle boards are
not one size fits all, so don't just go online or go into the store and buy the
cheapest board you can find, watch this video and it will help you choose the
best board for you. some of the things to consider before buying a board are: what
are the conditions you're going to use it in and what are the functions you
want the board to perform. also probably the most important factor in choosing a
board is your height and your weight and third is your future goals, what do you
want to do with the board in the future. I'm gonna focus only on all-round boards,
hard boards. if you are living in a place where you're going to only paddle in
flat water, like lakes, rivers, smooth water, no waves then I would also
recommend looking at touring boards, which have more of a pointy bow and a
displacement nose that helps you go faster in flat water but if you want to
also consider using it in waves or in the ocean, I would definitely recommend
looking at the all-round boards, which are the most popular boards to buy for
beginners. for many people the first choice is: should I get an inflatable or a
hard board? inflatables are very popular but they do have some downsides, I have a
video about the pros and cons of inflatables that's linked above. here at
Blue Planet we only sell hard boards and one of the reasons for that is the
longevity of hard boards. some of the epoxy boards we sold in the 1990s are
still on the water today, they last a long time,
unlike inflatables that, especially in a tropical climate, will deteriorate, the
PVC can get brittle, the glue will deteriorate, eventually those boards
will not last as long as an epoxy board that's well maintained and repaired. ok
so let's get into the dimensions of the boards, a lot of times people come into
our shop and say: I want a 10-6 board. So, the length of the board is
important but it's not the most important thing when you're
choosing a board. what's more important is the width and the volume of the board
and that's that really varies with your weight, your height, your ability, so for
beginners we usually recommend a volume that corresponds with your body weight.
the volume should float about twice as much weight as your body weight, so if
you're 200 pounds, let's say, you want a board that has about 170 to 200 liters
of volume roughly. so roughly as a guide you can use your weight in pounds at
one-to-one to liters of volume so 200 pounds roughly 200 liters maybe a little
bit less. If you're 120 pounds, 120 liters of volume is plenty for you. so that way the
rails will be about half way underwater, which gives you a nice amount of
stability. if the board has too much volume you are actually higher off the water
which can make it less stable and if you're choosing a board for a family, for
example, always use the heaviest, tallest person as a guide for choosing the
volume and the width so the width is also very important. a narrower board
will be much more tippy while a wider board will have more stability because
the width is what gives you the side-to-side stability. so it's a
very important number. A wider board will be more stable but a narrower board
will be faster because it has less drag through the water, so for speed choose a
narrower board. so we coverd the volume, we covered the width, what about the length?
the length is very important to look at as well basically, a longer board will
glide better and have better tracking so if you want to go straight and you want
to go fast choose a longer board, it'll help you go faster and glide better. if
you're planning to surf, probably something 10'6" or shorter will
probably be best, because a shorter board will allow you to maneuver better, it'll
allow you to turn around to catch the wave easier, it'll turn easier on
the wave and be more maneuverable. you can get on the back of the board and
kind of turn it off the tail, so for surfing, the shorter you can go and the
lower volume you can go usually the better for surfing, but don't get a board
that's too small. when you're starting out you want something that has
enough volume and stability to paddle back out and easily catch the waves.
many people make the mistake of buying a high-performance surfing model because
they want to surf with it and then find out that it's just too small for them to
comfortably paddle on. so another really important aspect when you're choosing a
board is the design of the board so the outline, the rocker line, and the rail
shape and then the nose-to-tail tapering shape. so those are all
important. At Blue Planet I've been designing boards for over ten years
they are computer design so we make small refinements. every year I try to improve
the performance and small things make a big difference. I think the most
important thing on a board which most people kind of ignore is the rocker line
of the board. so it's kind of that shape of the bottom contour of the board it
makes a big difference! a lot of rocker will turn easier on the wave but also be
a little bit slower through the water kind of pushing through the water more;
versus a flatter rocker will generally be faster if it's too flat though it can
also be slower, so it has to have a good rocker line that matches the water that
you're paddling on. so too much rocker can be bad, too little rocker can be bad
and the distribution of the rocker is very important. so it's very subtle but
makes a big difference in how the board handles. so on some of the cheap boards that
aren't designed well just having the rocker being a little bit off, like a
flat spot in the middle, or too much or too little rocker in the nose, too much
or too little rocker in the tail, can make the whole board not work right. so
in terms of outlines, let's compare these two models. here this one is the big
Neptune it's 9'6" by 31" by 160 liters and this one over here is the fun stick
which is 9'4" by 33" by a 140 liters. so you'll see the outline
has a little bit more of a pointy nose on the fun stick, the tails are actually
fairly similar, the big Neptune has a little bit of a wider, rounded nose. it's
not a super wide longboard nose but it does have a little bit more
volume in the nose and more with, so that helps kind of draw that wide point
further forward. so if you look at the the middle part of the board, it has a
little bit of a straighter outline versus the fun stick is more curvy.
so the curviness of the fun stick will help you make it more maneuverable like
if you're on a wave having a curvy outline and a pointy nose and tail will
help you with turning. the nose also kind of helps you prevent catching the nose
in a turn and when you're going through whitewater it kind of goes through the
whitewater and chops a little bit easier by kind of just being able to
punch through the water a little bit easier. versus a wider nose gives you
more stability, better tracking with that straighter outline, better stability for
the same width but sometimes that wide nose kind of can get caught in the
whitewater if you're going through whitewater, also if you're going through
choppy water sometimes it kind of can have a little bit more drag on the chop
in the water because you just have more surface area in the nose but the
advantage of having a wider nose or a wider tail is that it kind of
brings that wide point more forward and more back so it has more stability at a
certain width versus this kind of shape where it's more curvy with a pointy nose
and tail, you'll need a little bit more width in the middle to make up for that
less stability in the front and the back of the board. okay let's take a look at
the rail shape of these two boards. this one here has a really thin rail shape if
you look at this, it has kind of a real thinned out rail versus this one
has a little bit of a fuller rail so it has more volume in the rail versus this
is kind of more tapered out and thinner. so the thinner rail helps in the surf
because it kind of lets you kind of sink into the turn a little bit more gives
you more grab on a wave so but more high-performance also is less a little
bit less sensitive to chop them the side or wind coming from the side and so on.
so usually a thinner rail will be more high-performance especially in the tail
you want a thin rail because that helps with turning and carving versus having
thicker rails with more volume will make the board a little bit more stable as
you have more thickness and then also I would say it's a little bit more
forgiving, it doesn't carve into the turn as much
but it's kind of a little bit softer in the turn and so on so thinner ales are
more hype for high-performance surfing type of boards thicker rails are a
little bit more forgiving more all-round a little bit more stable and they have
more volume in the rails another important thing to consider are your
future goals so depending on what you want to use the board for is just casual
use on weekends with the family and you just want to Cruise and have an
all-around board then a more stable more user-friendly board is recommended if
you do want to advance quickly and you can planning on paddling a lot and maybe
going in the surf and so on you might want to consider getting a more
challenging more high-performance board right from the start at the same time
make sure you don't go too advanced many people make the mistake of buying a
high-performance board that's made for a much more skilled rider before they have
the skills and then it's get frustrated and don't use the board so make sure you
get a board that's suitable for your needs but we always recommend getting a
board that's a little bit challenging at first because your balance will improve
quickly and you don't want to outgrow your board too fast so another really
important thing to consider of course is your budget
and the availability of boards in your marketplace and then the value you get
for your money and the construction and so on so some people say lightweight
strength low price choose two out of three so you can have lightweight and
low price you can have strong and low price but you're not going to get all
three together so to make a board light and strong it's gonna be a more
expensive board you can make an inexpensive boy that's light weight by
just adding less material but it's not going to be durable it's going to be
very fragile you can make a board very strong by just adding more material
adding more layers of glass which is not expensive so you can have a board that's
inexpensive and strong but usually it's not gonna be lightweight so it's kind of
a trade-off if you want a very light construction go with like a carbon fiber
construction or PVC sandwich construction light and strong
sandwich construction is where basically the layers of glass are separated and
that the construction is going to be stronger but also more expensive so
another very important point is try it as many boards as you can before making
a buying decision it'll give you a much better idea of what kind of volume what
kind of width and length works for you what kind of shape works for you and so
on many people buy a board sight unseen ordered on the Internet and then they
find out it's a waste of money because it's not the right board for them so
don't make that mistake at Blue Planet we usually offer sub clinics not right
now due to the pandemic but usually we do them every six weeks we put all our
rental boards on the beach and let customers demo them so that's an
excellent way to try many different boards all at once we also offer a try
before you buy rental program so you can rent boards try out different models and
then apply the rental fee as a credit towards the purchase and or you can take
a lesson with an instructor the instructor can bring a couple different
boards that you can try and see which one you like better so those are some
good ways to try different boards before you make the buying decision if that's
not an option where you are visit us on wahoo and check out Blue
Planet surf we also ship boards internationally and in the US our
website includes free air cargo shipping in the u.s. to the nearest major airport
and we also ship boards internationally so check out blueplanetsurf.com
check out all our videos on YouTube, subscribe to the blueplanetsurf
youtube channel and give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video. thanks for
watching, Aloha!