I managed to get my hands one of the very few Naish Catalina race boards that are in existence right now.
This one was just used at the Battle of the Paddle race in Hawaii a few weeks ago.
It has a few “war wounds” from being shipped across the ocean a few times – but fortunately they are all on the top and are mainly cosmetic. The board is 12′6″ x 27 5/8″. The large “out vents” work really well for keeping water out of the foot well area.
I took it for a good hour long training paddle this morning and was amazed at how stable it was for being as narrow as it is.
It terms of speed on flat water – it was very similar to the Starboard Surf Race (with a hint of the Starboard NEW) – which makes sense as they are both designed to do a similar type of paddling.
We just received a new shipment Pro Teck Fins from Surf Co Hawaii.
These fins are made of urethane and are totally flexible.
Great for paddling on the river where you might hit rocks and also a must have for our up coming surf sessions in the West Edmonton Mall wave pool!
Available in 7″ and 9″ main fins as well as FCS system side bites.
Here are a few shots I took with a Go Pro camera.
It was a “nice” day for northern Alberta in mid November so I figured I would do a bit of a “downwinder”.
Air temp was about -2 celsius with the wind chill and the water was right around zero.
The camera worked great.
You can set them to take a photo every 2 or 5 seconds, or it can shoot video.
It takes a 2 GB card and that will get you either about 700 photos or just under an hour of video.
It is amazing that so many cool features can be packed into such a small case.
They are waterproof to 100 feet and you can get a ton of different mounting kits for them.
The brand new Go Pro HD cameras have just hit the store as well. They are just over $100. more than the regular ones and they shoot up to 1080p. The HD version will also shoot video at 60 frames per second – so you can do full slow motion!
Stop by the shop and check them out – just in time for Christmas.
I was lucky enough to be able to try out the new NCP (North County Paddleboards) / Brian Szymanski prototype 12′6″ race board that he has designed for Starboard. The board (or something really close to it) will be in production by Starboard for summer 2010.
In keeping with my 2 word reviews – “Freaking Fast” is all I need to say on this one.
While I didn’t have a tape measure with me – it is about 28″ wide and just a shade under 12′6″ long – so it will be legal in the 12′6″ stock racing class.
It has a slightly dished down deck – which lowers your center of gravity a bit. It has quite a rounded bottom – which makes it a little less stable when you are standing still, but just like riding a bicycle, as soon as you get it moving it becomes very stable and accelerates very well.
It does have a scupper hole along one side to drain most of the water out of the foot well, and I believe that it will be lowered a bit for production which will get rid of the pooling around your feet.
Even though it is designed as a race board – several “newbies” tried it out and had no problems cruising around on it.
The construction I paddled is hush, hush – but lets just say that is was so light that I could carry it up the dock and back to the house with one finger stuck in the scupper hole.
This Missile will surely be the weapon of choice for Flat water paddlers that want to race as well as have fun on the water.
Thanks to Declan and Scott at Trident Distribution for getting this board under my feet!
Have had the new Starboard PIN in Sport Tech construction for about a month now, so I figured it was time to write a review of it.
Two words – It’s Awesome!
Really though, it is a fantastic board for flat water paddling. The “boat nose” makes it slice through chop and gives the front end a bit of lift.
The pin tail rear makes it track nice and straight and I am averaging 9 to 12 strokes per side.
The one aspect I really like about the board is the your stance is not ultra critical to maintain speed on the board.
A few other 12′6″ production class race boards I have tried have a very small area on the board that you can stand and still maintain a good speed. The PIN has a larger area – which allows you to compensate for wind, chop, etc.
All in all it is one of the absolute best flat water boards I have paddled, lakes, rivers, open ocean – it does it all.
The Sport Tech construction is nice and light – and the wood finish looks beautiful. It also comes in AST Tuff Skin (black camo) and also in the yellow Classic.
