Level 6 12.6 touring SUP review

During the summer of 2016 I decided to focus more on Paddle boarding. I had a standard all-around board but did a demo day and found that a touring board was faster and i loved the way that they cut through the water instead of slapping it with a flat front area.

Since I was just starting out I did not want to spend a lot of money and also wanted to stay with a wider board as I still did not have my "water legs" yet.

After trying many boards I settled on the Level 6 12.6 touring. This was sold by MEC so I knew that I had great support and return policy if needed.

After getting the board I was able to get to the next level of paddling much faster than the years in the past. The board inspired me to go longer and farther and this is when I discovered the first issues.

I was coming home with sore toes and eventually bleeding toes. I discovered that since the board deck was angled downwards and created a pool of water my toes would get waterlogged and then the aggressive diamond pad would cut into them.

This pooling of water also led me to the second issue. The pool of water was covering the breather cap and I saw bubbles coming up from it. I later found that after removing the cap that it was leaking water into the board. Evidently the caps are not lined with Goretex or any other breathable fabric. It seems to be a type of thin foam like you would pack something in. This let a considerable amount of water into the board as when I turned it upside down it covered a 8 inch diameter area with water.

As the board was only a few weeks old and I weighed it and found it was at least a pound heavier than when I purchased I knew that the board had taken in a lot of water and it was already in the EPS foam.

Luckily MEC has a great return policy so I was able to return the board.

If I did not have an issue with the breather cap I would I have kept the board for the rest of the year and replaced as I grew out of it but this forced my hand and I found another board.
Looking at the pictures of the 2017 board I think they have redesigned the deck and changed the pad so part of my issue has been solved but they still seem to have the same breather cap so I hope that they made that a better design so it does not leak so easily. 

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