Simcoe SUP Reviews

I purchased this for my wife because I wanted her to be able to keep up with me on my race board. I also have used it a few times when I thought the extra width would be good for the conditions. Even though this board is a few years old and is designed for touring it is still a fast design. It was only marginally slower than the Bluwave 12.6 27" Carbon race board I had and the weight was comparable as well. The primary and secondary stability of this board is fantastic. My wife came off a 33" wide board and had no issues adapting to this 30" board. If you have someone who wants to go fast and also be stable then this is definitely the board for you. The slightly slanted deck is great for two reasons. One is it gets you closer to the water level for greater stability and paddling efficiency. The second is when you are doing a proper pivot turn you have a lot of buoyancy at the back and the  the desk is closer to level so you do not have to worry about sliding off th

I was able to do a lengthy trial of a Bluwave 12 foot Carbon Race board right after spending a lot of time on the 14 foot version. This has allowed me to do a direct comparison of the difference between a 12.6 and 14 foot paddle board. I can tell you three things about the difference right from the start. The 12.6 is not as stable it is not as fast and it is more work to stay at the same pace compared to the same board in 14. I believe that the reason the 12.6 is not as stable is the widest points on a 14 foot board is longer as the arc is more drawn out over 14 feet instead of 12.6. For the overall speed I saw a much larger bow and tail wave from the 12.6 board. I am thinking that one part of this is the angle of the piercing nose is greater on the shorter board as there is less length to get to the widest point. Second it has less volume so it sits lower. Lastly the shorter waterline has more drag so I had to do more work to keep the speed up and i definitely saw an decreased gli

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 aggressiv

During the summer of 2016 I had to purchase a new paddle board. For many reasons this turned out to be quite a pain. I started with a Level 6 12.6 touring but quickly found issues with that board which I could not live with so I looked to a local vendor Bluwave Paddleboards for a solution as everyone's stock was very limited halfway though the season. I liked the 12.6 length but really wanted to try a 14 as I have heard they are faster and this is the direction that I decided to go. I chose the Bluwave14 foot Carbon Race as I wanted the lightest and fastest board they offered but still stayed at 27" as I was not ready for the 25". Below is a picture of me on the first night. I purchased this board and got on the water as fast as I could. I immediately found that it was faster than the Level 6 but I was not used to the 27 inch width yet so I found it a little tipsy at first. Within a few weeks I was up to speed on its handling. The board was very responsive to lean

I am relatively new to paddleboarding. I have been doing it for a few years off and on just for a quck paddle and not really doing it right. About two years ago I received a gift cert to a boatshow and purchased a medium end Kohini Carbon paddle and that was night and day over the Warner carbon/fibreglass model that I had before. Last year I joined a team night with the local paddleboard company, Northern SUP, and they let me try out a Kenalu Mana 82 paddle. It was incredible as I finally felt the catch and pull that everyone talks about in the magazines and paddle technique videos. The Mana 82 was a revelation for my stroke and not only does the paddle allow for great catch on entry but also allows for quick exit and cadence. At the same time I also found I was much more stable and my hits to the side of the board reduced to only the occupational tap when a wave hits out of the blue. I think that this is a secondary benefit of the wings on the sides. The primary benefit is a great s