Welcome to the world of SUP fitness, sports and racing. All the boards presented here require a good sense of balance, either from existing SUP experience or from other board sports. Experience has shown that even talented beginners need a board with a width of 30 inches for safety in all conditions. Really fast, sporty paddling starts at 28 inches and narrower, ideally with the long 14-foot boards, of course. Because "length doesn't just work" in sailing, the old sailor's adage also applies to SUP boards, which all "glide" through the water at displacement speed. However, the term "planing", which is used time and again, is rather misleading. Proper planing, like a windsurfer or fast motorboat, starts at 18 to 19 km/h at the earliest, which are speeds that can only be reached "downhill" on large ocean waves.
When it comes to the question of the personally "necessary" board length, the length corresponds roughly to the motorisation of a car. If you never go faster than 160 kilometres per hour, you hardly need 200 hp. If you prefer to tour the countryside at five or six kilometres per hour, an 11'6" board is almost as good as a 14'0" board. The longer board runs better in a straight line and requires significantly fewer sideways changes with the paddle, but it is hardly easier to make progress with it. For leisurely paddling, the shorter board may even have an advantage - it is usually lighter. If you want to do sporty laps at seven kilometres per hour or more, the 11'6" board needs a lot more paddle pressure - with every stroke.
You can find the complete test of these touring and race boards with all technical data and ratings as a PDF in the download area below:
- Fit Ocean Ultra 14'0'' x 24.0''/26.0''
- Infinity Blackfish 14'0'' x 25,0''
- Infinity Whiplash 14'0'' x 23,0''
- JP-Australia Allwater GT 14'0'' x 27,5''
- Naish Maliko 14'0'' x 27,0''
- Sic Air Glide Bullet 14'0'' x 28.5''
