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Starboard PIN – Review

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.

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Snowboarding!

It’s October, and in Edmonton that means the weather can be +30 one week and -6 and snowing the next.
This is exactly what happened this week.
Our “Thursday Night River Paddle”  turned out to be a bit chilly this week.  Myself and John were the only two brave (silly) souls to show up.
We still made it from Emily Murphy Park to the walking bridge and back, going through a whole range of conditions.
Thank you Quiksilver for making good wetsuits.

Thankfully it is supposed to warm up a bit next week – all the way back to +12!

(click on the pictures for full size)

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SUP Camping

Wanting to prove the versatility of Stand Up Paddle boards, my son and I went SUP Camping on the September long weekend.
A 3 km paddle to an uninhabited island in Lac La Biche was our destination.
The paddle over was beautiful – absolute glass.
Once our camp was set up we went exploring on the island, seeing a Bald Eagle  and two White Tail Deer.
Then it was time for a fire on the beach and a dinner of hot dogs and marsh mellows.

We awoke the next morning to rain and wind.
Packing up quickly and heading for home we ran straight into a 25 knot head wind.
I ended up passing my leash to my son – and towed him back for the worst part.
Our easy paddle of 20 minutes over the day before was now a struggle to make it home and ended up taking over an hour and a half.
The hot chocolate back at the cabin tasted real good!

(click on the pictures to see them in full size)