Well since the weather up here in Canuck land is starting to head towards Snowboard season – I thought I would review some of the boards that I have paddled this past season.
For review sake – I am 200 lbs. (and falling) 5’8″ and 45 years young.
I have been SUP paddling for four and a half years.
Yesterday – Thanksgiving day – up at Lac La Biche, I had a great paddle on the Naish Javelin 14′.
This board is a missile (or maybe a Javelin, duh). It is 14′ long x 26 1/8″ wide x 5 3/4″ thick – giving it a volume of 284 L.
With all that volume it floats the “big boned” crowd just fine.
The Javelin is designed as a flat water board – either racing in the 14′ class – or as a great long distance board. The board has a semi displacement hull shape with very rounded rails. It has a very slightly lowered deck for added stability and a small squared off tail for a nice release.
The rounded rails, the thickness and the narrow width do make for a bit of a challenging balance – but once up to speed the board settles down a bit.
The board does have a very high “roll rate” (the amount of “tilt” you can put on the board before it goes over) and was very easy to bring back to level after a “moment”.
As for speed – I managed a top speed of just over 10.7 kmh in a sprint and had an average speed of 7.9 kmh over a 13.25 km paddle.
If you are looking to go fast / cover a long distance / get a great core work out – all on flat water – the Naish Javelin 14′ would be a VERY good choice.
