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I was lucky enough to be able to try out the new NCP (North County Paddleboards) / Brian Szymanski prototype 12’6″ race board that he has designed for Starboard. �The board (or something really close to it) will be in production by Starboard for summer 2010.

In keeping with my 2 word reviews – “Freaking Fast” is all I need to say on this one.
While I didn’t have a tape measure with me – it is about 28″ wide and just a shade �under 12’6″ long – so it will be legal in the 12’6″ stock racing class.
It has a slightly dished down deck – which lowers �your center of gravity a bit. �It has quite a rounded bottom – which makes it a little less stable when you are standing still, but just like riding a bicycle, as soon as you get it moving it becomes very stable and accelerates very well.
It does have a scupper hole along one side to drain most of the water out of the foot well, and I believe that �it will be lowered a bit for production which will get rid of the pooling around your feet.

Even though it is designed as a race board – several “newbies” tried it out and had no problems cruising around on it.

The construction I paddled is hush, hush – but lets just say that is was so light that I could carry it up the dock and back to the house with one finger stuck in the scupper hole.

This Missile will surely be the weapon of choice for Flat water paddlers that want to race as well as have fun on the water.

Thanks to Declan and Scott at Trident Distribution for getting this board under my feet!

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.

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)