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!