Well it has been a while since my last blog post. Sorry about that to all my followers. I am sure both of you are extremely disappointed;)
I figured a good way to start back up is by doing something new for me. A product review. I have never written a review so here we go. First I have to say this is my opinion on this product. This is my experience. Yours may differ.. That is totally okay. Because, guess what, this is my page...
So lets start this marginally biased review from an exceptionally average paddler.
I will start by saying I do have some bias when it comes to NSP race boards. I did receive a free used hat from Titouan Puyo one of the team riders for hauling his boards back to Portland after the Gorge Paddle Challenge this last summer. So, do to the free used hat I am pretty much bought and paid for... For real though I do have a soft spot for this brand. My experiences with the team and riders has been amazing. Team NSP is just filled with great people. Other than the hat, I have not received any free boards or discounts on any products from NSP at this time. (NSP if you are listening, yes please;)) This review is based on "would I buy this board at a retail price of $2999 US dollars".
Some specs:
I am an exceptionally average paddler at 6'1" tall, 180lbs,10% body fat and 40 years old. Okay the body fat part does not really matter in this review I just felt like bragging.. I have yet to win a race and generally end up some where near the middle of the pack within the group I paddle with. If you have been following this blog you will know that I have had some health issues this last year and have committed to paddling 1000 miles in this next year as a fundraiser and to fight my chronic lung disease.
I am very much a gear geek though. Any time there is an opportunity to demo different boards I am always up for it. In the last 2 years I have paddled boards from all the major manufactures. My current go to board is an older NSP surf race at 26" wide.
So what is the board? I introduce you to the 2019 NSP Carolina. NSP categorizes this board as their magic all arounder. The question is does it live up the the hype?
I have now paddled this board in 21.5, 25.75, and the one pictured which is 24.25 wide. I merely demoed the 21.5 and 25.75 at a demo day. The 24.25 however I was able to demo from a local shop and spend some real time on. The skinnier board was fun to goof around on, however it was well beyond my pay grade when it comes to skill level. The 25.75 is a large feeling board. It is ridiculously stable for a board under 26" wide. On this board I was able to catch my first ever legit boat wake the very first time I was ever on it. It just worked! I felt like I could take this board and paddle it in pretty much any conditions. For me, as a race board I felt it was maybe just a little too stable. I think this board would be magic for anyone around 200lbs or looking for their first all conditions race board. So when I learned there was going to be a 24.25 my interest was piqued to say the least.
The first Paddle:
I was able to take the board out to my local lake and have glassy flat conditions. This was going to be a great testing ground for the boards flat water performance. In my experience NSP boards other than the Ninja do not shine in these conditions. They tend to start performing when there is some texture on the water. This board however did great. As soon as I stepped on the board I felt that familiar NSP feel. NSP boards historically have a roundish bottom and rails and poor initial stability. In the 2018 and 2019 models they have added in a small flat section on the bottom of the boards just to counter this. Does it work? I do believe so. The boards are noticeably more stable when not moving than they were in the past. They do however still feel like an NSP. This is something that people will argue about. You either like a rounded bottom board or you don't. I fall into the like category. When I first stepped on the board I felt that familiar roll from side to side. If you are used to flat or concave bottom boards this will likely freak you out and have you shouting "this board is so unstable" if you are familiar with round bottom board you will feel right at ease. It is not as pronounced as their older models, however it is still there for those of us who are fans of it. For a lot of paddlers this will take some getting used to. I do believe that once you are used to it the benefits outweigh the negatives though.
I have spent very little time paddling dug out style boards. So I do not have a huge reference for other boards that fall into this category. I have paddle the NSP sonic at 24" wide so I will reference a few differences between these boards in my experience. Plain and simple dug out boards paddle different. If you have never spent time on one they will feel weird at first. You will feel a little trapped. For me they also feel a little tippy every time I first get in one. However after spending a few back to back days on one, I can say that I now like the differences. I will talk a bit more about this later.
I took off from the beach and admittedly got a little over zealous. As many of you know, when you get on something new you tend to get excited. This was exactly what I did. I found myself breathless pretty quickly and for some reason just kept grinding away. Later when I looked back at my GPS there was a reason why I was breathless, I was cruising along for long stretches at over 6 mph.. This is fast for me.. However the fact that I was able to actually sustain it for a stretch is a little telling of this boards flat water performance. It gets up and moves!! At about 1.5 miles into this madness the oxygen debt was starting to set in and I was forced take it down a notch. In fact I had pushed a little too hard to fast and was beginning to bonk... So I settled down and just tried to find a rhythm. The board felt smooth and easy to just lock in. After about 4 miles of glassy grinding I came across a friend paddling on the lake. Time to test another important board attribute. Drafting! In my opinion this is where the round rails and bottom shine. You can tell that the designers have the reality of racing in mind. In all the boards that I have paddled I have yet to find another brand that cuts in and out of board wake as effortlessly as NSP boards do. The Carolina is no exception to this. In fact it excels. I was able to get a side wake draft and feel a true reduction of effort even with the tiny bump of a side wake. When I crossed in directly behind my fellow paddler the board slid into the draft line with barely a bobble. I believe the round rails and bottom just slide right across the side wake. This is not scientific but in my experience boards with a harder rail tend to get thrown around more when doing this. Again this is my opinion not science. After 5 miles of steady paddling it was time to hang it up for the day. My first impression was, after getting used to the dug out this board is a solid flat water performer.
The next paddle:
For the next test I decided to ditch the safety of my local lake and get this board on the mighty Columbia river. I am very fortunate where I live to have access to multiple bodies of water. The conditions this day could not have been more different than the first. The river was flowing at 100K+ cubic feet per second. So why not test out the board with an upstream grind. Did I mention the wind was also blowing. So upstream, upwind we go. When getting this board onto the moving water it took me a few minutes to settle in. Some boats had gone by giving me a nice side wake combined with the wind and current and there was just a lot of movement in the water. I can say that this board seems more "sensitive" to this. For me I seem to notice that when paddling dug out boards I can feel the rise and fall of the water more. This could be due to the increased "reserve buoyancy" as Travis Grant calls it. This is something that really threw my balance off the first time I paddled a dug out. When I paddled the Sonic 24 in similar conditions I found it to be pretty "Squirmy". However after spending a little more time in a dug out I now have gotten used to it. In fact I believe this is why these boards catch bumps extremely easily. So after some initial instability it was time to grind. This board did great into the wind. Much better than my older Surf Race. It seemed to cut threw the chop really well with minimal slapping. Again I was able to fall into a nice rhythm and found myself very comfortable on this board. I would occasionally play with angles to see how much wind steering this board would take. Even though it has a high volume nose it did really well. It handled quartering wind from the front quite nicely. At 24.25" wide this board really is pretty stable. I would not say it is the most stable board I have paddled at this width, but it is plenty stable for an exceptionally average paddler like me. So grind I did with a few more boat wakes to deal with and I just found myself really enjoying this board in these conditions.
After 2.5 miles of this it was time to spin it. When I turned around the smiles just simply became uncontrollable. This board loves bumps. The wind was not so strong that the bumps were anything major. We are talking barely white caps. However this board ate them up. I could just feel it grabbing any little runner it could get its hands on. Could I have paddled it faster and plowed through them? Absolutely! But why? While paddling back I decided to play around with some angles again. This is where this board surprised me. It loves to have waves quartering it from behind. This is probably why everyone that I know who has paddled it loves surfing boat wakes with it. It just starts sliding, gliding and is super forgiving. Off in the distance a familiar sight came into view. A cruise ship!! Just over a year ago this would have driven me into a panic. "What am I going to do with that wake!" Now however it just made me grin and grind. I was able to get to a point spin the board and play with a few of the leftover bumps from this ship. Did I mention this board loves little bumps... After a little play time it was time for another test. This is one I was worried about. The infamous buoy turn... Dug out boards are not known for their buoy turn prowess. My experience with the Sonic 24 agreed with this notion. I actually stepped on the rail when stepping back and tripped over it falling into the river on the Sonic. The Carolina is a different beast however. The tail is not a true pin like the sonic. It is kind of a rounded squash tail in surfing terms. In other words it is wider. The dug out is also not as deep as far back on the Carolina which gave me plenty of room for my size 12 feet to fit in between the rails. So with a beautifully styled cross step I moved back to the tail. Planted the paddle and turn I did. This board is not the most stable buoy turner, but is pretty dang good. My expectation was that it was going to suck. It exceeded that by a lot. So I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. The thing that surprised me most was moving back forward. In my opinion this was once again where the dug out actually was a benefit. The extra buoyancy at the rails allowed for me to step out to the rail as I moved forward. Since it has higher rails they stayed above the water and the board did not ever feel as if it was going to tip. This led to me testing how much weight I could put on the rail. On this board I could nearly stand on one leg at the rail without it feeling as if it was going to roll over. So it may have that initial roundy feel, but it takes a lot to actually get it to roll over.
One more surprise! Having never really spent much time on a dug out I had expected it to continually have water inside of it. I figured I would always be standing in a bit of water. This was false. If anything my feet actually stayed dryer on this board than when on my flat board. When you stop paddling and just stand there you can get some water to come in through the drain holes. As soon as you start moving it clears extremely fast.
If I was to paddle it again, which I will. The next test would be two fold. Some bigger conditions and falling in. This is one area that dug outs are more difficult. They are a bit harder to get back into after a fall into the water. I imagine with practice it would become second nature though.
The only negative thing I can say about this board is... It is expensive. They all are at this point. So that is not unique to the Carolina. If you have your mind set that you don't like dug outs you will probably not like it. If you do not like the feel of rounded bottom boards, you will probably not like it. The best board is the one that you will consistently paddle and brings a smile to your face. I can only speak to what I felt on this board. It brought a smile to my face. Would I buy it? Yep!!
So what size should you go with. I can say without a doubt that the 24.25 is the width for me. I contemplated the 22.5 but truly feel that would be an ego move. For my skill, weight, height and body fat percentage of 10%;) The 24.25 would be a 90 percenter. A board that will work in 90 percent of the conditions that I currently paddle at my skill set. This board would be my go to race board. In my limited racing experience stability is important. I will likely be faster on the 24.25 than I would be on the 22.5. For us exceptionally average paddlers I do not believe we need to be paddling the same boards the pros are. For any who have followed surfing this happened years ago too. Everyone went out and bought a potato chip surf board. They looked real cool under the arm. However no one was smiling and catching waves. We may be in a similar spot with SUP racing?
I have now paddled all the boards in the NSP race line up. I can honestly say there is not one that I do not like. If you like flat decks,the Pumas are incredible. If you mostly paddle in flat water the Ninja is great. You want to downwind go Sonic. If you, like me do not have a budget for multiple boards, the Carolina could be the one board quiver answer.
Now go find a local dealer and try it out for yourself....