Which Paddleboard is the Fastest? A Race SUP Speed Comparison…

By Rod Clayton

If you’ve raced paddleboards at all, or if you’ve thought about buying a race SUP, I’ll bet you’ve obsessed over which board is the fastest. Each board has is own unique hull design, characteristics, and flavor — so which one do you buy to dominate your local race scene?

Spoiler Alert: I’ll go ahead and break it to you — there is no “fastest SUP race board.” It’s an illusion, a unicorn, a Sasquatch sighting. Why? Because any paddleboard will only go as fast as its paddler can make it go. I’ve been on some excellent boards, but the common characteristic of each is that the engine always seems to be lacking. I’ll keep working on the engine thing, but in the meantime, I still want to know — which boards are the fastest?

To answer that question, our weekly training group staged a highly unscientific board test to see which boards in our own stables carried us down the course the fastest. If nothing else, we had a great time and a killer workout.

Meet the Boards

For these tests, we used our own personal boards. It seemed like a good place to start because, well, we could. Later, when SIC Maui, Blk Box, Naish, Infinity, Hobie and all those guys start sending us boards to test (annnnny day now…), we’ll throw those into the mix, but for now…

 

I know, I know — you’re thinking it’s not fair to put 14-footers and 12-sixes together on the same track, and what in the world is the SUP ATX (aka “The Door”) doing in there? But you never know, so we decided to go for it. Sometimes the results can surprise you.

The Protocol

Testing took place on a flat-water course approximately 500 meters in length. All paddlers started together and paddled “at race pace” across the entire course.

Heart rate monitors were not used, as the course was too short to gain any benefit. Five paddlers participated, and each paddler “raced” each board twice, with the fastest run being the result recorded here. Paddlers used the same paddle throughout testing. Rest periods were 5:00 or so to allow full recovery.

Winds were light, especially after the first run, and likely had no to little effect on results. Paddler skill/experience levels varied from novice to instructor level.

 

---

 

The Results

---

 

Observations

As you can see, there’s no clear winner here. As with SUP racing, all kinds of variables have to be considered, like a sudden wind gust, who you line up beside, and how much you had to eat at your pre-event snack.

The Dominator posted the fastest overall time, but was the second fastest when it came to cumulative time. The Riviera Ron House posted the second fastest time, but was 4th in cumulative time. Personally, I think the Ron House Carbon is a great board, very fast for its width and length, but the heavier riders had trouble with it, probably because of the lower volume.

Most paddlers felt faster on the Hobie E Series — it’s an extremely quiet and stable board. One of the more experienced paddlers was faster on the Hobie, but felt “more connected” with the water on the Dominator, and felt he would eventually be faster on the Dominator if he had some time to spend with it.

The Surftech Lahui Kai 12′6″ Jamie Mitchell was 3rd fastest in cumulative time, but all paddlers felt it was the most difficult board to ride when paddling hard. The pintail design makes this board feel tippy, and less experienced paddlers will use a lot of physical and mental energy staying upright. One of the larger paddlers actually posted his fastest time on this board on his knees. No kidding. Having said that, I have to admit this is one of my favorite boards — it’s just plain fun.

As for the SUP ATX Adventure PREMIUM, well, it’s just not made for this kind of thing. It’s a great board to play on, it’s versatile, and it has great glide…until you try to go fast. There’s a reason we were calling it “The Door” halfway through the tests. It’s a no brainer — if you want to race, get a displacement hull.

Conclusion

You can draw your own conclusions here, but in the end, our paddleboard race board speed tests show what you probably already know: You really need to try before you buy. The fastest board is going to be the board you can stay on, and the board that best suits your paddling style. I will say this, though – if you’re a paddleboarder looking to get into SUP racing, I would take a serious look at that Hobie SUP 14′ E Series…