Paddle Surf Hawaii only sells through their outlets, and for the West Coast we only have one! Blueline Paddle Surf in Santa Barbara (http://www.bluelinepaddlesurf.com/). I decided to drive up and get one, because once I decided to pull the trigger, I couldn't wait to ship it. My wife was busy, so I made my dog Kai come with.
As I posted a few weeks ago, I thought that I had my mind set on the 9'3'' ripper. I rented one while in Hawaii and really liked it while surfing, but didn't think that it paddled that well. One of my favorite things about SUP is the distance that you can travel. I usually paddle about 3 miles surfing along the coast in the morning, and was now not sure what board to get. I next tried the 9'6'' Wide All around (the only other PSH board they had that was not over 10ft) and it was REALLY stable, but I really wanted a board with a pulled in nose and the "all arounder" has a nose closer to what my Lopez has. This lead me to a board that I had not tried or thought of previously, the 9'6'' Wide Ripper. After talking to the guy at Blueline, I bought one and drove home as fast as I could!
I had to stop at Rincon and take a pic with the new board on the roof! By the way, it was flat...
When I got home it was really windy.....Damn! The next morning at 6am it was already howling! What to do? Take pictures of the new board!
I love the lines of this board. The pulled in nose is really important in the beach brakes that I surf 9 out of 10 times. The board is less than an inch thicker that the standard ripper, but is much more stable.
The underbelly:
This is the standard set up; a 2+1 with 3.5 in side bites and a 7in center fin. I may mess around with a real thruster set up later....
I surfed it for the first time this morning, and it is everything that I hoped it would be. Surfs like a real surfboard and paddles well. Caught a ton of waves, and three of them really stand out, felt like the next level. Thanks to Blane Chambers and Paddle Surf Hawaii for a great board.
