If you looked back a few years ago and saw a 12'6 race board. Your mind might have simply exploded with questions... 

Why such a sharp outline? Why the rockerline built for waves? Why have a piercing bow? And why on earth is it 12'6" long? All those questions and more were this week answered by head honcho of the Battle of the Paddle, Barrett Tester in an interview by SUPracer. 

"When we started planning the first ever Battle of the Paddle in 2008, we decided early on that the Elite Race would have standardised equipment" says Barrett. "We wanted everyone in the race to be on even terms, so we made the call that all paddlers would be on the same length board. Then we just had to figure out what that length would be…"

Since other paddling sports and classes already had a 12ft length restriction, logic would dictate that SUP should follow the same lines right? Wrong. Because a few very popular boards at the time were 12'1" or a little longer than the 12" mark, they wouldn't be able to enter the competition, so the organisers settled for twelve and a half foot, or 12'6" to make it a somewhat round number. This allowed almost all of the current production boards to enter that years race, everyone was happy and thus the battle of the paddle became legend. 

Those who didn't make the restrictions simply took hacksaws to their boards and cut off whatever was needed to fit inside a little box on the beach. Luckily the organisers were so strict on the overall length, otherwise we wouldn't have such rigid sizing classes now! If you look at any Stand up paddle manufacturer in the world right now, they've all got boards exactly 12'6" long, designed specifically for these BOP style races. 

Must be nice to know that one simple decision made by some race organisers (to include everyone!) has totally set the standard for SUP boards the world over.

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