12'6 vs 14 - myths and legends?

Reading another popular thread here on board length you would be excused, for being totally confused if you're an average paddler like me.

I am no race expert, I paddle a bit (once to twice a week) and whenever I do, I do it for fun and fitness. I almost always paddle in the ocean and if I race the only thing I hope to beat is my mate and maybe my PB.

With this in mind, I would just like to put my experiences out there for the hundreds of crew who I know will read these threads, get confused, not comment and probably come to the conclusion that choosing a longer board is just waaay to confusing.

Here are some observations after many years of paddling around on just about anything that floats and discovering that longer boards are HEAPS FUN!

WIDER can be faster!
Why? Staying on your board and keeping your stroke technique up right till the end is key.
Most paddling and racing for that matter is done in less than average conditions and the ability to stay on your board, relaxed and not weary is the key to speed and enjoyment.
What ever gains there are in shaving inches of the width of a board are completely lost if you end up swimming or get jelly legs.
Jelly legs? This hits most of us about 30 mins into a paddle when its windy and choppy and even a 30" wide board suddenly feels like a tooth pick to stand on.

LONGER is faster, especially if you are in the 100k club.
Unless you are training in the gym, forget strength to weight ratio's. Most of us are not optimal body weight with strength to match.
My experience is that if you want to go faster go longer. Longer boards tend to stay on runners longer with less effort.
Sure, a longer board takes more effort to get going but once its up and running it has more momentum.
There are plenty of fast 12'6's out there but if you go up against a 14' and you dont train, you are likely to get smoked.
By all means go narrow (on paper, narrower is faster) but just make sure you can stay on the dam thing rather than swim. Swimming is def slower.

Dont forget the FUN factor.
Even if you do race, you will be spending most of your time just paddling and around (aka: training) for fitness and fun.
So make sure you choose the board that you can have the most fun on. That way you will train more often and have more fun doing it!

Your weight and ability are key factors in choosing the right board and 'Nine times out of ten' the best board for you will not be what the Race enthusiasts are recommending.

At 92kg I can go either way and I do have the luxury of choice.
When I do choose, it is for these reasons-
12'6 - playfullness and convenience. If I want to catch waves and ride them its 12'6 all the way!
14' - speed and glide. If its down winders and glide I am after (staying on runners). I go the 14'. Nothing beats the glide of a longer board IMO

BTW I have some bad news for those who want to go all the way. Apprantly there are very few crew over 75kg winning elite races!
Well there you go, that wipes out half the SUP population right there, so for most of us it really is about participation, fun and staying fit.

Just my thoughts and open to many more

AA

All agreed AA...

edit: thought I'd move my post from that other thread (where I'm kind of irrelevant) to here:

This goes more to Jacko's question about big guys and balance than the issue of "what length race board" but I'll chuck my $0.02 in

Power-to-weight is what it's really all about but without a balanced, stable platform it doesn't count for much. Stability matters & a few things contribute to it, especially at the margins...including board width & hull/rail shape, paddler weight and height, even paddle length. The game changes a lot when you're VERY heavy, as I've pointed out on this forum a few times. I'll volunteer as a case study here - I'm 6'2, 50 yrs old, fat, never surfed before SUP, had problems with balance since childhood and was nudging 130kegs when I started SUP about 16 months ago. My propensity for falling in is kind of a running joke among the paddling buddies (I like to think I'm better at self-rescue than just about anyone else, by virtue of practice). Now I'm closer to 120 but still at or past the margin of what race SUPs are meant to carry.

A bit of weight loss has helped some but time on the water, especially in poor conditions, in surf and downwinders (thanks for your infinite patience DJ), supplemental balance exercises (I use a home-made goof-board knockoff a couple of times a week), some core work and over this winter LOTS of bike riding up hills for leg strength (picking up PT's point, I think this has made the most difference) has improved things. I still fall in but somewhat less.

Stability is everything at the margins, without a stable platform you can't get your power down, no matter how strong you are. Despite being old and fat I'm reasonably strong, on a stable board I can get my power down and match it with some lighter, 'faster' paddlers, at least for a time. What is tippy for a tall, very heavy bloke at 120 could be as stable as a table for a 75kg guy or even a 105kg guy. As an aside, a couple of months ago a paddling buddy of about 70kg dragged out his old 14' jav after not paddling it for a while and said "crikey! now I know how Stu feels all the time!".

I've done some crude point-to-point self-testing with the garmin and I'm faster on a stable 12'6 like a 30" Naish Glide than I am on a 14 x 27" Fanatic or 28" starboard, but I reckon over 30" wide performance starts to diminish. I'm fastest in flat water on my 14x30 DC but in rough water I'm faster on my 14 x 29 WoW because of its very stable (concave) hull shape. I've posted my quickest flat water run on a 14x 30 SB tourer. Over distance, like 15-20k, I'm fastest on my 17' Glide, despite it's relative narrowness.

Not sure what that contributes to the topic of this thread, if anything. The debate about 12'6 vs 14 for the elites is sort of irrelevant to me. The big brands that sponsor teams aren't making race boards with me in mind (that's fair enough, I'm not complaining, I'm an outlier) but maybe I can contribute some insight into what happens at the extremes.

Good work AA, for my bit 14ft, for marathons and D/W ers if you want to use a 12'6 fine but the class is 14 and 12'6 for bop and surf, that's it, simple, all the elite paddlers holidaying in Peru can use what they friggin like but when your back in Australia, well you know the rules, if you don't then, you will be told to go straight to bed without dinner....

Thanks guy's. The sport really does need the Elite crew to do their thing and keep it progressing. But it is easy to get lost in the complexities of it all when really for most of us it is quite simple.

For the sport to thrive we need to never lose sight of the key ingredient.
I would hate to see it all go the way of Windsurfing (another addiction of mine) that is still dying a long slow death, having lost touch with the main market and what they always wanted - FUN!

Finally something on these forums i feel like replying to!!!! First time in months..
As a person well under the 100kegs ... 75 on a really bad week.. I still strongly believe that If you want to have the most fun downwinding stick with 14ft or more.. I've tryed so many boards over the last 3 or so years of downwinding and unless your the fittest man or women in the world these new style cutter nose 12.6s just don't work in good downwinders.. If you wanna have fun out there downwinding go 14ft and in surfing style boards.. If you want to flat water paddle its a different story but personally I don't see why you would want to....get out there and catch a wave or 2..

Anyways people will hate on me for these comments but it's just how I feel on the matter.. Well said AA..

The 12'6, it seems, was born out of a desire to allow stock entry level surf-sup a category of their own to separate them from longer race specific shapes. Hence the name stock class.

The longest surf-sup at the time was the Starboard 12'6 Cruiser and so it was set at 12'6 - at least thats the rendition I've been told - keen to hear if this was really the case.

The reason why we are discussing 12'6 and 14' today is because someone obviously realised that if they tweaked the 12'6 shape a little they be quicker than the surf-sup shapes......

So, as you can see, the 12'6 wasn't really meant to be.......

Now, does anyone know how the 14' class came about?

Great thread AA.
Personally, I don't look for comfort or stability as I am looking for speed,speed and more speed as I believe every second counts. This can be the difference between coming stone motherless last or one in front. Speed is everything.

check out this vid from jim terrell on this exact subject

A great explanation of things AA. And encompassing all types.