Hey folks,
My kids are starting to get the sup bug. They are 9 and 11. They have flat water paddled on various hard sups of mine over the last few years from 7'4 to 10' and are competent paddling. The last few years they have (uk summer) learnt to surf a bit (trim accross a wave) on a sup (inflatable) and surfboard (foamie) with me pushing/pulling them into it. My 9 year old has used my 7'11 x 31 Allwave on very small waves the last few days and loved it. They have outgrown the 8x26" inflatable sup (single Fin, basic, fairly wobbly in chop) and Im torn between getting something like a Fanatic Ripper (kid specific, tri Fin) 7'10 x 28" or a hardboard like 6'10, 7'2 HN or a small pro shape which go cheaply used due to a limited market on low litre smaller boards. There doesn't seem to be any smaller foamie sups. What do think?
What age did you let your kids loose on hard boards?
My son is 10 and is quite good on his foamie. He is also in Nippers and next season moves to a fiberglass nippers board. He will be out with, sometimes, 30 other kids in a race - all with hard boards and no leashes. So with that in mind, if he shows an interest in learning to Surf Sup, i will buy him a 2nd hand performance surf sup. I think that will work well.
My kids were always on hard boards for surfing, but with a pad. These were my boards, as I used no wax.
The mandatory part for me are the fins. I always put soft fins for them, proteck or the FCS covered in blue rubber.
Whatever you do, make them use safe fins. Either ones with rubber edges, are at least fins sanded to be very blunt.
I would also sand off the tips of pointy noses and tails (some swallow tails can be quite dangerous).
Do you think wrapping the rail of a hard board and perhaps the nose in something slightly padded like cutting a deck pad in a few strips will help? Obviously the rail isn't going to be as sharp but still alot better than an isup. What do you think? Is it easy enough maybe with a heat gun to remove the a deck pad (on the rail) once they are more competent?
I think foamie SUPs are not made anymore because the paddle rubbing the foam destroys it quickly.
Select to expand quotecolas said..
I think foamie SUPs are not made anymore because the paddle rubbing the foam destroys it quickly.
Ian I think o and e,ecs do soft deck / rail kid sups one on line at the moment,gummy I think Nsw / Qld 
Select to expand quoteFoghorn said..
That's perfect and I would be all over that but I live in the UK..
