First, imagine the width of that tail... The tail of the Laird Puma Board.

Second, imagine trying to turn such a beast, with such a wide tail. Trying to release each rail as you turn on a wave....

Or at least try and imagine how the Laird Puma Board (or is it The Volvo Board??) would go sliding down the line at The Alley, Currumbin. With a really wide tail!

Note - it's not really designed as a BOP board. Just throwing it out there, for thoughts.... Obviously, bottom contours are very important too.

There's already been
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/Laird-Puma-2 a bit
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/LairdPuma-Here-come-the-big-brands/ of talk
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/puma-sup/ about the Laird/PUMA board. Most wondered if it'd ever go into production or if it was just a marketing gimmick.

Now Surftech says it's getting a retail release in January 2012 as a limited-edition 14 footer.

...and it's priced at a mere $6,500 according to this video
bcove.me/x4j21wgc .

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Here's the boat that it's based on:

www.dubib.com/default.php
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I reckon it's pretty cool to see high end designs coming in to the sport. Even if 99% of paddlers can't afford the thing, it still pushes SUP racing forward. And it's not like this is the everyday board you'd leave on the roof of your car anyway, it's more of a collector's item.

But either way, is $6,500 too much for a SUP board?

Discuss.

Sports company Puma working with Laird and renowned yacht designer "Juan Kouyoumdjian (Juan K), the mastermind behind PUMA's Mar Mostro Volvo 70, as well as the boat designer for two previous winning Volvo Open 70 boats, ABM-AMRO ONE and Ericsson 4, will collaborate with Hamilton on the surfboard development"

Keep in mind that Nike owns Hurley and is going hard with Nike 6.0 and now the group that owns Puma has just purchased Volcom and the surfing business is heading for new territory.

Full story below.

http://www.surfersvillage.com/surfing/52340/news.htm