I tried out the Hobie 12'6 from Stand Up Paddle Perth. Straight away I was amazed with the stability of the board. The designer states that the concave section through the middle of the bottom of the board gives the stability of a board nearly an inch wider - I'm not sure how they worked that out, but the board is very stable and narrow at 28.9". The thing that impressed me most was the way it performed on a downwinder - Fremantle has a short chop, not much width in between troughs, a board will plough straight into the wave in front, so foot work is important (not my personal strong point). The nose on the Hobie is quite full and combined with the gentle rocker it floats up out of the wave, rather than penetrating it. The sunken deck adds to the security of stability as well as a great connection to the board.

I was expecting the downwind performance to compromise its flat water speed...I was wrong. The nose of the board defects the bow wave in a similar way to a displacement nose - think Bark or fanatic, but it's not a displacement nose. I found I had to stand a little forward to achieve this, which meant that the tail was slightly out of the water (<10mm) - which I wasn't too sure about - you can't have it all I guess.

Anyway, I was so impressed I got the 2012 model in Bamboo/carbon and ...seafoam green! It looks awesome and very well constructed. I remember one of the guys from Australia II explaining that her decks were painted green as they researched the colour that created least glare when reflected by the sun - a white board can be a bit hard on the eyes when you are staring at the nose for an hour or so! The bamboo construction is more durable and resists compression, it is also lighter and looks great.






They have also put non skid on the deck behind the deck pad - which is a great idea - reduces weight (having a long deck pad) and allows for easy drainage. They have also provided 2 leg rope mounts in front of the carry hole to put an elastic cargo strap or if you want to mount your leg rope forward in a downwinder.




The buoyancy in the new model must be less than the 2011, as this board now sits flat in the water..........looks like you can have it all!