Great pic!
You're totally right to have those concerns. Our own experience is that there is a HUGE variation in quality out there, and we are regularly encountering people who've had bad experiences with inflatable boards, which is frustrating because the good ones really are very good. I will confess to a commercial interest with Red Air, which has come about because we were so blown away by their performance with our school. So we now supply them, and have got to know the guys behind the brand pretty well. But that has just reinforced our belief in them - it's hugely refreshing to have no 'egos' or dogma getting in the way. They just want to build great inflatables, and are willing to throw the rulebook out of the window to achieve that.
So inflatables are most certainly not all created equal, and as was mentioned in the previous posts, it all comes down to the skin construction. A single skin board is not strong, cannot sustain high pressure, and cannot hold anything other than very basic rocker profiles (essentially flat, with turned up nose and tail). The multilayer skins can hold their pressure pretty much for ever (we have boards here in the school that we haven't touched with a pump for many months, and they're out there baking in the sun every day, and they're still at full pressure), and also allow a much more sophisticated rocker line, which is created by seaming between the layers that make up the skin. (However, it's a fundamental aspect of any inflatable board that their rocker line is always going to be 'dynamic', controlled by where you stand and the weight spread on your feet. The brands who claim that their rocker lines match those of their solid boards are just talking twaddle - that's simply not how inflatables work).
A test would be great but it would be hard to really get a handle on the longevity of these boards, which definitely is what separates the good from the bad. We've supplied many Red Airs to people who already had single-skin inflatables, and couldn't believe the difference. Indeed, some of these boards were less than 6 months old and already looked ready for the dustbin. Including several Ulis I have to say (one had had 8 punctures, in 4 months!), but they were definitely single skin construction so I suspect that Uli may have different constructions at different price points or something, because I thought that Uli were supposed to be pretty good. Don't know much about the brand as nobody's bringing them into NZ.
As said, we have Red Airs here in our school that have been THRASHED. Cooked in the sun, bounced off rocks and sharp stony beaches daily for 2 years. Other than the deck grip lifting a bit in places (easily fixed with a dab of glue), they still look good as new.
You're dead right though, if we can get the message over that good inflatables
are high quality bits of kit then every SUPr should have one in their quiver because they're such a blast! When the surf is small we all go out on our Red Airs rather than any solid board because it's so much fun - it changes the whole game when you know you're not going to get hurt by your board (or anyone elses), we're all taking off on each other, jumping onto each other's boards, playing dodgems, there's just a lot of laughing going on. You can't have a scowly face and attitude when you're on an inflatable, there's just something naturally fun about them - they let you get away with murder, everyone's pirouetting, switching stance, going for crazy unmakeable stuff because it
doesn't matter - it won't hurt.
And that is surely the way it should be!
Bill D
Northland Paddleboarding
northlandpaddleboarding.co.nz/
.I never thought an inflatable would be much more than a novelty
.I am now a little bit interested not that I'm going to run out and buy one tomorrow but I'd like to know more like-
-What are they like deflated?Do you roll them up or fold them?How small can you make them for storage and transport?And also no one's mentioned a price either so what are they worth for say a 10'6"top of the range?
