Future of inflatables

Bigger than Ben Hur.. IMO..

If someone can come up with a way to produce proper rails and a displacement nose on an inflatable then it's all over for epoxy. Although I'd still be worried about using an inflatable for eg. inter-island crossings etc. A valve failure miles out to sea would be interesting. It will be also fun to see what happens the first time a shark takes a nibble on an inflatable :)

However, if the epoxy manufacturers can come up with a very durable construction (like eg. the Bounce Composites guys are doing), then this could save hard boards.

Every time I take my hard downwind boards out, I can't help thinking to myself that basically the construction isn't fit for purpose. To have a fantastically expensive item that is going to be used in as harsh an environment as a big downwinder built to be as fragile as an egg really is madness. One fall, mistaken tap with the paddle, or a missed piece of gravel in the car park when resting the board, and it's a big repair bill. That's nuts. Nuts also are the storage and transport issues that come with big fragile boards. Those of us who SUP seriously don't mind so much now because (a) we've got used to it and (b) the performance gap between inflatables and hard boards is so substantial at present. But as performance innovations come about through technological advances in iSUP manufacture, that will change IMO.

However, I think this argument is mainly true for distance boards. Surf SUPs seem to be getting smaller, and so the transport and storage issues are smaller for them. Plus, it is going to be very hard to recreate the complexity of the shape of a surf SUP in an iSUP. So I am less convinced that we will see inflatables ever take more than a small share of the surf SUP market.

So, whitewater SUPs will probably never be epoxy, or at least fully epoxy. Plastic composite or inflatable will be the way to go. Flatwater boards could well become mostly inflatable. But ocean crossing and DW boards may well still remain largely hard construction, albeit maybe not epoxy. And surf SUPs will remain substantially hard construction too, past the beginner stage. The overall proportions of these in each discipline will depend on technological advances allowing greater durability and weight savings in hard construction, and better rail, rocker and nose profiles in inflatables.

Now I reckon this could be something to look at if you were travelling a bit. nice stuff

Its perfect for traveling and storing.I havent met anyone who has ridden it yet.

It wont be like a solid rigid board but it could be close.

I have had two demos of inflatables. The first was absolute crap. The second was ok. If they keep improving then they could be quite good.

They need to address the problems of crap rails, crap fins, can be a bit "corky", have dodgy finish and can be a bit of a pain to pump up.

The dirty secret of SUP is that big boards are too heavy, too fragile, too expensive and too big to store and transport. Inflatables address most of those problems.

Credit to Naish for coming up with the N1SCO race series concept to get people trying inflatables, but at the same time, it has tended to stymy the development of inflatable race boards as well as the punters' experience and belief in terms of what an inflatable race board can do. Naish very cleverly set a design in concrete so they don't have to undertake any R&D to improve the shape. That's fine for a one-design race format. Works for Naish. However there are undoubtedly faster inflatable race boards available, but there are no opportunities to race them head-to-head because Naish has cleverly excluded these opposition brands from competing in the only inflatable race events going around. Consequently, the other brands are not putting too much R&D into their designs because they are not getting as much attention as the Naish One. Why bother improving your board when it is already significantly better than the market leader?

I think if the industry or market place was to break the shackles of the one-design monopoly, we would then see inflatable race board design progress so much faster that they could well become a viable option to replace carbon boards for events like Battle of the Paddle. Perhaps that wouldn't happen organically. It might require the boards to get within 5% of the performance of the carbon boards, and then through overwhelming acceptance of the top competitors that it makes sense, rules could come into effect to propel inflatables as the elite class required equipment.

In the surf, I doubt that inflatables will ever be able to replace a hard board. In white water and rivers and for exploring and travel, inflatables are the way to go.

Some interesting view points on the One Design concept. The N1SCO tour has been a huge investment on our/Naish's part to help grow a social and fun part of the market with an easy and affordable racing platform. The board being one design allows someone to purchase a board and not find they are totally out gunned in 2 years because the design has changed. It is irrelevant if the board could be faster, stiffer or anything, One Design is all about a consistant and equal racing platform where the only difference is you. Travel and durability of the boards are a huge plus, and of coarse the initial purchase price being much cheaper than a carbon or similar race board.

So far this year we have held 4 racces in the N1SCO tour, and each one has been a total blast. People love the concept and the non-intimidating race format. Another big plus with N1SCO is it is an international racing organization, meaning you could travel anywhere in the world and race on your Naish ONE and it will be just you vs. the others, no penalty for not having the fastest board on the coarse because you couldn't travel with it.

N1SCO is growing and so is the inflatable market. This year the Naish ONE inflatable if our 5th biggest selling model only to be beaten by the Nalu 10'6" and Mana/Alana boards. This means the potential of bigger and more involved social race/paddle fleets is huge.

Why not be part of something big, it's a blast.

Ride safe,

JB

I believe they sell more inflatables in Europe than hard boards due to the storage and transport issues.

Laser. One design racing. One of the biggest sailing classes in the world, been in the olympics since forever, and that thing is a very old, heavy, slow piece of rubbish (in my opinion).

Well played Naish for investing the time and money into creating a race series that appeals to the masses, I think the other big iSUP brands simply missed the boat on that one.

Drew

Area 10 said :- "If someone can come up with a way to produce proper rails and a displacement nose on an inflatable then it's all over for epoxy."

Spot on and fin connections need to be reversed and inside the board , plus take a decent fin.The boards have come a really long way since I made this video over 4 years ago , this was the best you could get by Boardworks back then but the board is still going strong today.

I have put out over a 100 videos and this by far has the most hits with over 88,000 plays , so the potential market is huge.

Inflatables are not the boards to do rollers on, but they now can hold some trim very well, as the history of surfing with inflatable mats demonstrate.

If you look at this picture you can see the water is wrapping nicely around the rail to hold the board in the "wave"... and notice the smile of the rider :-)



I guess everybody will end up with an inflatable in his/her quiver. I bought one for my wife, she prefers it for cruising: fells stabler and more friendly than her epoxy board. She doesn't surf... but I think the majority of SUP owners won't surf either.
Of course rigidity is an issue, I think we should see boards coming in diffferent thicknesses for different rider weights.