Great Outdoor Provision Co. will stock Standup Paddleboards in Greenville, Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. We’ll also have a small fleet of demo boards available for folks to try before they buy. We have SUP Demos planned for Raleigh & Charlotte to afford folks the opportunity to check out the scene in a fun, zero pressure environment.
We are pleased to announce our partnership with Surftech, world leaders in Standup Paddleboards (SUP). Surftech was founded in 1989 by Randy French, who had an extensive background in the high tech construction techniques involved in the windsurf industry. Randy applied this knowledge to surfboards and began working with some of the top designers and shapers in the world. In time, Surftech grew to become the largest manufacturer of surfboards, including kiteboards, paddleboards, skimboards and SUPs.
Standup Paddleboards first hit the surf scene in Hawaii and the West Coast. As the sport gained popularity, folks began designing, shaping and using SUP boards for inland use such as Touring, Fitness, Racing, Fishing and general Recreation. Furthermore, the sport began to spread to the East Coast and is now taking hold in NC. While a wide variety of reasons can help explain the growing SUP phenomenon, the most obvious one is that SUPing is fabulously fun while providing an amazing workout. You simply have to try it to really appreciate the idea of how intense the full body workout can be -all while cruising on beautiful bodies of local water.
While we now have a bewildering array of SUP board designs, many of those are surf specific designs. For uses such as Touring, Fitness and Recreation, the choices are more manageable and often include “multi-purpose” designs that are well suited for both inland and surf use.
While we can certainly order a surf specific SUP board, most of our stocking inventory will consist of the above mentioned styles that are either focused toward Touring or are multi-purpose designs suitable for a wide variety of uses including Touring, Fitness, Fishing, Surf or general Recreation
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In general, a SUP board that is geared towards Touring or Fitness will have good glide and efficiency while maintaining the ability to behave predictably in chop or swells. A good example of such a board is Surftech’s Bark 14′ Expedition or Surftech’s Pearson 14′ Laird Coast Runner. Like a good Touring Kayak, longer and narrower boards tend to be faster than shorter and wider boards. SUP boards in this class tend to be made in a lightweight composite Tuflite construction and run ~$2,000 (or more).
For many folks, the most popular SUP board styles will include all-round, multipurpose designs that offer a balance of stability, glide, maneuverability and surf capability. An example of such a versatile design is Surftech’s Ron House 12′1″ Laird that also happens to be the most famous and best selling SUP board in the world. The 12′1″ Laird is also available in smaller sizes such as the 11′6″ Laird. SUP boards in this class tend to be priced according to construction; a lightweight Tuflite will run ~$1600 while a Softop of the same model will typically run about $300 less.
One board we are particularly excited about is the newly released Randy French Softop. This board will be available in 2 sizes and is a very stable all-round design. The key feature about this board is the amazing value. As it’s name implies, this board is a Randy French design and was completely developed in house by Surftech. Since Randy French owns Surftec, no royalties need to be paid to designers, shapers, athletes, etc. This saves about $300 over a comparable board in the same Softop construction.
>> Learn more about SUP Board Construction
>> Standup Paddle – Getting Started
If you live within range of one of our SUP shops (Greenville, Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem) and have an interest in Stand Up Paddleboards, please drop by and have a look in person. As the weather warms, we’ll have more SUP models to chose from as well as opportunities to try them on the water.
