thats a nice little paddle, well i havent had a go on either a c4 or a deep as i have a naish, but i have only heard good things about the deep boards, maybe look at a 14footer over a 12'6 considering your your looking at doing the hawkesbury classic, it would aslo be good for downwinding and there are a few competitiors racing in the 14 foot class now, maybe have a chat with casso as i know he has a deep raceboard or ring up the guys at dolphin, i would still check out some c4 boards and just see what you like

Jarryd

Like Ali Cat,I have the Starboard Ace 14'. Have just swopped to the 27" wide which would be better if you're over 80kg than the 25" wide which I had and sold on. The 25" is easily a faster board but after a long paddle might be harder with your balance as you tire. You'd definitely want a 14', wear gloves and wear some thin footware for the 111km or so. Other considerations might be the Suplove Stingray 14', perhaps the new DC 14' flat water racer Dale has, or even a longer board - SIC or Naish 17' maybe.
Best of all talk to Cam who posted this:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/My-Hawkesbury-Classic-Adventure

Lanee did that race last year and after testing a few different boards she choose to use the Starboard 14' x27 ACE..
She finished the race and set quite a good time a HUGE effort..
If you want to use the board is a down wind board as well then look at the Starboard 14' Coast runner Sam at wind surf and snow has a demo I think
Hope this helps
Rod

supanimal said...

www.seabreeze.com.au/Classifieds/Stand%20Up%20Paddle/~b_g80/2010-Starboard-K15-15-0.aspx?search=lT%2friExlz8uaSP7Gbmwj6g%3d%3d

Good call.

I think what everyone has said is really good advice but a couple of things I would point out, like you said, you will have to compromise one way or the other. If it is only one board you can have you really have to look at where you will be doing most of your paddling post the Hawkesbury. It is all good to do the HCC on a specialized flat water board but then what do you do with it after? Unless of course you plan to sell it then by all means get a flat water specific board. Like Ali said the Starboard ACE would be a perfect board, but is it what you want after the HCC? With all due respect Ali, yes those guys and girls all did fantastically on the ACE in The Dr but they were hardly DW conditions it was more of a flat water race in the ocean and also look at the calibre of those that paddled the board.

Definitley go 14 or bigger, the K15 would be another really good board. Mat Worley actually holds the race record on the K15 of 15:32. Although the talk at the SUPA Nationals was thatwe would like to give a bakers dozen a nudge (13 hours).

The coast runner could be a good all round board. One of the guys I regularly paddlewithhas a coast runner and it seems to go pretty well in the flat and very wellin the ocean.

Not sure about C4, maybe check the V1 out. Other boards you could consider as all rounders are possibly the Fanatic 14, Naish Javelin 14 or 17, DC, Jimmy Lewis Sabre (someone Hurst came 3rd on this board at the SUPA nationals DW race).

Hope that helps butif you need anymore info or have any questions feel free to pm me and I'll help if I can.

Thanks to everyone for their input it has been a great help for me. Now comes the fun part of trying out the boards.
I tried a C4 14' and Starboard Coast runner 14' on the weekend and was really impressed with the Coast Runner. Going to take one out for another spin this weekend as I was pretty impressed with its performans and I have heard good reports about the board.
Thanks Owen