I should have said 'Most of their homework' because a double action pump would have been better.

PeterP said...
geeez, please forward me your mates details, i'd like to buy some epoxi sups for my market, cause i can't find any sups at those prices....

Good luck with your Aldi SUP!

Haha me to!!!

I have cheap sups as well I sell for $549 I think his mate the retailer is just ripping people off, and I hope the people in his area exspose him for the rip of guy he is!! I can tell you no nirmal retail sup shop makes margins like that.

ShireSUP said..

I saw one of these on the water Tuesday night..............lets just say IMHO rubbish, I wonder if you have got yours wet yet?

One guy 100 kgs got on one, seriously the nose and tail were out of the water it bent so bad, and yet it was inflated correctly. The thing is only 4" thick, that might work for a foam sup, not for an inflatbile for mine.

On the positive sign, there will be so many bought, I am so looking forward to seeing a few in the bay this summer.........gonna be carnage

Good luck thats all I can say

just wait untill the bring out their epoxy version, then there will be some real carnage

The guy who buys his boards for $200 and sells them for $1400 is part of a major retail 'sports' chain and probably buys several thousand boards at a time. The profit margin is sickening, but I'm sure that all the major retailers do the same thing.

You get what you pay for is my motto! having been a retailer & rep for a major brand i've been on both sides of the coin. There'll always be someone trying to bring in cheap crap to try & make a quick buck & there'll always be a market for it. just like there'll always be a customer looking for the cheapest price possible on their gear.
Anyone can copy a board & go to China & bring back a container full of boards & dump it into the market! But are they paying GST on them? Are they paying staff? Rents? ETC ETC ETC
I checked out the Aldi boards & they are crap, just like the tonnes of Anaconda boards that people brought in to trade in on name brand boards because they were heavy or didn't paddle or surf well.
The difference is is that Brand name boards put money into R&D, advertising & team riders (every beach has someone looking for a deal) & retailers have huge overheads, warranties & trade-ins.
Get behind the brands & get behind your local dealers who are carrying all the stock for you to try!

^^^ Not sure why the red thumbs - good review and it reinforces what others have said.

My only criticism of your comment is "You buy things from Aldi because you're not serious about things." This is the problem IMO...you've spent half your dollar on something where you would have been better off saving/spending double for a quality product that gives you a much better experience.

Hi ALL,

I'm a complete SUP board newbie who has just bought one of these boards from aldi. I have only used my sup board just once and it works ok. Managed to inflate it to 12psi using the supplied pump but it was hard work. Personally I think a double action pump wouldn't work as I was putting my whole weight down to get to 10-12psi. You would have to be super strong to pull upward on a double action pump at that pressure.

A few minor gripes so far have been short paddle for tall riders; tie down rings have started to corrode after first use (not structurally important); crappy seat; crappy carry bag as mine has a big rip already; flimsy fins that are finicky to fit.

Doing some research (aka google) you will find that these boards are made by a company in China called Silver Marine and model name Aqua Marina SPK-2 rebranded as Crane for Aldi. Interestingly, the spk-2 has a weight limit of 120kg vs the rebranded boards limit of 100kgs. Maybe they are a simplified version of the original board?

I am really looking forward to testing it out on some waves and keen to get a proper paddle. Only time will tell how good the board is but so far I'm happy with it. Will let you know how it goes over the coming summer.

I brought this one from Aldi, as a first time SUP experience. It got me hooked but the back fin snapped off when I was trying to attach a leash to the back hook. So I took it back. I'm 108kgs 40yrs old and I couldn't stand up on the Aldi I was too heavy. But sitting down and paddling out with my lunch was awesome. Also my wife and kids had heaps of fun on it. In small surf it bent and wobbled pretty badly, its also heavier when in flated compared to than a hard board same size which was a suprise when I lifted one. Definately a great board if your just cruising. I'm pretty strong but pumping it up was a major effort and seeing a young girl effortlessly take her sup out of a van and slip in the water while I was working sweat wasn't so much fun:)

I trolled the internet for a new sup and after finding the cheapest price/right size sup, I realised it was from a factory in china. Sure it was cheaper, sure it sounded great but then I decided to go with a SUP maker that invested in local surf community and not a company out to make money.

Now I just brought a hard 11'6 SufSup, It was $1250!!! (ebay, to be delivered) sure it was $300 more than the china sup and $900 more than Aldi, but I supported a local maker well interstate that is. Yep the Aldi one made me realise how much fun SUP's can be and since I also want to pick up surfing it was a good cross over.