Hey all - read a lot re. the 9'8" X 34" X 200L Naish Odysseus on the Breeze, and from all reports (including reviews from DJ The Great!) it sounds like a great 'stable-table' type SUP to get newbies hooked and a nice cruising board for just pottering about. Clearly it's not going to be super fast, nor be a great surf SUP, but seems to do a little bit of everything reasonably well.

I'm on a 10' Mana and love it, and my better half is (finally!!) starting to get the SUP bug so looking at getting her a board of her own. She won't be doing any surfing nor long distance, so something nice & wide, with great stability will be purchased. Problem is I need to keep length to =/<10ft in length (storage issues). Have considered iSUP's but would prefer a solid board if possible.

With that in mind, the Odysseus clearly fits the bill - stable, short enough to store, and great reviews. Before I pull the trigger and place an order though, are there any other suggestions for something similar in other brands (bear in mind needs to be super stable for a novice and less than 10ft)? Starboard / Fanatic have anything similar? Any ideas if Simon & the gurus at Deep would be willing to knock up a Custom in similar dimensions to an Odysseus? Keeping it local would great if it's possible!

DavidJohn said..
Chalk and cheese difference unfortunately..

It's mostly the channels.. along with the big square tail and chunky rails on the Odysseus that make such a short, wide and thick board work so well..

The Whopper has none of these features..

Odysseus is an easy platform to develop SUP skills
Great in smooth protected water and fun to muck around on in small surf
Good for just drifting over sand banks and weed beds and exploring protected waters and lots of laughs in small wave smooth days at the beach
And remember it's all about having lots of laughs

No dis on the Odysseus, but... it's heavy, way over the listed 26lb. The one I weighed was well over 30lb. And that's ditto for all the other boards mentioned. If you are under 175lb or so, something in the 9'5" x 32" range will be much more suitable and lighter.

baddog said..
No dis on the Odysseus, but... it's heavy, way over the listed 26lb. The one I weighed was well over 30lb. And that's ditto for all the other boards mentioned. If you are under 175lb or so, something in the 9'5" x 32" range will be much more suitable and lighter.

Understood, baddog - weight not a massive issue as we rarely have to carry them far, and I'm tall so getting em on & off the car is no prob. For my better half, the more stable and easy it is to paddle, the more chance I've got of her not getting the ****s with wobbling all over the place and not coming out with me, so the 9'5's are probably getting a little loose for her (and my!!!) purposes. Cheers