Hey Guys!

So Im looking at upgrading my current board to something a tad faster when the next round of boards arrive. I?m currently on a 12'6 by 30'' board. So its not exactly a bullet, but I can still knock out some decent k's under her.

So Im wondering if it would be worth me keeping it as a training board? And only using the new board for club races and events?

My thinking is that if I can do a certain time/distant on the big wide board, surely It would be much easier/faster on the skinny girl during races..

The only down side I can think of is not being used to the stability of the new board. But Im only thinking 26/27'', so not something crazy unstable..

So does anyone else do this? Or has anyone done this before?

If so, does it work? What do you think?

I went from a 12'6" by 30" (Naish) to a 12'6" by 27" (Fanatic Falcon) recently. At first I was a bit disappointed as it seemed there was surprisingly little difference in speed. However, after a couple of weeks, I worked out I needed to paddle the new board a bit differently, and I am now definitely quicker on the new one - 2-3 minutes on average over 6km (20-30 seconds/km). I did also get a new paddle which I believe also contributed to the extra speed, so I can't put it all down to the new board.

I think there's merit in what you talk about, however, whilst you may do a fair chunk of training on your 30" wide board, you still need to get used to the narrower board in all sorts of conditions. In saying that if the water is chopped up for whatever reason and you can almost guarantee you can stay on your wider board for whatever you're doing, then consider it over the narrower one where you have less stability. You lose around 20 seconds with each spill, so the question is are you more than 60 seconds faster on the narrower board over a race distance if you fall off 3 times as opposed to being more stable on the wider board and not falling off? Do the sums based on your best times over the two boards. You may be surprised over the result.

There's a lot to be said for racing at club level and being able to 'keep your head out of the board' so to speak and concentrate on wind, waves, competitors & tactics as opposed your primary focus in staying upright.

Then again I've gone from a 30" wide Fanatic Falcon to a 26.5" Flatwater Falcon and the Flatwater board has as much stability.

Strength in the legs,if you are paddling on a thinner board you need to train on it. Also do leg training exercises on a bosso board. I think thats how you spell it???. The stronger the legs the more control you'll have.

Thanks lads!.. I'll probably end up keeping both. And in reality I probably wouldn't be able to paddle the old girl all the time, knowing that I have a new shiny toy sitting in the shed.

Log man - Racing of any kind has never really been my thing. But for some reason sup racing has just sparked something in me. And to tell you the truth it's the first time I've ever really focused on my health and fitness, so I see that as a good aspect of racing.