Paddleboards and accessories
This category brings together inflatable and hard paddleboards along with everything that goes with it: paddles, pumps, fins, leashes, seats and bags. A board is chosen by its volume in litres, because one litre carries roughly one kilogram, and a beginner is advised to take twice their own weight. Inflatable boards hold their shape thanks to the drop stitch construction and the right pressure, which on most models sits between fifteen and twenty psi. The leash, by contrast, is chosen by the water and not by the board, and in moving water an ankle leash is life-threatening.
Paddleboards and accessories
A paddleboard is a board you stand on and paddle with a single long paddle. Here you will find inflatable boards that pack into a rucksack and hard ones in laminate or epoxy, and alongside them paddles, pumps, fins, leashes, seats and repair kits. The inflatables make up most of the range, because they fit in a car and in a cellar, and they take a knock against a rock better than laminate does. The differences between them are not in the colour, though, but in the volume, in the pressure, in the build and in which leash you buy with the board.
A board’s size is given in litres of volume and not in length, because it is the volume that sets the load it carries. Roughly, one litre carries one kilogram, so a person of eighty kilograms needs a board of around eighty litres just for it to float. To be able to stand and paddle on it, a beginner multiplies their weight by two, someone a little further on by one point four, and an experienced paddler gets by with a figure close to their own weight. What you load onto the board counts too, so the rucksack, the dog or the child weigh in just as you do.
An inflatable board holds its stiffness only through pressure and the drop stitch core, that is, through thousands of threads binding the top layer to the bottom one. Most boards are pumped to fifteen or twenty psi and some take twenty-five, but below ten to twelve the board is soft and gives way at every step. The gauge on the pump is therefore not an accessory but the only way to know the board is ready, because the difference between twelve and sixteen psi cannot be felt by hand. In the sun the pressure also rises on its own, so an inflated board is not left lying on a scorching bank.
The leash is chosen by the water and not by the board, and it is the one thing in this category where the wrong choice kills. At sea and on still water an ankle leash is fine, because it keeps the board with you and the board then serves as a large float. In moving water, by contrast, it is deadly: if the line snags, the current holds you under the surface, and you cannot reach your ankle against the flow. That is how four people on a guided tour died on the River Cleddau in Wales in 2021, after going over a weir in flood, so take a waist leash with a quick release you can reach with both hands to the river.
On inflatable boards the weight and the price are decided by the number of layers. Single-layer boards are the cheapest and the lightest, double-layer ones stiffer and tougher but also a few kilos heavier, because the second layer is glued onto the first. Fusion construction bonds the layers with heat and pressure instead of glue, so it offers the stiffness of a double layer at a weight closer to a single one, and the price follows suit.